ISLAMIST THREAT OVERSHADOWS OBAMA’S DOMESTIC SALES PITCH!

ISLAMIST THREAT OVERSHADOWS OBAMA’S DOMESTIC SALES PITCH
Just as President Obama is hitting the campaign trail to sell a reboot of his domestic policies ahead of next week’s State of the Union Address, the threat from Islamist militants is again crowding out his messages. Starting eight days ago with the deadly attack in Paris, the president has struggled to gain traction for his calls for more spending, higher taxes and new regulations. The Obama media strategy, on which its authors have been congratulating themselves at length in the political press, is to roll out the speech day after day to targeted geographic and demographic groups. This is not unlike what we saw last year when Islamists in Iraq and Syria destroyed the Democratic Midterm communications strategy and focused national attention on concerns over the president’s foreign policy. The president’s campaign to avoid lame duck status looks similarly imperiled.

Islamist killing fields in Nigeria - Fox News: “Amnesty International has released satellite images that it says show widespread destruction in two Nigerian towns attacked by Boko Haram last weekend. The international human rights organization says that the photos show the towns of Baga and Doron Baga in northeast Nigeria, before and after the attacks. The images were taken on Jan. 2 and Jan. 7 of this year. Boko Haram fighters seized a military base in Baga on Jan. 3 and, according to witnesses, killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood in the ensuing days. …Amnesty International calculates that 3,700 homes and other structures were demolished by the Islamic militants over the course of the attack.”

[Fox News Poll: 64 percent of voters say the threat from Islamic extremists is increasing while 55 percent say President Obama is not prepared to do whatever it takes to defeat them.]

ISIS gains territory - Fox News: “The Islamic State terror group reportedly has increased the amount of territory they control in Syria as the U.S.-led bombing campaign approaches its four-month anniversary. The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. government and  independent assessments, say that the Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, has control of a large swath of northeastern Syria and is creeping toward key cities in the country's west, including Aleppo, a center of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.”

[Fox News Poll: 56 percent of voters disapprove of PresidentObama’s handling of ISIS and 57 percent disapprove of his overall foreign policy record.]

Five Yemeni Islamists released from Gitmo - WashEx: “The Obama administration late Wednesday released five Yemeni al Qaeda fighters from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, sending four of them to Oman, which shares a border with Yemen. The move is likely to inflame GOP lawmakers who proposed Tuesday to bar further such releases, especially to Yemen, a country wracked by sectarian violence where the local al Qaeda affiliate has claimed credit for last week's deadly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The four sent to Oman … were considered either medium-risk or high-risk detainees. A fifth, Ahmed Abdul Qadir, judged to be a medium risk, was sent to Estonia.”

[Fox News Poll: 54 percent of voters think that President Obamahas exceeded his authority when transferring suspects out of Guantanamo Bay while 59 percent feel that ISIS terrorists should be sent there.]