**Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.**
Buzz Cut:
• Brown hits Shaheen, Obama on ISIS in new ad
• The climate sure did change for the Obama presidency
• Baier Tracks: Now for the tough part
• Landrieu: Kegstands ‘the way we roll’
• Well, that was easy
BROWN HITS SHAHEEN, OBAMA ON ISIS IN NEW AD
In a new ad, New Hampshire Republican Senate nominee Scott Brown ties border security, the threat from ISIS and that Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and President Obama are confused about the threat from Islamist militants. The campaign wouldn’t provide details on the exact size of the buy, a campaign spokeswoman told Fox News First that the spots would air on WMUR, WBIN, cable outlets and Boston stations.
Hard words – Here’s the script from Brown, speaking directly to camera and interspersed with images of ISIS fighters and other scary scenes: “Anyone who turns on the TV these days know we faces challenges to our way of life. Radical Islamic terrorists are threatening to cause the collapse of our country. President Obama and Senator Shaheen seem confused about the nature of the threat – not me. I want to secure the border; keep out the people who would do us harm and restore America’s leadership in the world. I’m Scott Brown and I approve this message. Because protecting the homeland is the first step in making America strong again.”
[Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has agreed to appear at four of the seven debate offers Brown has accepted. Complicating matters for Shaheen is that Democrat Gov. Maggie Hassan has accepted seven debates with Republican challenger Walt Havenstein.]
Risk or reward – Brown has gained greatly in the polls on the issues of border security and foreign policy. New Hampshire is a hawkish state to be sure. But, with the spot coming just as Obama escalates the war with ISIS into Syria, will the message sound like Brown is not rallying to the commander in chief? Part of the calculation here may be that Shaheen has struggled with the issue and may not want to call attention to her support for or disagreement with the president’s policies.
[Politico: “The New Hampshire Republican Party adopted Saturday a socially conservative party platform that supports “the pre-born child’s fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment’ … In an emailed statement, a Brown aide made clear that the former Massachusetts senator does not agree with the personhood language…]
THE CLIMATE SURE DID CHANGE FOR THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY
President Barack Obama is speaking in New York today on what was supposed to be his number one foreign policy initiative for his second term: global warming. But despite a promise of more executive action (this time in the form of requiring agencies to factor carbon emissions into all decisions) the general concept is a bust. None of the leaders of the other main carbon emitters are taking the meeting are scheduled to show up to meet with the president. Instead of announcing pen-and-phone-based progress designed to rouse liberal voters for midterms, Obama’s day instead will be dominated by something he surely did not foresee when he spoke of a carbon-based second term: expanding the war against Islamist militants to yet another Middle Eastern nation. Rather than catnip for his base, Obama today is offering liberals a sour serving of promises that this latest conflict will not expand again and that he will limit U.S. commitments for the future.
[“Importantly, climate change, without being connected in that way to everybody’s daily thinking, in fact, ranks right up there with every single one of the rest of those challenges. You can make a powerful argument that it may be, in fact, the most serious challenge we face on the planet because it’s about the planet itself.” – Secretary of State John Kerry in remarks Monday comparing global warming to terrorism, poverty and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.]
Biden literally warned that Romney would ‘go to war in Syria’ if elected – CBS News: “Two months before the 2012 presidential election, Vice President Biden warned on the campaign trail that Mitt Romney wanted to go to war with Syria. The video, which was posted by BuzzFeed, was of Biden speaking to supporters at a rally in York, Pa. on Sept. 2, 2012. ‘He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home. He implies by the speech that he’s ready to go to war in Syria and Iran,’ Biden said in his speech.” In the speech, Biden also accused Romney of wanting “to move from cooperation to confrontation with Putin’s Russia.”
They’ll try not to rub it in too much – President Obama is set to speak today at the Clinton Global Initiative at the behest of former president Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, and the timing is awkward. The former president reiterated Sunday his wife’s previous chiding of Obama for not engaging in Syria sooner. Obama will be obliged to speak more on the subject, so it will be time for some careful tea-leaf reading to see just how strained relationship is between the two rival powers in the Democratic Party.
