Poll: Majority of Americans "Concerned" Obama Has No Strategy to Deal With ISIS

Daniel Doherty / Townhall Tipsheet

As one television host recently noted, we’re all human beings and therefore we all make mistakes. That’s true enough. Even presidents, after all, aren’t exempt from the laws of nature. So when President Obama said a few days ago that his administration didn’t have “a strategy” to deal effectively with ISIS, most of his cheerleaders in the media, presumably, assumed it was a gaffe. But was it?

 

As of this writing, ISIS terrorists (some of whom are Westerners) have already beheaded one American journalist and reportedly decapitated another. At least one American has died fighting for the caliphate, and we don’t know if other American traitors, suspected of joining the group, will have their US passports rescinded, either.

Needless to say, these are all serious concerns. Hence why most Americans are troubled by what President Obama said last Thursday:

The president said last week at a press conference that the United States doesn’t have a strategy yet for dealing with the group which threatens to defeat democratic forces in Iraq and send the messy civil war in Syria further out of control. Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters are concerned that the United States does not have a strategy for dealing with this military group, with 47% who are Very Concerned. Twenty-five percent (25%) are not concerned by this lack of a strategy, but that includes only four percent (4%) who are Not At All Concerned. 

The president has authorized selective U.S. airstrikes to halt ISIS advances but has ruled out sending troops back to Iraq. Just 30% think the United States should send troops to defeat ISIS, but that’s up from 12% last December. Opposition to sending troops back to Iraq has fallen dramatically from 71% in December to 58% a month ago. Now just 41% feel that way. A sizable 29% are undecided.

In other words, nearly half of respondents say they are exceedingly nervous that the president has no plan whatsoever to confront this threat.

Perhaps, then, it's finally time he came up with one.

Good News: 'Blue State Diaspora' Is 'Overstated,' Not Turning Red States Blue

Matt Vespa / Townhall Tipsheet

 

Blue state residents are moving to red states, but maybe the results won’t resemble anything close to a conservative Armageddon. Over at FiveThirtyEight, Harry Enten and Nate Silver said, “It’s a fascinating hypothesis, but it’s overstated, in our view.” While they admit the process of their analysis isn’t perfect, Enten and Silver noted that the balance of power remains “reasonably equivocal,” especially over the long term. If anything, they argue that migration rates have only contributed to a more polarized electorate. 

 

So, here’s what these guys have to say about the Blue-State Diaspora premise:

The first problem is that the predominant political trend of the past two decades has not been consistently better performance by Democrats, but instead greater polarization across partisan and geographic lines. 

Remember, the GOP controls the House of Representatives, a plurality of state legislatures and a majority of governor’s mansions, and Republicans are slight favorites to take the Senate in November. 

Democrats have done well in recent presidential elections, but if Republicans take the Senate and hold the House, then by 2016 the GOP will have had control of the Senate for 12.5 of the past 24 years and the House for 18 of 24. …

People who leave an area don’t necessarily resemble the ones who stay. Instead, there’s evidence that migrants’ political beliefs mirror those of voters in their new destination. Many people moving from a liberal state to a conservative state may be conservative, or may at least end up that way before long. People moving from a conservative state to a liberal state may be liberal.
…
If anything, movers generally have more extreme political views than natives: Those people moving to the West Coast or New England, for example, are more liberal than people who grew up there. Thus, the process of intra-country migration could be contributing to political polarization rather than making states more purple.

Obama Stumbles on Strategy: ISIS 'Manageable Problem'

Newsmax

By Melanie Batley

Just one week after publicly announcing that the United States did not yet have a strategy to combat the threat of ISIS, President Barack Obama has indicated that the current goal of the U.S. effort in Iraq is to diminish the extremist group to "a manageable problem."

The comments, however, are raising further questions about whether the president has a clear and viable vision for countering the growing threat from the jihadists, after he also said the United States planned to "destroy" ISIS.

