well obama is capable of giving an excellent speech. one thing i just don't understand: why he's still saying that 'assad faces a choice,' and that he 'can lead a transition.' assad has killed hundreds, interned more than 10,000 people, etc. the hope that the obama admin continues to hold out for assad is odd, even on completely other grounds: that syria is aligned with iran, for instance. i keep thinking that there's something we don't know, some substantial u.s. stake in the syrian regime that we don't understand, or some intelligence about the internal dialogue in the syrian regime, or something. otherwise this approach doesn't seem consistent or sensible or even fully comprehensible.