THIS IS NEWS — A not so glib President Obama had a tough time with an NBC News interviewer — Savannah Guthrie — But, personally I feel a lot safer because President Obama said this: “... You know, I – I think it's fair to say that anything related to these terrorist actions I take a look at....”

Punching way over her weight class, NBC's Savannah Guthrie had President Obama on the ropes and covering-up 

Guthrie: “Critics Say You're 'Delusional' And 'Passive' on Terrorism....”

Obama: “That's not accurate....”

After this exchange, what’s left to say:

Guthrie: "But aren't there things you could be doing right now, short of a huge presence of ground troops inside Syria or Iraq, that would help this goal of what you say is to defeat ISIS happen more quickly? Couldn't we be doing more?"

Obama: "Anything that we're doing – anything that we could be doing, Savannah, we are doing."

According to MRC Newsbusters, “In an interview aired on Monday's NBC Today, President Obama discovered that speaking to an actual journalist was a bit tougher than having YouTube celebrities lob softballs at him. In the exchange – conducted prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday – co-host Savannah Guthrie grilled the President over his handling of the war on terrorism: ‘You said in your State of the Union that American leadership is helping to stop the advance of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. But your critics say that is delusional, that in fact they've gained more territory since the air strikes have begun.’  ***    Obama defensively replied: ‘That's not accurate. In Iraq what we've seen is the Iraqi security forces and Kurdish forces continue to push back against ISIL. And those same critics that you suggest I imagine would have us redeploy tens of thousands of U.S. troops-‘  Guthrie interrupted:  ‘But isn't that kind of a straw man? You often say that-‘  He testily shot back: ‘Hold on, Savannah, let me – it's not a straw man. Let me finish what I'm saying.’..." (See “NBC's Guthrie Grills Obama: Critics Say You're 'Delusional' And 'Passive' on Terrorism” by Kyle Drennen [With video link to a clip of NBC’s coverage and  full text of Guthrie-Obama Interview], 2/2/15, MRC Newsbusters [http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2015/02/02/nbcs-guthrie-grills-obama-critics-say-youre-delusional-and-passive]).

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE PRESSED THE PRESIDENT

Guthrie was obviously not satisfied with such assurances, so she kept up the pressure, like this: "The criticism that I hear a lot of you, even from your political allies, is you came into office, you were the president that was going to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that you are so focused on doing that and not getting the U.S. entangled in another war that you are sometimes slow to react, that you're passive."

Kyle Drennan, the Newsbuster's author, observed that the President  again showed his frustration at having anybody try to hold him accountable, with Obama saying to Ms. Guthrie,  "Savannah, you've repeated that comment three different ways..." He then tried to deflect things by taking a shot at some of the critics of his anti-ISIS tactics and strategy, people who the President says, "... want us to shoot first and aim later" and "typically get this country into really bad situations."

Guthrie later pointed to what she saw as a reality in the Middle East: "Haven't the forces of militant extremism, Jihadism, grown stronger on your watch? If you look at Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen – a place where Al Qaeda's – that branch is so active and vicious and now the government, our ally, just collapsed."

SORT OF AN ADMISSION BY OBAMA

After that, the President admitted that "Yemen's a tough situation..."

OBAMA EXHAUSTED BUT NOT KO'D BY GUTHRIE

Guthrie finally asked: "Are we safer under your watch?"

Obama claimed: "I believe we are safer."