[Politico: “Hillary Clinton will headline a fundraising dinner for Florida Democratic gubernatorial Charlie Crist next month, putting her in a key presidential state in the midterms battle, according to an invitation.”]
BAIER TRACKS: NOW FOR THE TOUGH PART…
“What looks like a successful first night of airstrikes inside Syria with the help of five Arab allies leads immediately to one question: What’s next? A senior U.S. official who is involved in the mission offered me an assessment of the first sorties in Syria: “The strikes resulted in infrastructure damage to the groups, unfortunately they can take over new buildings. Assessing exactly who was killed at this time, it’s too early to say definitively. The unfortunate consequence of going after the enemy like this is that they will now adapt and targeting will likely become more challenging.’
That last line is very important. While there are probably a few nights worth of ‘hard targets’ to strike in the ISIS infrastructure (what officials call the ‘low hanging fruit’) – the real challenge will be to root out and target the members of the group’s leadership as they go to ground and try to hide inside urban centers. That next step will require what’s called ‘low flying tactical ISR’ or Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance flights – AND, more importantly, spotters on the ground who can pinpoint targets.
That would be a pretty difficult task for the Free Syrian Army ‘boots on the ground.’ It will likely require U.S. eyes and ears. That is the tough part that lies ahead if the U.S. is really going to degrade and then destroy ISIS.” –
Bret Baier
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
This week marks 30 years since the first American-made CD came
off the line at the
Sony plant in Terre Haute, Ind. The first disc produced was, appropriately enough,
Bruce Springsteen’s multi-platinum hit ‘
Born in the USA.’ Springsteen, who also celebrates his 65
th birthday today, wrote the album’s title song in 1981. And despite its grim lyrics about the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans and economic hopelessness, the patriotic name has led many candidates to use the song as a campaign anthem.
Ronald Reagan and
Walter Mondale both claimed it during their 1984 battle, as did former Sen.
Bob
Dole in 1996 after
dropping “I’m a Dole Man,” a take-off on Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man.” Springsteen would subsequently make his own politics quite clear, becoming a prolific Democrat campaigner, helping the campaigns of
John Kerry in
2004 and
President Obama in
2012.
Got a TIP from the RIGHT or LEFT? Email [email protected]
POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 41.7 percent//Disapprove – 53.3 percent
Direction of Country: Right Direction – 27.4 percent//Wrong Track – 64.6 percent
Generic Congressional Ballot: Democrats – 42.5 percent// Republicans – 46.5 percent
— 42 days until Nov. 4 —
ODDS ON FOR CARSON 2016 RUN
Dr. Ben Carson told radio host Hugh Hewitt the odds ‘reasonably good’ of seeing him mount a 2016 presidential bid, with a final decision by next May, the Daily Caller reports. “‘I think the chances are reasonably good of that happening,’ Carson told Hewitt. ‘I’m waiting obviously for a few more months. I want to make sure that it’s clearly something my fellow Americans want me to do and I’m also waiting to see what the results are in November because if the people indicate that they truly do want a nation that is for of and by the people, then I, and along with I hope many other people, be willing to give it everything we possibly have.’” Carson is a Fox News contributor.
[Sen. Marco Rubio, D-Fla., continues to make his case for a potential 2016 GOP presidential nod, focusing on tax reform in a joint WSJ op-ed with conservative Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.]
JEB BRINGS THE BUCKS HOME FOR GOP SENATE HOPEFULS
With an eye on helping Republicans take control of the Senate in November and the benefit to a possible presidential bid two years hence, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will host a fundraiser tonight in Tampa for a new political action committee, Floridians for a Senate Majority, backing five Republican Senate candidates. The beneficiaries are Joni Ernst of Iowa, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Monica Wehby of Oregon. At least Ernst and Cotton are expected to attend in person. Organizers hope to raise $500,000.
