Leon Panetta needs to rethink what he is doing to put it mildly.

[karynnj]

24. I wouldn't be surprised and how the story could work is obvious

and, in fact, possibly already started. For instance, Grimes has gotten backing from both Clintons - as she distances from Obama. Then there is Pryor in Arkansas. Hillary has committed to working for 2014 -- and that is absolutely for the good - for both herself and Democrats. The same with Clinton. I suspect that we CAN count on the Clintons whenever their own interests align with ours. There is no question that they can be effective.

The bad side is that if Obama (and the rest of the P5) are able to get an acceptable result with Iran, will the Clintons play politics with it -- engaging the ever ready Netanyahu in the process? Also, if the changes in Israel/Palestine start to create pressure in Israel to actually seriously work for a 2 state solution, will the Clintons play a role in holding out that they would give Israel a better deal?

What we already see is that Panetta and others are really with the Republicans against what really is a remarkable shift on the part of Obama on Iraq/Syria/etc. The problem is a huge knot - and it is not clear that it can be unknotted.

In terms of US opinion, Obama is facing derision and attacks from BOTH the left - which would be happier if the US just left and conceded the area was hopeless and we had no chance of being helpful AND the Republicans, the neo-cons and the whole Clinton wing of the Democratic party - who want a full scale attack on Assad. ( Read this completely useless WP editorial from Sunday - http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/us-is-complicit-as-it-blames-turkey-for-the-catastrophe-in-kobane/2014/10/10/b0189c64-508c-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html )

I suspect that with Panetta and the Clintons are willing to continue the neo con policies that the NYT and WP will support, unlike Obama and Kerry, who are trying to change AWAY from the neo con policies. The US President has a huge amount of power in setting the policy, but it is much harder when the strongest media voices, the opposite party AND a strong wing of his own party are against him.