approve how the president is handling isis. 33% approve. 64% disapprove. another very interesting number here. we asked do you think the united states should send ground troops to fight isis in syria. on that number, 53% said yes. send ground troops. 45% said no. ground troops in syria, last night, steven, the president said he is not doing it. this raises the question if the president and public are in different places here. as you say, the president did not want to do ground troops and this is where the american people seem to be wanting to go. so, it raises the questions of how the president will handle this going forward. let s talk about the republicans and what they had to say. no surprise. they said the president doesn t get it on the fight against isis. he won t talk about a war
here. steven, you were talking about president obama s handles of the atta attacks. we asked do you approve how the president handles isis. the answer 33% approve. 64% disapproved before san bernardino. should the u.s. send ground troops? it does seem the opinion is changing. overwhelming numbers and changes we have seen from earlier this year. this was before the attacks in california. you can only imagine what the numbers will be when polling is collected in the aftermath of that. one of the most interesting numbers as you say was the first time, the majority of americans
steven sloane managing editor. thank you for being with us. we are told by the president s aides that he wrote the address largely himself. this is not an area he likes do often. i think the president understood it is time to reassure the american public there was concern that is reaching a fever pitch in the country there may be an attack in the u.s. that the nation is not safe. i think he wanted to speak to the american people on sunday night, which is a huge night for television, and try to connect and remind them so much of the media s attention right now is on the campaign and that the campaign to succeed him. the president was trying to remind people he is still there and has the situation under control.
joining us to discuss all of this is cnn s steven sloane. this is a real shuffling of the deck, if you will. tough news for lindsey graham and george pataki. they will not participate at all. trump and carson right in the middle. what do you make of the gop and chris christie and mike huckabee kicked off the main stage. what do you think? the fact that chris christie is not on the main stage, that is the headline out of this. what a fall for chris christie. in 2012, people were begging him to run for president. he is struggling this cycle. he can t play on the big stage in primetime. this raises questions about how he goes forward. he will be on the debate stage. lindsey graham and george pataki