"We know that if we are joined by the internationally community, we can continue to shrink ISIL's sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing, its military capabilities to the point where it is a manageable problem," Obama said during a speech Wednesday in Estonia, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Obama also said in the speech that the administration's objective was to "degrade and destroy" ISIS in Iraq, and that the United States had already been "moving effectively" to achieve that goal, The Hill reported.

The remarks are already creating a stir among critics who argue that the comments are contradictory.

Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger told "Fox and Friends" Wednesday that the president needed to decide whether the United States was going to "contain or crush" ISIS.

"That's the big question. Are we going to contain ISIS, or are we going to crush ISIS? And, the president has not answered that," he said.

Conservative radio show host Laura Ingraham also criticized Obama, saying his comments are nonsensical.

"When you hear the president talk about destroy and degrade [ISIS], that makes sense. When you hear the president talking about managing the problem, that doesn't make sense," Ingraham said on "Fox and Friends," according to Politico. "I mean, we manage all sorts of problems in our daily lives, this is not a manageable problem, this is a force of evil."

The Pentagon, however, has pushed back, saying that the statements are consistent with one another.

"It's actually both. And I know that sounds a little bit strange to hear," said Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby, according to The Hill.

Kirby said the U.S. can degrade, disrupt, and destroy ISIS "targets" in Iraq but cannot destroy ISIS as an organization.

"The only way you're going to destroy an organization like this is by defeating their ideology," he said. "You can bomb them every day, and you're not going to get rid of the ideology that allows them to fester and to continue to get resources and to grow, to train and to equip."

"There's got to be a broader-based strategy, and we're working on that right now," he added.

Reports: Obama Admin Lose Track of 6,000 Foreigners on Student Visas Who Could ‘Do Us Harm’

Pamela Keller / Atlas Shrugs

According to the latest Domestic Terror Threat Assessment, jihadists aren’t even a threat, but no worries, Obama is blocking visas for …. Israel.

Between our porous borders and the pro-jihad immigration policies of Hussein in the White House, it’s not just the “lone jihadis” we are looking at; potentially, it’s an army of hostile invaders.

Reports: Feds Lose Track of 6,000 Foreigners on Student Visas Who Could ‘Do Us Harm’, Breitbart, September 2, 2014

The federal government has reportedly lost track of more than 6,000 foreigners on student visas, some of whom may be in the country “to do us harm.”According to an ABC News investigation, “58,000 students overstayed their visas in the past year. Of those, 6,000 were referred to agents for follow-up because they were determined to be of heightened concern.” ABC found that “the number of foreign nationals obtaining visas to study in the U.S. has grown from 662,966 in 2003 to more than 1.2 million in 2012.”

Peter Edge, “the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who oversees investigations into visa violators,” told ABC News that some of the foreign nationals “could be here to do us harm” and his “greatest concern is that they could be doing anything.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) told ABC News that foreigners with student visas just “get the visas and they disappear.” He “said since the...

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Newsmax                                                                                    Parents of SEAL Hero Demand Obama Quit Over ISIS Threat

By Drew MacKenzie

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A man touches the headstone of Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Carson Vaughn, U.S. Navy Seal, at Arlington National Cemetery. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The parents of a  SEAL Team 6 member who died in Afghanistan have called on President Barack Obama to resign, saying that his "cowardly lack of leadership" in handling the barbaric Islamic State threatens U.S. and global security.

In an open letter published at WorldTribune.com, Billy and Karen Vaughn, whose son Aaron died in 2011, wrote that they were stunned by Obama’s decision to go golfing directly after giving a somber speech about the beheading of American journalist James Foley by the jihadists, also known as ISIS.

"As commander-in-chief, your actions, or lack thereof, Mr. President, cost lives," said the Vaughns, whose son was killed in action when a Chinook helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan with 30 American soldiers on board.

"As you bumble about in your golf cart, slapping on a happy face and fist-pounding your buddies, your cowardly lack of leadership has left a gaping hole — not only in America’s security but the security of the entire globe. Your message has come across loud and clear, sir: You are not up to this job. You know it. We know it. The world knows it.

"Please vacate the people’s house and allow a man or woman of courage and substance to seize the reins of this out-of-control thug-fest and regain the balance we, America, have provided throughout our great history."

