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By Darrell Delamaide

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) The predictable branding of President Barack Obama as a new Jimmy Carter because of his cautious response to the Ukraine crisis has left Republicans with the big problem of whom to cast as Ronald Reagan riding to the rescue.

It is an article of faith in Washington that Carters perceived weakness in the Iranian hostage crisis led to his landslide 1980 defeat to Reagan.

According to Russian and U.S. officials, diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over Ukraine stalled after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a U.S. proposal put forward by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Conservatives have been quick to brand Obamas equivocal response to the Russian seizure of the Crimea, coming on top of his retreat on Syrian chemical weapons, as a sign of weakness that will encourage further Russian aggression.

Republicans are keen to seize on the Ukraine crisis because a foreign-policy debate suits them better than one on economic policy, where their decades-long insistence on tax cuts for the wealthy and superfluous measures at deficit reduction have painted them into a very unpopular corner.

Wall Street Journal commentator Daniel Henninger, for instance, referred to the Carterization of Obama , citing a Reagan speech during the 1980 campaign characterizing the Carter administrationss response in Iran as one of weakness, inconsistency, vacillation and bluff.

For Henninger, the administrations hesitancy on the Crimea is just the tip of the iceberg in a week that also saw Israel intercept Syrian missiles on the way to Gaza, North Korea test ballistic missiles that could strike American bases in South Korea, Russia announce its navy would use ports in Cuba, and China increase its military budget even as the Obama administration proposed to cut the U.S. defense budget.

The New York Post chimed in with an editorial under the headline Jimmy Obama. Vladimir Putin has taken the measure of Barack Obama, the editorialist intoned. Hes found Jimmy Carter.

As sure as day follows night, it seems, there must be a Reagan to follow a Carter but which of the Republican aspirants to the presidency will it be?

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Darrell Delamaide's Political Capital: Republicans keen to run against Jimmy Carter again