War in Ukraine?

I read through some threads, some wiki articles, and this thread. But I still don't understand why this is such a 'hot' issue for the U.S. to be concerned about. Even considering Russia's involvement in this issue, what advantages would the Ukraine give Russia if they decided to annex the country via military proxy that would lead Russia towards being more competitive in terms of economic and military strength? As far as I know, there are more flaws than draws if Russia pushes ahead in terms of the long term benefits since it will give the U.S. an excuse to launch sanctions against Russia and cripple them economically. That leads to the U.S. benefiting from a hostile Russia move towards the country since it will likely loosen the country from Putin's influence and allow the U.S. to gamble on another president that would be more open towards cooperation with their foreign policy.

The Daily Show framed both republican representatives and conservative media as highlighting the situation in order to question Obama's leadership qualities in comparison to Putin's to frame him as characteristically being weak and timid. "Mom's jeans" was the byword that they repeatedly used to characterize Obama while idolization was placed on Putin wrestling tigers. It was ironically contrasted with similar coverage from a year ago of the Affordable Care Act where they were accusing Obama of being a dictator and tyrant who was blatantly bypassing the idea of a separation of powers via this piece of legislation. Conservative media alone though does not constitute the entirety of American news. However, If Sorkin's Newsroom is any indication of what happens in a real news room, there is a pandering element to reporting that if a news station is featuring a piece of news that someone sees as 'hot', then every news station at least tries to put it on air in order to not be condemned for having no coverage on a issue that becomes blown up because other stations featured it resulting in elevating its importance to American consciousness. The show highlights that fad reporting is the corporate memo.

I find the Daily Show's explanation to be a bit too cynical, although it may have been presented that way in order to compliment the show's singular way of presenting all news as black comedy. However, I am openly cynical about our liberty thumping American sense of righteousness given the opposition funding we've given to resistance groups and the more outright invasions we've initiated to topple down regimes that the White House has viewed as hostile and uncooperative towards U.S. agenda.