In GOP response, Haley pans Obama presidency, makes case for a 'new direction'

South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday tried giving President Obama a swift goodbye after his final State of the Union address, saying he had failed to deliver on promises and that America will soon "have the chance to turn in a new direction."
“That’s what I want to talk about tonight,” said Haley, a rising GOP star picked to deliver the party’s official response to the presidential address. “If we held the White House, taxes would be lower for working families. And we’d put the brakes on runaway spending and debt.”
Haley -- increasingly mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate -- pointed out that she is the daughter of Indian immigrants and suggested that a Republican administration would welcome new families and restore the American Dream.
“My story is really not much different from millions of other Americans',” she said from the statehouse in Columbia. “Immigrants have been coming to our shores for generations to live the dream that is America. … No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country."
She also urged Americans to resist “the siren call of the angriest voices,” in the aftermath of recent terror attacks abroad and in the United States connected to Islamic radicals.
Haley, 43, argued that Obama appears “either unwilling or unable” to address the worst domestic terror threat since 9/11.
She also said the U.S. should welcome "properly vetted" legal immigrants but made clear that illegal immigration can no longer continue.
Unmoved by Obama’s promise Tuesday night to continue to try to fix the country’s immigration problems and his plea to embrace the “pace of change,” Haley argued Americans are “frustrated” by the slow process and the increased size of government during his nearly eight years as president.
Haley, who convincingly won a second term in 2014, has become increasingly popular in political circles for her leadership in the aftermath of the June 2015 shooting in Charleston, in which a white gunman killed nine black people inside an historic African-American church.
She called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the statehouse grounds, and in the immediate aftermath Haley helped maintain calm.
“We didn’t have violence, we had vigils. We didn’t have riots, we had hugs,” Haley said Tuesday. “We didn’t turn against each other’s race or religion. … We removed a symbol that was being used to divide us. And we found a strength that united us against a domestic terrorist and the hate that filled him.”
Haley, the state's first female governor, also said too many Americans during the Obama administration are still feeling the squeeze of an economy too weak to raise income levels, and she railed against ObamaCare, which she argued has made health insurance less affordable and doctors less available.
Still, Haley was unwilling to heap all of the blame on Obama and fellow Democrats.
“There is more than enough blame to go around,” she said. “We as Republicans need … to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken. And then we need to fix it. … We have big decisions to make. Our country is being tested.”
Republican South Dakota Sen. John Thune said Obama in his address "clearly wanted to credit for the good things" over the past seven years.
"But I don't think it's going to make much of an impact on people or what's going on on Capitol Hill," he said.

Obama downplays ISIS threat, defends economic record in State of the Union

There's Something really wrong with this man.

