On Friday, the Obama Administration officially announced the end of its spectacularly unsuccessful $500 million plan to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels. . . .

This latest decision is the most obvious manifestation of what Obama Administration officials have been telling the press for the past few days: the plan for Syria, in light of Russia's intervention, is to do nothing to escalate the situation. There are no plans to send anti-aircraft weapons to moderate rebels being hit by Russian air strikes, for example. Eli Lake and Josh Rogin write that some White House advisors are even encouraging the President "to give up on toppling the Syrian regime."

When CBS host Steve Kroft questioned Obama about Russia president Vladimir Putin, the topic quickly turned to climate change.

"He's challenging your leadership, Mr. President," Kroft said, of Putin.

And Obama's reply: "I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership. My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change and [an] international accord that potentially would get in Paris."