we're not to stand there and say, man, putin, thank for all your help. i thought, we're practicing our humility this morning, aren't we. >> another interesting thing about the putin op-ed is there's nothing that would unify americans more around a divisive issue than putin writing in "the new york times," essentially insulting the president, and all of a sudden the american public says, whoa, wait a second, he just insulted our commander in chief. i think there's a reason why polls showed this week that the american public wouldn't punish their own members of congress if they voted to go to war. >> let me ask you this, because it seems to me, though, because there was all this language of the president is weak and he's rolling over for putin, that despite the fact that the russian leader takes to "the new york times," says these sorts of thing, some of which i think are very valuable sort of international discursive strategy, and some of which you guys say aren't that exceptional, the fact that the president and his administration