President Obama, with an eye on cementing his legacy and countering the narrative on the Republican campaign trail, used his final State of the Union address Tuesday night to defend his economic record – and, in stark language, downplay the threat from the Islamic State.
“Over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands,” the president said, arguing that ISIS fighters “do not threaten our national existence.”
The remarks on ISIS are sure to rile Republican critics who say the president’s strategy for confronting the group is inadequate – particularly just hours after ISIS was blamed for another deadly attack, this time in Istanbul.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, tweeted afterward that the address was “less a State of the Union and more a state of denial.”
The backdrop of the address undeniably was election-year politics, though Obama is not on the ballot. Throughout the speech, the president took several implicit jabs at the GOP candidates competing for his job, and in doing so sought to shore up his own legacy.
His message to them seemed to be: The sky is not falling.
On the economy and on national security, Obama called the criticism “political hot air.” More broadly, the president sounded a call for “better politics” and bipartisanship, and cast the rancor directed at his administration’s policies as the product of an overheated political system.
“Let me tell you something, the United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period,” Obama said, to those who say America is getting weaker.
And to those who say the economy is just limping along, Obama countered: “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.” He said America’s is the “most durable economy in the world” and one that has improved on his watch.
The defiant remarks were met with skepticism from Republicans in the audience. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office said the “lofty platitudes” still did not explain how to defeat ISIS and get the economy back on track.
In the official GOP response, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley challenged the president’s message on terror, saying the country is facing threats like few others in recent memory and the president is unwilling or unable to deal with it. At the same time, she urged Americans to avoid following the “angriest voices.”
On that, Haley and Obama had a common message. In his address, Obama returned repeatedly to a warning that the country faces a choice in a time of “extraordinary change” – between facing the future with “confidence” or with “fear.”
He decried politicians who “insult Muslims” or target people “because of race or religion,” an implicit reference to some of the comments made on the Republican campaign trail including from Donald Trump. And he made a reference to remarks from Cruz, saying the answer to threats “needs to be more than tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians.”
Cruz responded on Twitter, “We need a president who will defeat radical Islamic terrorism.”
But Obama delivered pointed remarks on the nature of the terror threat. He said the priority remains protecting the American people from terrorism, but went on to play down the ISIS problem.
“Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks, twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages, they pose an enormous danger to civilians. They have to be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence,” Obama said. “That is the story ISIL wants to tell; that’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit.”
He also dug in on what effectively is an administration policy of not referring to the terror threat as radical Islam. He urged against “echoing the lie that ISIL is somehow representative of one of the world’s largest religions,” and said: “We just need to call them what they are – killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed.”
In a statement after the speech, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., accused him of “pushing these growing threats to the next administration.”
The president from the start was by turns combative and casual, delivering an unconventional address that avoided a detailed to-do list. From the outset, he said he’d “go easy” on the laundry list of proposals – and focus more broadly “on our future.”
“For this final one, I’m going to try to make it a little shorter. I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa,” he joked.
He also began, and closed, his address with a call for bipartisan cooperation on key issues, saying Washington “might surprise the cynics.” On issues ranging from criminal justice reform to prescription drug abuse, Obama suggested both parties can find common ground.
The president delivered his seventh and final State of the Union address as he faces an invigorated opposition in both houses of Congress and the prospect of his policies becoming unraveled if a Republican wins the White House in November.
His administration, though, is still trying to deliver on promises made since his first inauguration – most notably, the vow to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
He renewed that vow Tuesday, saying he will “keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo.”
“It is expensive, it is unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies,” he said, without saying whether he might resort to executive action to achieve his goal.
Despite vowing to avoid the to-do list, Obama did tick off several other final-year goals: including raising the minimum wage, doing more on gun control and pushing for free community college – a proposal left over from last year’s agenda. He also tapped Vice President Biden to lead “mission control” in a new national effort to research a cure for cancer.
Hanging over Tuesday’s address, aside from the terror attack in Istanbul, was yet another diplomatic dispute involving Iran -- as it emerged Iran was holding 10 U.S. Navy sailors after they apparently drifted into Iranian waters.
Obama did not address the dispute in the State of the Union, though Republicans pointed to the incident in renewing their concerns about the Iran nuclear deal.

Iran says it has released 10 US Navy sailors

Iran released the 10 U.S. Navy sailors who were detained after two Navy Riverine boats drifted into the Persian Gulf near an Iran Naval base, Iranian state media reported Wednesday.
The Iran Revolutionary Guard’s naval chief said earlier Wednesday that initial reports the sailors were to be released was “speculation,” adding that Iran’s foreign minister had demanded an apology from the U.S. for entering Iranian waters.
Gen. Ali Fadavi also told state TV Wednesday that the American boats showed "unprofessional acts" for 40 minutes before being picked up by Iranian forces.
"Certainly US presence in Persian Gulf and their passage has never been innocent and we do not deem their passage as innocent," Fadavi said, adding that Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif "had a firm stance (during a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry) on their presence in our territorial waters and said they should not have come and should apologize."
The incident came amid heightened tensions with Iran, and only hours before President Barack Obama gave his final State of the Union address to Congress and the public. Obama did not mention the sailors in his speech, which lasted approximately one hour.

Obama's Agenda Cartoon

Obama agenda status report: Did he meet State of the Union goals?

