The optics for the Obama presidency have gone from bad to worse. The president gave a speech expressing his indignation following the brutal murderof American James Foley by the rampaging terrorist army ISIS, and then promptly hit the golf course minutes later.
Such a firestorm of disapproval from the right and left has given rise to this gaffe that may haunt Obama the rest of his presidency. When responding to a question about how to defeat the Islamic State of Syria (also known as ISIL or IS), President Obama bluntly responded: “We don’t have a strategy yet.”
The gaffe set off a cascade of reaction that crashed like a wave on the White House’s heads. The following are 17 of the top responses:
1. Washington Post
“By now, President Obama’s remark that “we don’t have a strategy yet” has made the rounds. Republicans were quick to pounce on it, as well they should have.”
2. ABC‘s Martha Raddatz
“A stark admission, since the threat of ISIS has increased at an astonishing rate in the last year, seizing large swaths of territory in Iraq while establishing a safe haven in Syria.”
“That is creating a lot of concern given that ISIS has been gaining strength for years.”
3. CNN‘s Barbara Starr with Jake Tapper
“This is the president that doesn’t beat the war drum, but you have to wonder exactly what message he was sending here today. Let’s be very clear. ISIS heard all of this. …
Very blunt, very honest, absolutely where is the president is on all of this no question about that. But perhaps worth remembering that ISIS fighters, ISIS leadership will hear this statement that the U.S. right now has no strategy to deal with them. I don’t think anybody thought a military strategy was the whole answer, but no strategy? A little odd perhaps.”
4. Fox News’ & Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer
“Look, I thought the president could no longer surprise me,” Krauthammer told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “I was wrong. He shocked me today. The President of the United States, in the middle of a real crisis, a few days after the beheading of an American — deliberately sort of spitting in the face of the country and demonstrating his cruelty — the president gets in front of the world and says, ‘I don’t have a strategy.’
If that is true, don’t say anything!” he urged the president. “Why do you announce you don’t have a strategy?”
5. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough
“The Bear would never show his hand… Is it worse if the president doesn’t have a plan or if he says I have a plan and this is exactly what I’m going to do?…This is straight out of the ‘Art of War.’
The president has a plan on ISIS. Does he know exactly where they are going to bomb in Syria? Maybe, maybe not. I suspect they probably do…”
6. Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld
“But, how do we know? Finally, maybe he’s learning. He’s tricking them. He’s saying we don’t have a strategy, and then they’re going ‘aha,’ and then he just unleashes hell… I doubt it, though. I’m just hoping that President Obama is learning that the world is a scary place and that with radical Islam, if you extend a hand, you get a stump in return. And so maybe he’s being clever. However, I know I’m wrong. I know I’m wrong.”
7. The Telegraph’s Raf Sanchez
“The remark is a gaffe in the classic sense: a clearly true statement that the politician who utters it immediately regrets.
Republicans seized on the line as evidence of Mr Obama dithering in the face of the jihadist threat, and the President’s men raced to the airwaves to try to walk it back.”
8. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest
“I just want to be clear about what our strategy is. This strategy is one that’s not going to solve this problem overnight. But he’s also clear about the fact that our strategy can’t only be the American military. We have a comprehensive strategy for dealing with [ISIS].”
9. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
“The president needs to develop a regional strategy, working with our allies, to defeat ISIL and to use the full extent of his authorities to attack this enemy force,” McConnell wrote in a statement. “But don’t forget, the threat from ISIL is real and it’s growing — and it is time for President Obama to exercise some leadership in launching a response.”
10. Fox News Contributor Karl Rove
As reported by Fox News:
Karl Rove, Fox News analyst and former George W. Bush administration adviser, said he was “appalled” by the president’s comment.
“He was warned about the role that ISIS was playing inside Syria, and he has had all that time to develop a strategy about what to do about ISIS in Syria and he still doesn’t,” Rove told Fox News.
11. Fox News Host Megyn Kelly
As reported by Fox News:
Don’t worry, there’s just a few Americans waiting to have their heads cut off in the custody of this terror group,” Megyn Kelly said tonight, apologizing for being flippant but calling the situation “disturbing.”
12. Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX)
As reported by the Daily Mail:
Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert told Fox News.on Thursday that Obama articulated ‘a pitiful foreign policy, and Barney Fife is in charge.”
‘I don’t know where he’s getting his information,’ said Gohmert. ‘Maybe it’s CIA Director [John] Brennan who said earlier this year that “No, these guys don’t want a caliphate”.’
‘He must have his head buried in a hole somewhere on the first green.’
13. Fox News’ Ed Henry
“There’s one word to describe what happened today and that’s – disaster. I know that because I was sitting there and I heard it with my own ears…
Ever since the president uttered it, the White House has been in damage control mode.”
14. The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes
15. National Republican Congressional Committee
16. Independent Women’s Forum
17. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R – NC)
While the major news media have often remained quiet during such clashes of rhetoric and reality, the hushed murmur of the disaffected has steadily risen into a banging clamor of disapproval for a Commander-in-Chief who refuses to command, and indeed, shrugs at the notion that he’s in charge.
But it was largely due to Obama’s actions that the terrorist leader of ISIS and now head of the Islamic State’s “caliphate” is roaming free across the Middle East on a murder spree. The same ISIS terrorist group that the president likened to a “JV team” has killed 192,000 people and threatens to kill more Americans.
Meanwhile, both the White House and the State Department refuse to say that the United States is at “war” with ISIS. Whether or not the Obama administration fully grasps this state of affairs, as a matter-of-fact, the terrorist army of ISIS is already at war with us.
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