> bad foreign policy From my reading, this is what they seem to have meant by "bad politics". It's just not clear that OP meant "politics" strictly as "winning

> bad foreign policy From my reading, this is what they seem to have meant by "bad politics". It's just not clear that OP meant "politics" strictly as "winning elections". I agree that it's good domestic politics. It may have even been seen as a tradeoff by the administration.