Instead of assuring or reassuring Americans that the refugee program has good security controls, he conveyed precisely the opposite. By the end of the day, some 26 governors had publicly said refugees couldn’t relocate to their states unless and until security concerns were addressed.

But even the press seemed shocked at Obama’s curiously detached, professorial posture. The first reporter asked, “The equation has clearly changed. Isn’t it time for your strategy to change?” The next question was, “Have you underestimated their abilities?” The next question asked whether Obama’s strategy “makes the United States weaker and emboldens our enemies.” That was followed by, “Why can’t we take out these bastards?” And the next reporter literally asked him if he was even concerned about ISIS before asking, “Do you think you really understand this enemy well enough to defeat them and to protect the homeland?”

When the press, which no objective observer would call hostile to the president, is asking questions such as these, it should be a wake-up call to Obama about the need to at least act like he takes the problem more seriously. Instead he responded with defensiveness and derision.

I actually support much of Obama’s strategy, as stated in this press conference, for dealing with ISIS. And yet rather than selling the idea that this was a strategy that would result in the best possible outcome, he sounded an almost defeatist tone as he claimed a lack of interest in notions of victory.