Obama forced by events to reverse course --- and disillusion base

◼ Iraq, immigration, inversion. On all three of the issues referred to, President Obama finds himself forced by events to do something he dislikes — and he's in trouble with much of his Democratic Party base for doing so. - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone

Obama seemed ill at ease before the camera and teleprompter on the evening of Sept. 10. Sending troops into Iraq and Syria is probably the last thing he expected to do when he set out running for president in 2007.

He still insists that he will send in “no ground troops,” though it appears that hundreds of U.S. military personnel are literally on the ground in Iraq. He seems still not to understand that publicly ruling out an alternative means that your enemies know your plans — and can take advantage of them.

But that’s not enough to propitiate at least some Democrats who supported Obama fervently because they believed he would remove U.S. troops from the Middle East and never send them back there....

◼ With his administration using the word "war" and promising to "destroy" ISIS, Obama has gotten himself into more of a pickle. I don't actually think, in his heart of hearts, Obama believes that the U.S. is going to "war" with anyone. - Marc Ambinder/The Week

◼ ISIS, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, and the futility of Obama's strategy - American Thinker

◼ Poll: Americans don't believe Obama will defeat ISIS; Now what? - IBD

Sowing distrust and discord among Americans has served Barack Obama well politically during his 68 months in office. But now as the former community organizer faces ISIS and the worst foreign policy crisis of his ineffective presidential tenure, that distrust and division has circled around to bite its master....