As President Obama prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, voters might want to know: What ever happened to the president's proposals from last year? 
A look back shows the president has made headway toward fulfilling roughly half of his major goals from the 2015 address.
But some big ones remain unfulfilled, including enacting free community college and securing formal approval from Congress to use force against the Islamic State. And elsewhere, the president resorted to executive action when legislative proposals tanked.
The inbox is expected to pile up even more as the president delivers an address Tuesday expected to focus on gun control, national security and other final-year plans.
"The kinds of decisions that he will make over the course of next year, and that the next president will have to make during their tenure in office, will have a substantial impact on whether or not we pass on a country to the next generation of Americans that is ... as secure, that is as prosperous, and is as a fair as the United States has ever been," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday, previewing the speech.
One analysis by McClatchy, the details of which were confirmed by Fox News, shows the president so far has partly or fully achieved 11 of 20 major goals he outlined in his 2015 address. This includes big wins on identity theft, net neutrality, global warming and Iran, even as he fell short in other areas.
THE MISSES
Obama, though, missed the mark entirely on a $3,000 tax credit he said would make quality child care more affordable. Though he included an expansion of the Dependent Care Tax Credit in his budget proposal, and Democrats introduced a separate bill to do roughly the same thing, neither measure passed.
Obama also fell through on convincing Congress to approve an increase in the federal minimum wage, though various states and cities have done so on their own.
As for what was pitched as a “bold new plan” for free community college, Republicans didn't bite -- calling it an expensive proposal that didn’t have enough of a payoff.
Obama unveiled his America’s College Promise plan shortly after his State of the Union address last year and included it in his initial 10-year budget proposal. It did not pass. Instead, GOP leadership pushed for more access to Pell grants – money the government gives college students that, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid.
And on the push for an authorization to use force against ISIS, congressional leaders remain divided on whether to even take that up.
THE HITS
Obama did, however, score a partial victory on trade authority. Congress approved the “fast-track” authority which gives the president the power to negotiate big trade deals without lawmakers changing the details.
Despite this win, the president faces a steep challenge in passing the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade pact among the United States and 11 other countries.
Obama scored his biggest foreign policy win after negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran; and getting help from Senate Democrats blocking a Republican resolution rejecting it. The key provisions of the deal could be implemented in a matter of weeks.
And late last year, Obama helped secure a new international agreement on climate change, a goal he laid out in his January 2015 address.
THE EXECUTIVE ACTIONS
Where Obama struggled to pass legislation, he turned to executive actions.
For instance, when Obama vowed to make paying back student loans easier, Democratic lawmakers introduced bills aimed at reducing debt for loan borrowers. A majority of Republican lawmakers rejected them. So Obama, through executive action, expanded the federal pay-as-you-earn program which allows borrowers to cap their payment at 10 percent of their income.
Obama’s push for seven days of paid sick leave also was met with congressional resistance. So Obama issued an executive order in September requiring federal contractors to grant at least seven days of paid sick leave to their employees beginning in 2017. While some states have paid-leave laws, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a federal family-leave law allowing workers paid time off to take care of themselves or family members.
Prior to Obama’s executive action, federal laws required companies give leave to workers but did not require the time off to be paid.
Obama has also, in the course of the last week, turned once again to executive actions to address gun control, an issue he hammered in several past State of the Union speeches.
Obama’s 2013 speech -- which took place two months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that left 20 children and six adults dead -- focused heavily on that issue.
Since then, Obama has received strong pushback from Republican lawmakers on universal background checks as well as other gun-related measures. Last week -- in a move widely criticized by House Speaker Paul Ryan and several 2016 presidential candidates -- Obama used his executive authority to ensure background checks cover forums like gun shows and Internet sales.
Obama is likely to tout gun control changes again during Tuesday night’s address. Obama will leave a seat open next to the first lady during the address to symbolize victims of gun violence.
Yet more substantive congressional action on the subject still eludes the president. The same is true when it comes to immigration.
During his 2011 address, Obama said he was prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats “to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows.” After legislation stalled in Congress, Obama in November 2014 used his executive powers to defer deportation for an estimated 5 million people living in the U.S. illegally.
Many GOP lawmakers criticized the move as another example of executive overreach while 26 states challenged the plan in court. The Supreme Court could consider the case later this year.

Bush super PAC slams Rubio on illegal immigration, amnesty

Jeb Bush's super PAC is slamming Republican rival Marco Rubio on the contentious issue of illegal immigration and amnesty. 
The 30-second ad by Right to Rise USA, called “Vane,” depicts Rubio as a weather vane turning in the wind.
“Marco Rubio. He ran for Senate saying he opposed amnesty, then he flipped and worked with liberal Chuck Schumer to co-author the path to citizenship bill," the narrator says as the Rubio animation swivels around.
“He supported his own Dream Act and then he abandoned it,” the ad continues. ”Marco Rubio: Just another Washington politician you can’t trust.”
 
A source with the PAC told Fox News that the ad was intended to point out that Rubio has been a  “political chameleon” and lacked the leadership backbone of Bush, who governed Florida for two terms.
“No one in this race has flip-flopped on immigration more than Jeb,” said Alex Conant, communications director for Rubio’s presidential campaign.
“Jeb used to lecture Republicans about the need to support a pathway to citizenship--and then he changed his position. When Marco is president, there will be no amnesty. “
Starting Monday night, the spot will run in the early voting states of Iowa and South Carolina and on Fox News and digital platforms.

