In all fairness to Obama, he does have fewer political options than Assad. If he started dropping barrel bombs and poison gas on Americans to stay in office, he might lose 4 or 5 percent of the media. But I bet the explainers would be great. Just think of Vox's "Gassing Americans is Actually a Great American Tradition" or Politifact's "Dropping Barrel Bombs on Americans is Unconstitutional: Mostly False".
Still so far Obama's great foreign policy accomplishments involve achievements or blame due to some other administration once he leaves office.
The Obama administration has a vision for Syrian leader Bashar Assad's departure. Even if it works, the president won't be around to see the plan through.
An internal U.S. timeline for a best-case Syrian political transition, obtained by The Associated Press, sets a date of March 2017 for Assad to "relinquish" his position as president and for his "inner circle" to depart. That is two months after President Barack Obama leaves office and more than five years after Obama first called for Assad to leave.
Syria, according to the would-be American strategy, would hold votes for a new president and parliament in August 2017 — some 19 months from now.
This is convenient because it allows Obama to claim that he made all the arrangements for Assad to leave, but his successor failed to carry it through. Rinse and repeat for Iran's nukes and the defeat of ISIS.
Assad has steadfastly refused to step down while his nation's terrorist threat, as he sees it, persists. The timeline offers no explanation for exactly how Assad would leave or what his post-presidential future might hold.
Because there isn't one. It's not about a departure plan for Assad, but for Obama.
Obama leaves us with his most precious gift, plausible deniability.