The most noteworthy take on the Most Equal Comrade's speech I've seen so far

I didn't watch it. I knew I could rely on the following morning's reviews to give me an accurate assessment of its essence and impact - or lack thereof.

The general consensus is that it was a tepid rehash and vintage MEC, full of scolding of the post-American cattle-masses for being insufficiently open to the erosion of their culture, hints at gun-control measures to come, and obligatory platitudes about destroying "ISIL" that were utterly lacking in conviction.

But here's an informed speculation on how it was seen by the jihadists it was ostensibly about:

Michael Weiss, a senior editor at The Daily Beast’s and co-author of ISIS: Inside The Army Of Terror, was somewhat harsh in his analysis of the president’s remarks. Weiss, who is also a CNN contributor, told Wolf Blitzer that ISIS probably laughed Obama out of the room after last night’s speech. 

Weiss pretty much took the president to the woodshed on almost every point he made during last night’s remarks. ISIS is not contained, a point that was confirmed last week by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Strategically, the terrorist organization has established “franchises” in the Sinai Peninsula, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Northern Caucuses (located between the Black and Caspian Seas).

Most disconcerting was Weiss citing the Pentagon’s latest report showing that U.S. bombers are flying back to their respective bases without having dropped about 75 percent of their munitions. Additionally, he cited his own publication, which reported that before the president made his containment remarks, which were then followed by the ISIS-executed terrorist attack in Paris, an intelligence assessment was commissioned that showed we weren’t winning our fight with the Islamic State.
Right now, there’s a possible scandal within the intelligence community, with 50 or so Defense Intelligence Agency analysts coming forward saying that they’re being forced to “cook” their reports to fit the narrative of the Obama administration.
As for the evolution of terrorist attacks, self-radicalization isn’t a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up an airliner in the first year of Obama’s presidency. As Weiss noted, he was radicalized “while he was sitting at University College London in Great Britain. We have been dealing with this menace for well–almost a decade now. There is nothing evolved here.” 

Weiss also mentioned that in the past two months, ISIS has launched five major terrorist attacks. Three have occurred in NATO countries. This isn’t a contained threat, and the president has his “head in the clouds” if he feels his current strategy is going to get the job done. He applauded the president for drawing the distinction between ISIS and Islam, but also wanted a) some realism at the same time, given that this fight will happen long after he’s left office and b) some level of contrition for calling ISIS the “JV team” and saying they were contained before he was fully given the details of the threat. 

So it wasn't exactly a yawner. More like a white flag.