President Obama is increasingly being forced to defend his foreign policy from Democratic attacks, including from key Democrats in Congress and even from inside his administration, which one observer says is the latest sign Obama is headed toward lame-duck status.

Obama’s struggle against his own party continued this week, when he lost a major battle in Congress thanks in large part to Democrats. Congress, with overwhelming bipartisan backing, sent Obama the first veto override of his presidency on a measure giving 9/11 victims and their families the right to sue the Saudi government over its alleged ties to the Sept. 11 attacks.