“This feels like the most comfortable Joe Biden has been in his presidency, being a quasi-wartime president,” said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. “This is Joe Biden in his natural element. The former Senate Foreign Relations chair, working his relationships and bringing people along.”

Foreign policy observers — including those critical of Biden’s messy troop withdrawal from Afghanistan last year — say the president’s measured strategy and response toward Russia has been on the mark.

“Biden has handled this well,” said Richard Fontaine, the chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security who served as a foreign policy adviser to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“From the beginning, assisting Ukraine, conducting diplomacy with Russia, and unifying NATO was going to be no easy task. The administration did so, and its ability to marshal a global response to Putin’s aggression on a short timeline is deeply impressive.”