Were I President Obama ...

If I were President Obama, I'd be in the Oval Office praying that Congress does NOT give him the authority to do anything in Syria. There are no good options, and the bad option with the least chance of blowing up in the President's face is "do nothing." However, "SAY you're going to do nothing" would be disastrous for Obama.

Best possible situation for him is to be able to do nothing and blame it on someone else.