Thanks for all your great year-end questions about the year that was. Since most of us are tuning out of politics right now, let's jump right in before our attentions spans desert us! Is there going to be a Cold War, part 2? President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) This week did feel eerily old school: President Obama announced he'd be slapping sanctions on Russia and kicking out 35 Russian “intelligence operatives” in retaliation for what the CIA concluded was Russia's hack into Democrats' emails to try to help Donald Trump win. Russia was, uh, not happy about that. Here's what its prime minister had to say: But whether this escalates — including to anything approaching Cold War II — appears to be up to President-elect Trump, who can choose to keep Obama's punishment on Russia or get rid of it. Russian President Vladimir Putin recognizes that. Notably, he did not retaliate by following protocol and kicking U.S. diplomats out of his country, saying he'd wait and see what Trump does. Trump has suggested he'd want to play nice with Russia, too. The only problem with that plan is that some key members of Trump's own party don't want to. Top Senate Republicans want to launch their own investigations into what Russia did and potentially slap more sanctions on the country. (Other Republicans are doing verbal gymnastics to downplay Russia's hacking in a manner more consistent with their president-elect.) Basically, Obama's last-minute slap to Russia is forcing Trump to choose: Start a fight with Russia, or start a fight with some members of his own party. It's TBD what Trump decides and how U.S.-Russia relations look going forward, but it will be a major issue during the first days of his presidency. Why is the Democratic Party struggling? I'm going to get provocative here and answer this with two words: President Obama. Under his presidency, Democrats lost some 60 seats in Congress and more than 30 state legislative chambers. As a result, their bench for 2020 is strikingly bare. (Philip Bump / The Washington Post) Maybe it wasn't Obama's fault. The mere fact he is a Democrat who was president was bad for the Democratic Party, since voters like to put a check on the party in power by voting for the other party. (And indeed, having a Republican in the White House could also be great for Democrats in the elections to come.) But some state-level Democrats also think Obama didn't focus enough on growing his party from the bottom up. It wasn't until the very end of his administration that he announced he'll be behind a redistricting effort to help Democrats have a seat at the table when new electoral maps are drawn after the 2020 census. And Democrats already got their clock cleaned on the last round of redistricting, thanks to the bloodbath that was the first midterm election of Obama's presidency in 2010 (the results of which last for a full decade). The fact is, says Fix Boss Chris Cillizza, that “Barack Obama has been exceptionally good for the brand of 'Barack Obama,' but far less good for the broader Democratic Party.” Why did the media focus so much on Donald Trump? | 