On a segment of Thursday night’s Late Show with David Letterman, Tom Brokaw agreed with conservative analysis of the crisis in Ukraine, admitting that Obama’s handling of Syria was not his “finest moment” and his acquiescence to Russia seems to have emboldened Putin to “test” what he perceived to be a weak opponent.

Letterman led into the discussion by paraphrasing analysis of Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine that points to Obama allowing Putin's takeover of negotiations in Syria:

Letterman: And people are saying this is because of the negotiations -- or the unilateral negotiations -- regarding Syria, when [Putin] stepped in looking for weapons of mass destruction and getting rid of the nuclear, whatever he was going to do. And Obama had to sort of acquiesce to that because it was not a bad idea. So now he feels like he can get away with this. Is that part of it?

Brokaw: Well, I think that’s pretty astute. I don’t know for sure what was in his mind, but the fact is when chemical weapons were used in Syria and they were discovered, I didn't think it was President Obama's finest moment. He said there's a red line, then he kept moving that sucker, as they say, all over Syria....

Brokaw then moved into praising Putin’s shrewd political maneuvering -- what Jon Stewart mocked Fox News analysts for doing this week -- and agreeing that it seems that Putin has “taken the measure” of Obama and chosen to test him:

Brokaw: And at one point, President Putin comes in, puts in an editorial, op-ed page piece in the New York Times about 'We’re back'... He’s got very skilled diplomats here at the United Nations and running the foreign ministry, he gets them involved. So I think he might have taken the measure of President Obama and said, 'I may be able to test this guy.' I don’t know that for sure, David. It has that appearance.

H/T Kyle Drennen.