Obama “knows the shot”.
I don’t think he punts to Congress unless he knew he had the votes.
There’s another reason to punt this to Congress.
If world opinion has gone against you, and upwards of 90% of your own populace is against you, and you’ve stuck your neck out so far you can’t back down, you punt to Congress to be the goat for you not ‘being able’ to follow through on what you thought was right.
It gets him off the hook. I think that’s all he’s looking for.
As for the comments his staff is making, it’s all geared to depict Obama wanting to take action, and setting up Congress to be the goat.
I think he punts to Congress precisely because he knows he doesn’t have the votes.
We’ll see. I may be wrong here.