Just before dinnertime this evening, I turned on the TV to learn what may have happened in the world while I was incommunicado during my afternoon bike ride, but what I especially wanted to learn was what will be my country’s approach to the growing threat of ISIS (or ISIL, as President Obama prefers to call it).  The do-nothing Congress has reconvened, but there’s little chance that anything will be done on Capital Hill about anything until after the November elections; and there is little reason to expect much will be done immediately after the elections because we’ll be in the Thanksgiving to New Year holiday season, and it’s hoping for too much to expect Senators and Members of the House of Representatives to work at that time.

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The President has spoken. The time and fact of the President’s remarks have come and gone.  The speech to America and to the world was short but strong.  The usual antagonists like John McCain were quick to say the President doesn’t know what is going on in the Middle East and that he is misguided. Republican presidential hopefuls will leap in the next few days to declare that the President has no grasp of the situation.  While they will continue to sit on their hands and do nothing, Republican members of Congress will declare that the Preident has no constitutional right to act without Congressional involvement and consent. The President showed himself in the direct, strong speech to be a patriot and a responsible leader. It would be out of character for Tea Party Republicans to support President Obama, but intelligent Americans expect them to know the difference between patriotism and demagoguery.