Obama Plays Chess

President Obama has given Syria to Congress, and it appears most of the media has missed the story.  Possibly on purpose.  Lots of long faces -- Obama on the ropes etc.  I do have the feeling I'm being played.  Set up a cliff-hanger, then watch Houdini-Obama escape again.  Makes for good television.  Sells newspapers.  The White House is just fine with it.  John Boehner, poor sod, probably isn't so happy.

Boehner must know that Obama has just forked him -- it's a chess move.  If Congress approves bombing Syria, Obama gets to bomb Syria, and the responsibility for it -- and everything that follows -- lies not with Obama but with Congress. 

And if Congress won't let him bomb Syria, then everything that happens in Syria becomes the property of Congress.

Obama just dropped a little horsie-knight on a square that nobody -- not even his own staff -- expected him to occupy.  So Boehner can lose a bishop, or a badly positioned queen.  And Obama doesn't care which.

Congress owns Syria.  They're stuck.  I think I need some popcorn.