Who benefits from foreign policy crises?

I'm trying to make sense of the crisis in Georgia right now. The NYT played it off as Russian aggression to unseat Saakashvili, and Bill Kristol had a predictable column about using force first and asking questions about our national interest later. Russia Blog's take is that Georgia started it.

McCain has (also predictably) taken the hawkish line about helping plucky little Georgia. But can the US help? It doesn't seem like we are in a position to do anything about the Georgian conflict. Or that we want to even if we could.

From the Telegraph:

Mr Saakashvilli may also have banked on support from his closest ally, US president George W Bush, whose administration is said to have given tacit support for a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in the believe that the territory could be recaptured within 48 hours.

But as events have unfolded differently, Washington has offered Georgia - one of the largest contributors of troops in Iraq - little more than lukewarm vocal support.

In a demonstration of the fact that Georgia could be abandoned by its chief ally, President Bush warmly embraced Mr Putin at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on Friday.

With the West apparently unwilling to participate in a proxy war with Russia at a time when relations with Moscow are already highly strained, Georgia now faces potential isolation in its conflict with its giant neighbour.

From the articles I've read, it seems like this was just a manifest total failure of US foreign policy. If this becomes evident, it can't help McCain. But Obama is on vacation. Obama is leading McCain narrowly, but he is going to have to get in his face when he comes back. McCain is making inroads in defining Obama. That definition is the strategy of alterization with a corrolary: Obama is a globe-trotting uppity elitist wannabe technocrat. That is to say, that he is aloof, as 2008Central has been saying. "My opponent wants you to inflate your tires" said McCain at Sturgis. That line has been ringing in my head. "All the experts say!!!!...." was Obama's response. This definition is gaining traction.

And now Georgia happens, and Obama could put the focus back on McCain and a failure of foreign policy, McCain's Achilles' heel. And he's on vacation!

Obama is going to have to abandon the "new politics" (which were never new to begin with) and go as hard-hitting as he possibly can against McCain, or else this will be 1988.