Obama gets really angry -- at Americans

By Michael Barone, Michael Barone

Published December 20, 2015

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Three days after the Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris, Americans were primed to hear their president express heartfelt anger, which he did in his press conference in Antalya, Turkey, at the end of the G-20 Conference. And they did hear him describe the Islamic State as "this barbaric terrorist organization" and acknowledge that "the terrible events in Paris were a terrible and sickening setback."

But what really got him angry, as the transcript and videotape make clear, were reporters' repeated questions about the minimal success of his strategy against the Islamic State and Republicans' proposals for more active engagement in Syria and Iraq. As well as critics of his decision to allow 10,000 Syrians into the United States.

The reporters did not seem this time to be absorbing his patient instruction. The Islamic State "controls less territory than it did before," he stated — but not much less, and is still holding Iraq's second largest city and a huge swath of Iraqi and Syrian desert. Our bombs did pulverize the British-born Islamic State beheader. "We've been coordinating internationally to reduce their financing capabilities."