Mark Hertling

Well, one, I don't know.

He's a very unpredictable leader, as you know.

Number two, I do think it's important to underscore that the American people and our NATO allies are pretty aligned on a lot of major foreign policy issues.

You look at public opinion, the majority of Americans support the NATO alliance.

The majority of the American public, 82%, I think, don't think Putin's a good guy.

The majority of the American people didn't sign up for this war and don't support it, right?

It's the president of the United States that's out of step with his community and our allies right now.

So maybe he can clean that up tomorrow and explain what was the purpose of this war.

To your point, Michael, he's been all over the place.

It's like he's throwing arguments everywhere.

Kind of reminds me of my students sometime reading their essays.

They don't really know the answer, so they just throw a bunch of stuff into that blue book and hope they'll get some points.

That's what it feels like.

You know, one day it's about regime change, then it's the nuclear weapons program, then it's stopping terrorism, then it's opening the Strait of Hormuz, then it's not.

And even Secretary Rubio the other day...

very narrowly defined what the objectives were.

That was really surprising to me.

When he said it's just about their missiles and their Navy and their Air Force, didn't mention the nuclear program, didn't mention regime change, didn't mention terrorists, and he most certainly didn't say we're going to open the Strait of Hormuz that we closed, as you rightfully pointed out in the beginning.

So I wonder if they're trying to narrow the objectives tomorrow night so that he can then declare victory.

One, high oil prices.