But the president's return to the issue of nuclear reductions, however tentative, suggests he wants to invest at least some of his remaining time in office to making enough progress that he can point to it as an important legacy.
In that case, the court has issued a tentative ruling suggesting that the plaintiffs have a valid claim.
There are tentative figures suggesting that gender ratios at birth vary by mothers' country of birth; further research is necessary.
The data "adds to tentative evidence suggesting that the downturn in the euro zone may be bottoming out," the Dutch bank ING said in a note to clients.
But the tentative design suggests that it could be a major undertaking costing millions of dollars.
Tentative results suggest it is also improving high school graduation rates.
The tentative findings suggest that organic molecules need not arrive on Earth via a direct collision of a comet, but might also fall in a snow of tiny comet crumbs.
Slipping back out onto the noise of East Seventy-ninth Street, three tentative conclusions suggest themselves: art alone makes old things new; the more you read, the less you know for certain; and self-government, of every kind, is hard.
But Iain Wright, the chair of the business select committee, which did such a good job on BHS, is correct when he says the list of tentative options suggests a government "whose resolve may have weakened on getting to grips with corporate governance".
Now there is evidence, albeit tentative, to suggest the truism might actually be true and that golfers are indeed morphing into cyclists.
