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Buzz Cut:
• Obama takes a mulligan on response to beheadings
• Obama ally hits Hillary’s ‘entitlement’ as frontrunner’s ratings fall
• ‘Significant illegal activities’ alleged against pro-Nunn group
• Ugly early in N.H.
• But you should see the view!
OBAMA TAKES A MULLIGAN ON RESPONSE TO BEHEADINGS
So, that round of golf probably wasn’t worth it, right? President Obama is scrambling in a prime-time address tonight to show that his level of alarm about marauding Islamists in the Middle East matches that of his fellow Americans. How alarmed are Americans? The new WSJ/NBC News poll tells us the story: Only 26 percent of respondents felt the country is safer than before 9/11, awareness of the beheaded Americans is higher than any news story in five years and the president’s job approval rating remained at 40 percent, the lowest of any president ahead of midterms in the past 20 years. Obama adopted a tougher tone last week, but Obama’s golf outing on August 20 immediately after declaring himself “heartbroken” over the beheading of American James Foley can now go down in the books as one of the worst political botches of recent memory. And describing the beheading savages as a potentially “manageable” problem and infamously saying, “We don’t have a strategy yet” sure didn’t help.
[Watch Fox: Live coverage of President Obama’s address on escalating U.S. military involvement at 9 p.m. ET. Plus, full analysis and context from the best team in the business.]
What does he want? He’s not sure, but he wants it now! – The administration has worked hard to telegraph the message the president will lay out tonight. Obama is ready to start dumping arms on the remaining Syrian rebels still classified as moderate Islamists so that the Air Force can start dumping bombs on their former comrades in arms, the immoderate Islamists of ISIS. The president doesn’t want Congress to authorize the airstrikes, since he claims he doesn’t need the authority and their authorization would in some way reestablish Congressional primacy on making war. What the president wants is Congress to share the political culpability for the mission, which, given the sketchy state of the rebels Obama is now ready to directly arm after years of delay, is a very risky one. The vehicle for obtaining congressional “buy in” is, appropriately, money. The president is expected to seek a $5 billion appropriation to fund the war, which gets Congress on the hook but doesn’t insinuate that Congress has any authority to make or not make war. What’s the money for? They’ll figure it out later.
