I want to say something very Good about the Obama Presidency
I am not the least bit weirded out about whatever it is Obama will do about Russia.
I have opinions... but I know that there is nothing Obama might do that causes me the least bit of alarm.
A minimal standard that ought to be automatic, but it isn't.
And having lived through Nixon and Reagan and George W. Bush that counts for something.
Nothing unique about Obama, personally. I didn't go through the Clinton administration on the edge of my seat, and trusted Carter's intentions and didn't really expect Ford or Poppy Bush to blow up the world.
But it feels like half my adult life has been lived with people too disturbed or too dumb or too wicked, or all of the above, to be trusted with anything of real importance.
So, yeah civilization! Our president is a smart fellow with a reasonable world-view.
With McCain or Romney in the WH I would be uncomfortable about the situation with Russia. Probably not in a panic, but in real queasy suspense... lacking a sense of assurance that nothing really bat-shit crazy was likely go down, at least on our side.