Putin, like it's 1938

Or, what Sarah Palin said in 2008; Elect Obama and Biden; give a free ride to Russia on Ukraine. But, this playbook has been seen before;

Here's the wording of Putin's request: “Due to the extraordinary situation that has taken shape in Ukraine and the threat to the lives of citizens of the Russian Federation, our compatriots, and the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation who are deployed on the territory of Ukraine (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) under an international treaty, I hereby introduce, under Clause (g) of Part 1 of Article 2012 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, an appeal for the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the social and political situation in that country.”

Putin's request, however, seems to come after the fact.Russian soldiers already were systematically taking charge of strategic locations on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula on March 1, with estimates of the number of troops or Russian-backed armed forces already on Ukrainian soil ranging from 6,000 and 28,000.

The takeover came as the Crimea's new pro-Russian prime minister, Sergei Aksenov, called for a referendum on March 30 to allow voters in the 2.2 million-population region to decide whether they want to remain in Ukraine, join Russia or form an independent state. 

To which the Leader of the Free World, shrugged. As Governor Palin predicted he would.

It's a foreign country, far away, of which he knows little.