Putin appeals directly to U.S. public with stinging op-ed on Syria -- But don't think for a moment that Vladimir Putin has lost his edge. In a bluntly worded commentary published in Thursday's New York Times, the Russian president castigated the idea of American "exceptionalism," essentially called the United States an international bully and said he "carefully studied" President Obama's speech Tuesday to the nation on Syria, and determined that he disagreed with it. - Mitchell Landsberg, latimes