http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d28...d5a18ec77cdfd6
Sep. 5, 2013 9:27 AM ET
SPIN METER: Obama on use of US military might
By JOSH LEDERMANBy JOSH LEDERMAN, Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — As a candidate focused on his own election, Barack Obama championed restraint and global cooperation when faced with security threats.
Now, as commander in chief of a world superpower, his rhetoric of the past is being tested by the reality of today as he presses Congress to allow the United States to launch a military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, over the objections of most major U.S. allies.
It's a posture that conflicts with positions he took as a young senator, a 2008 presidential candidate and even a first-term president as he cast himself as a counterweight to the more aggressive approach to national security embodied by his Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush.