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Commentators on the right have been eager to reinforce President Obama’s better foreign-policy moves. Despite their best intentions, however, conservative praise for Obama repeatedly fails to gain purchase. It’s not that enthusiasm for this or that Obama decision is misplaced; it’s that there’s no reason to take any single administration accomplishment as representative of a larger strategy, and those apportioning the compliments know it. Laudatory editorials and blog posts by strong-military advocates or pro-democracy pundits are wishful, caveat-rich, and willfully imperceptive. These folks are typing with their fingers crossed.

The praise is, by necessity, narrowly focused, giving Mr. Obama singly earned points for discrete acts. After the U.S. Navy...