Michael . . . don’t count on Obama to take a hard line with the Chinese, or anyone else, really, in the remaining days of his presidency. As mentioned in today’s Jolt, on the problem of terrorism, President Obama is taking a knee and lining up in the victory formation, running out the clock . . . while trailing. They’re openly acknowledging that their plan is to leave Iraq, Syria, and ISIS largely as is for the next president:

“In 2017, there will be a new commander in chief and someone else who will have a responsibility to evaluate the situation on the ground and determine what steps are necessary to continue to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, using the administration’s acronym for the Islamic State. “That’s something that we’ll leave to the next president.”

We’re unlikely to see much brinksmanship or serious action on China from an administration that doesn’t worry about an increase in Iran’s nuclear-material stockpile during an alleged “freeze” on production, that offers no serious consequences for the unjustified imprisonment of an American journalist, that has brought just one perpetrator of the Benghazi attack to justice, and that normalizes a relationship with Cuba despite the country’s involvement in arms-smuggling (on a scale that makes, say, the administration’s “Fast and Furious” look small).

Lame duck? Hey, this president is done with foreign affairs until the big signing ceremony with the Iranian mullahs.