LOS ANGELES — Some necessary context for President Barack Obama's long-awaited Afghanistan policy speech: Foreign policy performance is anything but the total measure of a president's worth. America's domestic politics, not to mention its elections, are more often than not driven by the forces, and failures, of economics.
But get foreign policy matters seriously wrong and the president of the world's only superpower walks around looking like a three-legged dog. Just recall Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam failure, which more or less wound up defining his tragic presidency.
Obama's address at West Point last week was remarkably clear and direct. This relatively young, amazingly articulate man was pretty much at his best. He was (a) the college professor lecturing on the historical background, (b) the first strategist pointing out the tradeoffs and options, and (c) the cheerleader in chief trying to pump up the troops and the American public to rally round the urgent cause.