The Vaughns, whose son was Special Operations Chief of the SEALs unit that killed al-Qaida terror leader Osama Bin Laden during a Pakistan raid in March 2011, went on to say that Obama’s administration has "lurched from one disaster to another."

They wrote, "Never in my lifetime have I witnessed such despair and such growing fear that the world’s last best hope, America, has finally been dismantled.

"You spearheaded the ambitious rush to end the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, with no plan on how to do so effectively. Also, the release of 'the Taliban five' in exchange for one American, without consulting Congress, is also on your shoulders.

"You have been at the helm during unprecedented national security leaks — including, but not limited to the outing of SEAL Team 6 on the bin Laden raid, the outing of the Pakistani doctor who provided the intelligence for that raid, the outing of Afghanistan’s CIA station chief, and the outing of your personal 'kill list' to make you look tough."

The Vaughns said that after Foley’s execution by ISIS savages, they were left with "a level of rage known only to those of us who have sacrificed unspeakable offerings on the altar of world peace."

Noting that their "offering" was their son, they added, "Now we have this recent, heinous event, the beheading of an American citizen by a barbaric organization you foolishly referred to as 'the JV team.'

"You, sir, are the JV team. It’s time for you to step down and allow a true leader to restore our honor and protect our sons and daughters. America has always been exceptional. And she will be again. You, Mr. President, are a bump in our road."

Billy Vaughn, author of "Betrayed: The Shocking True Story of Extortion 17," also told MailOnline that he’s angry at the way Obama conducts his news conferences.

"I'd like to see him have some passion about anything going on in the world instead of just speaking in a monotone voice like he has a script that has been made up," Vaughn said.

RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS

Today, on the September 3rd edition of RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS at 2 to 4pm EST on CPR Worldwide Media, we will be discussing the murder of Steven Sotloff, ISIS, Obama’s role in all this, and what MUST be done to stop it!

Hope you can tune in: http://cprworldwidemedia.com/live-radio/

and chat with us live at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cprworldwidemedia/

Op-ed:
Hey Obama...We Are At War With ISIS
By: Diane Sori

Sura 8:12...“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
 
It's been confirmed...Steven Joel Sotloff has been beheaded...the second American journalist to be executed within a few short weeks and Obama again does NOT a thing of substance...NOT a damn thing at all...that is except to keep calling these murderous bast*rds ISIL and we all know why...as Obama's hatred for Israel and the Jewish people is well known.

And it appears that Sotloff, a freelance journalist for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, was executed by the same man who beheaded James Foley on August 16th. In this newest video called "A Second Message to America," before he put the blade to Sotloff's neck, the executioner says, "As your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike necks of your people." And at the end of the video a third man...believed to be a British journalist...is brought out to show that he will be next if Obama's so-called 'limited' bombing is NOT stopped.

                        
                 To watch the video of the beheading click on the picture, but be warned it is NOT for the squeamish.

'Limited' bombing that kills but a few...that is all Obama has done. And while ISIS continues to grow stronger by adding to their ranks the delusional and the disenfranchised...like the Gazans (I NO longer call them Palestinians) now joining them in battle...fighting and dying in a battle that is really a battle of the 'civilized man' vs the 'barbarian'...the 'civilized man' vs islam.

And we all know Obama will in the end cave to his brethren...and why NOT...for if truth be told Barack HUSSEIN Obama does NOT want to stop ISIS...I know it...you dear reader know it...and he does NOT care that any of us know it. And most importantly Obama knows that ISIS cannot be stopped unless we put 'boots on the ground' and that he has said is something he will NOT do for he knows that 'boots on the ground' is the only thing that can stop ISIS' forward march. And this most vile of men knows that NO 'boots' equals NO stopping ISIS...and NO stopping ISIS means the caliphate is born...and Obama's true goal comes to fruition.

