PUTIN’S FIG LEAF ACCEPTED: Syria Backs Russian Plan for Weapons. If the problem was minor enough that this solution is acceptable, then it wasn’t worth getting all heated-up about with bombing threats and Holocaust analogies to begin with.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Climbdown complete — Obama agrees to UN debate on Putin plan. President Emily Litella.
MORE: The New Republic: Amateur Hour: Obama Got Played by Putin and Assad. I’d love to hear the NSA intercepts of Putin’s conversations with Assad: “Can you believe this is working?!” Of course, the quote from a Congressional staffer in the TNR piece is pretty good: “an unmitigated clusterfuck.”
Obama may be able to sell this as a win to low-information voters, but the DC establishment — in both parties — knows better and will adjust its estimation of Obama, and its plans for the future, accordingly. As, of course, will our friends, and our enemies, abroad.