A PAC spokesman said that Right to Rise USA will spend nearly $2 million in Iowa and over $1 million in the Palmetto state in the next two weeks.

GOP candidate lineup announced for Fox Business Network debate

Fox Business Network on Monday announced the candidate lineup for the Jan. 14 Republican presidential debates – and already one candidate has said he will not participate after not qualifying for the prime-time event.
The participants qualifying for the prime-time, 9 p.m. ET debate are:
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The participants qualifying for the earlier, 6 p.m. ET debate are:
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; former HP CEO Carly Fiorina; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
However, the Paul campaign said Monday night it does not plan to participate.
This is the first time Paul has not qualified for a prime-time debate and his campaign, within minutes of the announcement, issued a statement complaining about the criteria.
“By any reasonable criteria Senator Paul has a top tier campaign,” his campaign said. “He will not let the media decide the tiers of this race and will instead take his message directly to the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa.”
The FBN debate lineup was decided based on the results of national, New Hampshire and Iowa polling. To qualify for the prime-time debate, a candidate had to place in the top six in an average of recent national polls, or in the top five in an average of recent Iowa or New Hampshire polls. ‎
The debate comes as front-runner Trump faces a rising challenge from Cruz, particularly in the caucus state of Iowa where the two are effectively tied for the lead.
The changing dynamic has fueled new tensions in the race, with Trump now openly questioning whether Cruz’ Canadian birth complicates his eligibility to run.
Trump’s comments have opened the door to other candidates and lawmakers exploring the issue – though Trump insists he’s only bringing it up because he’s concerned Democrats could use the issue against his GOP rival.
“I really don't know,” Trump told “Fox News Sunday.” “Does natural born mean born to the land? In that case he's not. But nobody knows what it means. … I speak well of Ted. I'm only saying that Ted has to get this problem solved because if he's running against a Democrat, and they bring a lawsuit, he's got a hell of a thing over his head.”
Cruz has brushed off calls to seek a court judgment on the issue.
“The son of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen,” Cruz said in a CNN “State of the Union” interview aired Sunday. “The internet has all sorts of fevered swamp theories.”
Legal scholars have backed Cruz in saying he would qualify as a natural-born citizen, and therefore be eligible to run, because his mother is an American citizen.
Nationally, Trump enjoys a more comfortable lead, but an interesting and fluid race is developing in early-voting New Hampshire where several candidates are in a tight battle for the No. 2 slot behind Trump – and many voters remain undecided.
The latest Fox News poll showed Trump leads with 33 percent among New Hampshire Republican primary voters – behind him are Rubio at 15 percent, Cruz at 12 percent, Bush at 9 percent and Kasich at 7 percent.
The Thursday debates will be held at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center in North Charleston, S.C.
Anchor/Managing Editor of Business News Neil Cavuto and Anchor/Global Markets Editor Maria Bartiromo will moderate the prime-time debate; anchors Trish Regan and Sandra Smith will moderate the first debate.

Hillary Clinton comes out against deportation raids in break with Obama

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton joined her rivals Monday in opposing the Obama administration's deportation raids targeting Central American immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and ignored deportation orders.
Speaking at a forum aimed at young and minority voters in Iowa, Clinton said the raids had "sown fear and division in immigrant communities across the country. People are afraid to go to work. They are afraid to send their kids to school. They are afraid to go to the hospital, or even the grocery store."
Clinton had previously drawn criticism from pro-immigration groups in 2014 when she said that unaccompanied Central American minors who had crossed the southern border should be returned to their home countries.
However, on Monday she called for government-funded counsel for unaccompanied minors in immigration court, as well as more funding for asylum officers, translators and immigration judges.
"We have laws and we must be guided by those laws,' Clinton said earlier, "but we shouldn’t have armed federal officers showing up at peoples’ homes, taking women and children out of their beds in the middle of the night."
The comments marked Clinton's clearest break with Obama, whom she served as secretary of state during the president's first term.
Clinton's rivals, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, had come out strongly against the raids when their planning was first reported last month. At the time, Sanders said he was "very distubed" by the reports, while O'Malley called the raids "mindless deportations" that were "at odds" with America's character.
The first of the raids reportedly were conducted last week in Texas and Gerogia, with more expected across the country. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the raids were designed to deter immigrants from illegally entering the U.S.
"As I have said repeatedly, our borders are not open to illegal migration," Johnson said last week. "If you come here illegally, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values."