Many of the Republican ‘hawks’ in Congress, including powerful members like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have felt that President Obama has been weak in dealing with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. They expressed as much as recently as December 16, 2016 as reported here by Newsmax:

Republican War Hawks Like What Obama Just Did

“Conservatives ripped President Barack Obama on Twitter Friday after he declared publicly for the first time that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and other party operatives — saying that he told President Vladimir Putin in September in China to “cut it out” or “there would be serious consequences if he didn’t.”

Yet now that Obama has acted definitively today and imposed new sanctions on key Russian leaders and effectively given key Russian diplomats located in the U.S. just 72 hours to get out of the U.S., many Republican leaders have applauded Obama’s actions, they very actions they asked for just yesterday, as reported by Fox News:

“Top Republican senators said Wednesday that the incoming Congress and President-elect Donald Trump should impose new and tougher sanctions on Russia for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.

Their remarks followed reports that outgoing President Obama has similar intentions.

Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain told Fox News that he wants to increase sanctions on Russia, in addition to permanently stationing U.S. soldiers in the bordering Baltic countries and further helping neighboring Ukraine against Russian aggression — to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin knows “this kind of action in the future will be responded to.”

McCain, a Vietnam veteran and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, spoke from Latvia on a tour of the Baltic nations with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a fellow Republican and retired Air Force pilot.

Graham outlined a more specific agenda and suggested Obama should end his presidency next month without taking action.

“Putin has cleaned his clock,” Graham said. “Here’s what I’d prefer: Let the new Congress and new president deal with Russia. … If I were President Trump, I’d call President Obama and say ‘Don’t start something that you cannot finish.’ ”

Trump Just Got ‘Chumped’ By Obama

The idea that Graham has the right to say that anyone else besides himself has had ‘his clock cleaned’ after Trump made him look like a flower during the nomination process is quite laughable. But we all know Lindsey has a thing for war, perhaps to hide some of his own, personal shortcomings, shall we say?

The point is, Trump won’t be able to reverse Obama’s actions against Russia without having to deal with war mongers like McCain and Graham, who don’t like Trump’s love of Putin.

I think it is clear that all along, Obama has been playing chess, while Trump is playing checkers.