U.S. President Barack Obama drew a heavy barrage of scathing criticism following his Oval Office address on terrorism Sunday night, with Republican presidential candidates and other political pundits describing Obama's action as "pitiful" and an indication of "total failure of leadership."
"Nothing the president proposed or spoke about had any relevance or connection to the San Bernardino massacre," New York Republican Rep. Pete King said in a statement, as reported by Newsmax.
"Once again he failed to say that our enemy is Islamist terrorism. Nor did he call for increased surveillance of the Muslim community. Instead he tried to raise the phony spectre of Islamophobia.
"The truth is that the Obama policy against ISIS has failed totally and his speech totally failed to address or correct that failure! Nothing he said will calm the fears of the American people."
Republican presidential candidates also spoke as one in blasting Obama's address.
GOP front-runner Donald Trump live-tweeted the speech, saying at the end, "Is that all there is? We need a new President - FAST!"
Trump followed this with another tweet (@realDonaldTrump): "Well, Obama refused to say (he just can't say it), that we are at WAR with RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS."
Speaking to Fox News, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another GOP presidential bet, said, "Nothing that happened in the speech tonight is going to assuage people's fears."
Rubio also wondered why Obama appeared more concerned about the "discrimination against Muslims" when the biggest problem is terrorism. "Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims? ... I think not only did the president not make things better tonight, I fear he may have made things worse in the minds of many Americans."
Fellow GOP presidential bet Carly Fiorina also tweeted (@CarlyFiorina): "Vintage Obama: No strategy, no leadership. Politics as usual."
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham noted that "we are at war and president Obama is fighting crime."
David Gergen—who served as an adviser to presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton—said Obama failed to assure Americans that his administration will undertake new action to assure their safety. "There was no new action here," Gergen told CNN. "This was a stay-the-course speech. He thinks the course is going to lead to victory. There is not evidence that that's the case."
Gergen said Obama appears to be leaving the Islamic State (ISIS) problem to the next president.
A.B. Stoddard of The Hill said "there was no 'What now?'" in the president's speech.
"Americans watching tonight were not assuaged there's going to be a battle against encryption and dark spaces where these people can communicate overseas without detection," Stoddard said.
National Review's Jim Geraghty also pooh-poohed Obama's performance, writing an article headlined, "Obama Actually Thought He Was Being Reassuring Tonight."
"The lone bits of good news was the president's belated acknowledgment that the Fort Hood shooting was terrorism – not 'workplace violence' – and that he didn't announce any new executive orders dealing with gun control," Geraghty wrote.
Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer also called Obama's 13-minute speech as "a complete failure."
Fox News host Bret Baier noted that at least Obama mentioned the word "terrorism"—the first time he used the word to describe what happened in San Bernardino last week.
