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All right. time now for the must read opinion pages at 46 past the hour. we have a great one by ann applebaum we'll get to. sticking to his travel plans at risk of looking bad. this is interesting, especially given the parallels that are being made. as smoke billowed from the downed malaysian jetliner in the fields of eastern ukraine on thursday, president obama pressed ahead with his schedule, a cheeseburger with fries at the charcoal pit in delaware, a speech about infrastructure and two splashy fund-raisers in new york city. the potential for jarring split screen imagery was clear, and yet ...

Don't like the ukrainian government and kiev and want to have their own local governments, if not break away. that's what putin is using, approximate that's your view, in order to disrupt things here in the ukraine. >> i want to get to ann applebaum's piece, from the world community, president obama, angela merkel. david cameron, times of london, had a pretty strong piece out saying we need to turn this moment of outrage into a moment of action. we must fundamentally change our approach to russia. here is what ann applebaum writes. russia's fairy tale ends.

Also calming down his own populous. it's gotten out of control, the politics of this. >> the point ann applebaum was trying to make -- i disagree with her saying the russians can't avoid it anymore. yes, they can, thanks to the media. they are and can completely avoid facing up to the facts here. it gives putin an off ramp, yes, it did give him an off ramp. that was last week. >> enough. >> he has decided -- no, he's going to continue down this road. >> it's the basis for his popularity. >> that's right. >> economic growth, now there's zero growth. the basis of 85% popularity, 85% is the annex...