Meanwhile the White House message varies by the day. Growing economic inequality, which last December Obama said “challenges the very essence of who we are as a people,” now is rarely mentioned. There seems to be no strategy to propel objectives the White House had set forth as fundamental: immigration reform, trade deals with Asia and Europe, investment in education and infrastructure.

Obviously these disappointments don’t all reflect poor staffing. Even the best-oiled, most high-powered administration might not bend John Boehner or Putin to its will. Obama is hardly the first president frustrated by Israeli- Palestinian intransigence.

But Obama should be asking whether his team is making the best of whatever difficult circumstances it cannot control. More than half of his second term stretches before him. Some things — notably the economy — are looking hopeful. It’s too soon, and it would be too dangerous for the country, to settle for the current state of affairs.