Arms treaty approval a win for Obama, but GOP critics are gaining momentum

Eleven days after the bruising midterm elections, President Obama got a stark reminder of how his political shellacking at home could undermine his standing abroad.
Obama was meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev at a hotel in Yokohama, Japan, after an economic summit. The improved relationship with Russia was one of Obama's main foreign policy achievements, and its centerpiece was a new nuclear-weapons agreement the two had signed in April.
Now the Russian leader wanted to know whether the treaty was in trouble in the U.S. Senate.
"President Medvedev was wondering what the election would mean, in terms of ratification. It's fair to say they were nervous," said one U.S. official who was in the meeting.
"That had an impression" on Obama, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
On the plane back to Washington, Obama told aides he was determined to get the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) through the Senate by year's end. "We've got to go for it," the official recalled Obama saying.
The next few weeks marked a remarkable resurgence

　うーん英語難しくてちょっときつかった……（ＴＴ）ので朝日記事も参考にしました。
　要はオバマ大統領がロシアと軍縮条約を結んだのだけれど、いろいろアメリカの選挙との絡みでごたごたしていて、批判も結構強くなってるよ、ということなのかな？