Want proof that this his goal and that he has indeed LIED to the American people yet again...it seems a former Pentagon official has now come forward to say that Obama's claiming that ISIS took America by surprise and that he had NO clue about ISIS' rise, strength, or objective, is an out and out LIE as he knew all about them for at least a year before they started on their murderous rampage. And how did Obama know this...because he personally received updates about ISIS every morning in his daily intelligence briefings and those updates were given to him by an agent of the CIA.

Proving once again that he cares more about sending 60,000 NSA agents out in the field to spy on law-abiding Americans than he ever has about the rise of radical islam, Obama has again shown that he is anything but presidential material... shown that he cannot handle the job...shown that he must be removed from office. And now it has been shown that he is guilty of treason for he has most certainly 'aided and abetted' the enemy by looking away...that he and he alone has put America and the American people in danger for his actions when NOT needed coupled with his inactions when actions were needed has directly led (I believe) to the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff. And so their names must be added to what I call Obama's ever-growing 'hit list'...adding their names to those of Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty.

So while Obama jets off to Estonia in an effort to sell those countries out as he did to Israel...ISIS continues on in its quest of trying to create its own islamic state by gobbling up the land of other sovereign nations. And while we continue to do some 'limited' bombings here and there but NOT everywhere...as in 'shock and awe'... when Obama feels he needs to placate the masses...remember those bombings are always done in such a away as NOT to kill too many of the brethren. And so Obama's inactions allows ISIS to grow bolder...to grow stronger...with each passing day, while this farce of a president appears to grow ever weaker on both the domestic and international fronts.

But looks can be so very deceiving for isn't the establishment of the caliphate Obama's ultimate goal, and isn't his goal succeeding by being built upon the blood of those his policies have made too weak to fight back...it sure seems that way. And how America and the world so desperately needs a hero...a leader if you will...to help save us from the likes of ISIS...to help save us from islam for the bottom line is that islam itself...all islam...is the enemy and has been ever since buildings fell almost 13 years ago. And saddest of all is that past American presidents...presidents like Ronald Reagan...used to be such a leader but that is NO more. But a new leader now seems to have emerged to lead the fight against those out to kill us all.

The "root cause" of Britain's terror threat is "Islamist extremism," and it "is not some foreign conflict thousands of miles from home that we can hope to ignore," so said British Prime Minister David Cameron and how right he is.

Telling lawmakers meeting in the House of Commons on Monday his plans to combat islamic terrorism in his country, Cameron took the first definitive steps to try to stop ISIS dead in its tracks by raising Britain's terror threat level from 'substantial' to 'severe' because he felt ISIS posed a "greater and deeper" threat to Britain then any other threats before...and how right he is. Cameron began by laying out his plans... plans that included calling for a new law to give police the temporary power to seize a passport at the border of any British citizen suspected of trying to travel to support ISIS and then re-enter Britain. Cameron added that existing arrangements on aviation security would also become law, and that airlines will have to comply with Britain's no-fly list arrangements, supply information on passenger lists, and comply with security screening requirements, and that if they did NOT their flights will NOT be able to land in Britain.

Cameron also told lawmakers that he would introduce additional legislation giving British authorities new powers that would strengthen their ability to track suspected supporters of ISIS by providing them with "enhanced use of exclusion zones" or "relocation powers."

And this is just the beginning Cameron said, and promised more will be done unlike the NOTHING that is being done here at home. And I do mean NOTHING as Obama's bloviating spokesmouth Josh Earnest said he did NOT anticipate the threat level here in America would be raised anytime soon, as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said that currently there was NO specific threat being made against the United States.

NO specific threat...how about ISIS sneaking into this country through our unsecured southern border...how about the 6,000 foreign nationals, a majority of whom come from Arab countries, who have entered the U.S. on student visas and now can NO longer be found...how about ISIS recruits and sympathizers here in America getting their butcher knives ready as they wait for their call to jihad...how about the warning ISIS issued when two Americans were brutally beheaded...how about all the internet and radio chatter that 'something' big will happen this September 11th...and we know there is more but hey...why raise the threat level when we have president whose goal is to help ISIS raise their flag over the White House for only then can his sellout of America come to completion.