President Barack Obama was "flailing around for a legacy," and as a result was "dancing on a plate full of marbles" in his campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS), Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, told
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum" on Thursday.
Norquist said Obama's legacy was originally going to be that "he was going to walk away from all of [former President George W.] Bush's mistakes" on foreign policy, but that didn't work out because "his narrative of what was happening in the world was not in line with what developed."
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"He's flailing around for a legacy, and he's now grasped on (ISIS). He's dancing on a plate full of marbles," Norquist said. "He's been so driven by politics for the last six years that you just wonder how he's going to manage a serious war."
The result of Obama's foreign policy was that he "owns this mess" and now "he's got to clean up that mess," Norquist said, though admitting Americans were likely to support "decisive action against ISIS" after the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Norquist said Obama's biggest challenge would be his relationship with Congress, since "what he said for the last four years [was], 'I don't talk to you. I do executive orders.'"
"He's not playing well with the House and the Senate," he said. "He needs to lead, not just tell everybody that he's not listening to anybody."
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Gen. Michael Hayden said the U.S. was "in a far better place today than we were 48 hours ago" prior to Obama's speech Wednesday evening, where he outlined his plan to address the threat posed by ISIS. He said Obama "said what had to be said," though he may have been reluctant to do it.
"This is not a speech the president wanted to give," Hayden, who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, told Newsmax TV's "America's Forum" on Thursday. "I don't think he ever wanted to be there, but he was there out of necessity. And, I'm glad he got himself there before it was way too late."
Hayden said when former President George W. Bush left office, his administration shared terror concerns with Obama. He said the president would now have to take responsibility for not leaving troops behind when the U.S. withdrew from Iraq in 2011.
"That was the choice the president made. I know he had some bumps on the road, with regard to a Status of Forces Agreement. But, fundamentally, he took credit for going to zero in 2011. And, so now he's got to take responsibility for the . . . effects of our going to zero," he said.
Hayden cautioned that it was "unwise" for Obama to put limitations on actions the U.S. would take in the campaign against ISIS, such as the use of ground troops. He said no boots on the ground wasn't a strategy, "it's a mantra."
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