 Andrew Malcolm McClatchy News You better stop stealing money from your mother s purse, young man, or I will punish you late this year or perhaps sometime in 2018,  said no parent who was serious about punishment.Yet that s pretty much what President Obama did with his old-fashioned expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over alleged political hacking by Moscow interests going back 18 months.A very strange retro-response from a president who mocked Mitt Romney for suggesting in 2012 that Russia was America s worst strategic threat. Obama said:  The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War s been over for 20 years. As has often happened when Obama shoots from the lip sans teleprompter (think his red line in Syria, ISIS is a JV squad), the aloof one is wrong.Obama s been golfing and snorkeling in Hawaii since mid-December. But he left orders for a number of last-minute steps, including more ineffective sanctions against Russia and a stunning historic break with Israel. Indeed, these measures smell more of vengeance than practical policy.Petty political ploys are standard operating procedure back in the Chicago wards that spawned Obama s career. They re less expected at the presidential level. In fact, Russia s president declined to retaliate Continue this story at McClatchy Newspapers  READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21WIRE 2016 Files