Guest:Ed Henry
"A new poll asks whether the Obama administration is a success or failure. Among registered voters, 55% say failure, 39 % say success. So the question becomes, who continues to support the president? In order to think the president is succeeding, you have to accept the following: The economy is a plus, American foreign policy is a positive, and we are becoming a stronger nation. Some Americans believe that, even though wages for working Americans continue to fall, there is conflict nearly everywhere overseas, and we are deeply divided at home. So logic pretty much leaves the building when you talk about President Obama. The reason is that some Americans have a lot of emotion invested in him. African-Americans see the president as an historical figure, many poor Americans see him as a savior because of the entitlement rise, and some hardcore liberals are loath to criticize him. As we reported last night, the president's leadership is shaky by historical standards. Most importantly, he does not want to use American power. Therefore he delays, and the problems get worse. The president knew about the ISIS threat for a year before he became engaged, and the only reason he finally acted was because the terror group beheaded two Americans on camera. High tech makes evil much stronger: Terrorists use it, pedophiles use it, criminals use it. All of them can now spread their perversions quickly and efficiently throughout the world. To combat evil the world needs strong leadership to promote what is good and confront what is bad. Sitting it out is no longer an option."

Fox News White House correspondent Ed Henry entered the No Spin Zone to preview President Obama's Wednesday night speech on the ISIS threat. "What I hear," he reported, "is that President Obama is going to lean forward on the idea of expanding this military campaign with air strikes beyond Iraq and into Syria. He's under great pressure to spell out the details. Former Congresswoman Jane Harman, who was at a dinner with President Obama, tells me he is ready to get much more aggressive." The Factor contended that President Obama's demeanor will matter as much or more than his words: "I think you'll see a tone of 'tough-guy-ism', he's going to have to get more emotionally involved in this threat."

Guests: Monica Crowley & Kirsten Powers
The Factor also analyzed President Obama's impending speech with Monica Crowley and Kirsten Powers. "I think the overarching point," Powers said, "has to be reassuring the American people, explaining what the threat is and what kind of response we are going to have. I would address how we're going to protect the country because a lot of these people have American passports." Crowley urged the president to denounce the savagery we are facing. "I would be very honest with the American people and talk about the real nature of this threat. We are in a holy war whether we want it or not. They call themselves the Islamic State and they are animated by the Koran. Then you lay out the objective and say we have to annihilate these people and decimate the Islamic State." The Factor disagreed with Crowley, saying, "If you use the words 'holy war,' that's all the jihadist websites will use."

Guest: John Stossel
Former Congressman Ron Paul wants America to stay out of foreign affairs, warning that it only leads to trouble. Fox Business host John Stossel, a libertarian like Paul, laid out his position. "The idea that we can take out their leadership is a mistake," he declared. "We bombed Vietnam for years and we had ground troops there for years. I would say 25% of libertarians favor intervention, but most of us want to get out because when we go there it's a recruiting tool to create more terrorists. Why isn't the message, 'Europe, this is your problem!' They freeload off of us and we've had mostly failures in the last 60 years."

Guests: Pilar Sanders Love El Dey & Shanae Hall
The shocking video showing NFL star Ray Rice beating his wife has raised new questions about the league. Pilar Sanders Love El Dey, who was married to Deion Sanders, joined The Factor and blasted the NFL culture. "The men are narcissistic and they're used to people cheering for them any time they walk into a room. They expect that at home, and when they don't get it, what they're used to on the field comes home with them. The men are very irritable, they're very up and down, and the women often are not even aware that they're in an abusive situation, as I was." Shanae Hall, former wife of pro player Corey Hall, elaborated on the NFL lifestyle. "We have to deal with a lot of groupies and side chicks," she said, "and a lot of it is in your face. If you don't know how to deal with that it's very challenging and it can cause the reactions that you see. I would see him be very normal and sweet, and then over-the-top crazed."

Guests: Kimberly Guilfoyle & Lis Wiehl
Legal wizards Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lis Wiehl looked south to Dade County in Florida, where cops are involved in a heated lawsuit. "In 2011," Wiehl explained, "eleven police officers shot dead four armed bank robbers who had been involved in hundreds of home invasions. The families of the criminals have sued the cops and the county is saying they'll give $600,000 to each family. The crazy thing about this is that the families are being paid all this money, but what about all of the people whose homes were invaded by these men?" Guilfoyle turned to Colorado, where tax revenue from legal marijuana has fallen way short of expectations. "They had a projected income, but they got $21.5 million less than expected. And guess what else is happening there? They're selling more medicinal marijuana because it's taxed at a cheaper rate."

Guests: Charles Krauthammer
Returning to President Obama's Wednesday night speech, The Factor asked Charles Krauthammer what he expects. "What he ought to do," Dr. K said, "is start by saying, 'I screwed up in 2011 when I didn't leave any troops behind.' But you're not going to get that from Obama. He doesn't have to explain how bad these people are, and he should stop talking about what he's not going to do. He's got to say, 'Here's the mission, here's how we'll succeed, and I'm going to give the military the authority to pursue it.' Don't give us details." Krauthammer also issued a stark warning about Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Putin is capable of starting the unthinkable, a European war. He's already stirring up trouble in Estonia and the Baltic states, and if he pushes that button it's not clear whether NATO will do anything. I think he'll digest Ukraine, which is now a broken state, and then he'll start to nibble at the Baltics."

With ISIS on the march and the anniversary of 9/11 coming up, this might be a good time to talk to your children and grandchildren about the existence of evil in the world.