"Facts are stubborn things," Mr. Carney.

◼ Carney, McCain Engage in Epic Battle on CNN Over Obama's Handling of Iraq and ISIS - Newsbusters



◼ Gingrich — and Reality — Also Humiliated Jay Carney on CNN Wednesday Night - Newsbusters

◼ The Humbling of a President - Wall St. Journal

In the war with ISIS, the U.S. needs genuine presidential leadership, not a utility infielder playing everyone else's position.

Let us note briefly the commanding irony of Barack Obama delivering—hours before 9/11—the anti-terrorism speech that history required of his predecessor after September 11, 2001. There is one thing to say: If we are lucky, President Obama will hand off to his successor a terrorist enemy as diminished as the one George Bush, David Petraeus and many others left him.

If we're lucky.

...What we now know is that Mr. Obama is not even close to being his own best Secretary of State, his own best Secretary of Defense, his own best national security adviser or his own best CIA director.

The question is: Does he know it?

Can a humbling experience of such startling proportions have sunk in? It had better. What the U.S. needs if it is to prevail in the battle Mr. Obama put forth Wednesday is the genuine article of presidential leadership. What the U.S. does not need in the Oval Office is a utility infielder playing everyone else's position. We are competing against global terrorism's heaviest hitters, who have established state seizure as a strategic goal.