Variations on a Theme...

Jewish-American news columnist Susan Estrich urges the president of the United States to put the business of America aside, ignore the problems we confront here at home, and choose up sides in Syria's civil war, again actively intervening in the latest Middle East troubles:

Leave it to the Senate Democrats to fight their fights in the battleground states where the president's presence doesn't help anyway. Enough with the endless fundraising for negative ads and back-and-forth blame games.

Enlist Bill Clinton to do the domestic rallies.

Send Joe Biden to collect checks from the big donors. The best thing Obama can do is to confront the world, speaking for a united country, facing danger with determination and boldness. ...

[I]t may take special forces "advisers" to stop ISIL and not just air strikes, ... no boots on the ground might more accurately mean no boots on the ground in frontline combat. ... 

I usually start to laugh when politicians start invoking "the American people," as if we are a monolith who speaks in one voice directly into the ear that is not hooked up to a television camera. But this is one of those occasions where it seems almost true that the country wants to be united, wants to be strong, wants to fight back and, most importantly, wants a president we can trust and rely on in the battle.

Easy? Of course not. But the president is not the newbie he was six years ago.

The best thing he can do for his party, his country and his legacy, let alone the people who are in harm's way, is to focus not only on the belated battle against Ebola, but also on the belated and necessary world effort to deal with the threat of extremism that knows no limits.

He might just be the national security president yet. And by the way, the Democrats might even hold the Senate.