WASHINGTON -- The Cliven Bundy spectacle in Nevada has provided a Wild West backdrop for our hottest political issues as we gallop toward the midterm elections.

Politically, the conflict between the Bureau of Land Management and the Bundy family has highlighted the importance of picking one's battles wisely. Suffice to say, a smattering of pundits and politicians drank from the wrong chalice.

"Mr. Obama is focused on isolating President Vladimir V. Putin's Russia by cutting off its economic and political ties to the outside world ... and effectively making it a pariah state."

So wrote Peter Baker in Sunday's New York Times. Yet if history is any guide, this "pariah policy," even if adopted, will not long endure.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush is running behind some of his chief potential presidential rivals in Colorado according to a poll released this week from Quinnipiac University.