Guests:Monica Crowley & Kirsten Powers
"There is deep anger among some working in American intelligence agencies. That's because president Obama told '60 Minutes' it was an intel failure - not his fault - that ISIS grew into a monster. President Obama has not taken responsibility for the botched intelligence on ISIS, and that has led to some evaluations. On November 13th, 2013, State Department official Brett McGurk told Congress that 'ISIL is growing roots in Syria and in Iraq.' That means the president had to know that the State Department believed ISIS was a threat. Talking Points believes Mr. Obama does not want to engage the war on terror. Yes, he will order drone strikes and some Special Forces activity, but he does not want the USA to launch major offenses to degrade terror groups. The president looks away, hoping that a situation like ISIS and Syria will go away. And now President Obama is paying a price for his passive approach to the jihad, and the anti-terror situation is bleak. For decades Pakistan has undermined Afghanistan and America by harboring the Taliban. President Obama is well aware of that. Iran has funded Hezbollah and trained a variety of Shi'a terrorists on Iranian soil. President Obama, well aware. The al Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri is still at large, but where is he? Some country has to have him, but the pro-terrorist nations around the world do not fear the United States. What did we do to Pakistan when they harbored bin Laden all those years? Nothing. And when the Pakistanis imprisoned the man who helped bring down bin Laden, President Obama again did nothing. So Mr. Obama's resume on terrorism is about as weak as you can get. And that's a fact."

Democrat Kirsten Powers and Republican Monica Crowley critiqued the Talking Points Memo and the failure to confront ISIS earlier. "I don't think the case you made shows that President Obama is in denial," Powers said. "You're suggesting that people were ringing alarm bells over ISIS, but that's not what those clips show. I think President Obama knew they were a threat, but I don't think he knew that they were going to overrun Iraq." Crowley portrayed President Obama as a reluctant terror warrior. "This is a man who won the presidency as an anti-war leftist, and he is completely committed to that. He has spent his president minimizing the jihadist threat, so when it came to ISIS he lapsed into his pattern of deny, deflect, delay, and then stonewall."

Guest:Karl Rove
42-year-old Omar Gonzalez recently scaled the White House fence and actually entered the building. Karl Rove, himself a former denizen of the West Wing, examined the Secret Service's gross security lapse. "This is very troubling," he declared. "This guy got through the front door and went a long distance before being tackled by an off-duty officer. There's supposed to be an alarm that goes off when there is a breach, but that alarm apparently did not go off. There may be some mitigating circumstances, but they have to change the procedures." The Factor called for the firing of Secret Service boss Julia Pierson: "The culture is undisciplined and slipshod at the White House. That man could have had a suicide vest on, he could have blown up the White House. She has to go and the whole culture has to change!"

Guest:Howard Kurtz
The media was notoriously deferential to President Obama for more than five years, but is that now changing? The Factor turned to FNC's Howard Kurtz for analysis. "Whatever romance existed between Obama and the media is over," Kurtz declared. "It's a bad marriage and journalists are now quick to push back against what they see as excuses. It started with the botched ObamaCare rollout and then the VA scandal. The press likes it when the president takes personal responsibility for screw-ups, not when he pushes it off to other agencies, and they're now trying to hold him accountable." But The Factor argued that most major media outlets are still very reluctant critics: "They're embarrassed because they threw in with President Obama early and now it's all coming apart. But their heart isn't in it."

Guest:Rep. Michele Bachmann
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is retiring at the end of the year, joined The Factor and discussed President Obama's delayed response to the ISIS threat. "We heard about the group almost two years ago," she said, "and we watched as the hoof beats got louder. Before Christmas of 2013 we knew this was a real problem and the president had at least as much information as we had. The administration lived in a fantasy world where they pulled all the troops out of Iraq and kept saying they had Al Qaeda on the run. They couldn't take the fact that reality didn't match up with their fantasy." Before Bachmann departed, The Factor took a shot at her home state's Senator Al Franken: "It looks like he's going to win re-election. This is a man who has voted 100% for every Obama policy, even though it now looks like a failed presidency. How can Minnesotans re-elect this kind of individual?"

Guests:Kimberly Guilfoyle & Lis Wiehl
30-year-old Alton Nolen has been charged with murder in Oklahoma, where he allegedly beheaded a former co-worker. The Factor asked legal analysts Lis Wiehl and Kimberly Guilfoyle whether Nolen is in fact a terrorist. "The definition of terrorism involves killing people and terrorizing a greater number of people," Wiehl said. "This guy was shouting in Arabic while beheading this woman, and his Facebook page has pictures of beheadings and Osama bin Laden." Guilfoyle agreed and urged the Justice Department to charge Nolen with terrorism. "I think this is a very strong case based on the facts we have so far and I think they should take this precedent. They should not forego calling it what it is."

Guest:Charles Krauthammer
FNC's Charles Krauthammer entered the No Spin Zone and laid out his concerns about Iran's nuclear future. "This is the biggest story," Dr. K said, "and history will remember this year for our surrendering Iran. It's not being talked about, partly because we are trying to get Iran to tacitly help us with the war on ISIS, and most importantly because President Obama gave up on these negotiations long ago. He weakened the sanctions when sanctions were the only thing that brought Iran to the table in the first place. Iran is a few months away from a bomb - we know it, Obama knows it, Iran knows it, and the world knows it." The Factor worried about the possibility of another conflagration in the Middle East: "If you're correct in all this, Israel is going to do something. They're not going to sit back and let Iran get these weapons."

Jerome "Little Anthony" Gourdine, the lead singer for Little Anthony and the Imperials, has a new biography that lays out some fascinating information about the early days of pop music.

Dr. Greg Donatovich, Scranton, PA: "Hey, Bill, your Talking Points were good as usual, but I don't agree with you that there are many moderate Muslims. Sharia Law is the litmus test."

Peter Smith, Sydney, Australia: "Bill, don't be a milksop! You came across as weak talking about moderate Muslims."

George Kraft, Nassau, Bahamas: "Brit Hume was right when he said President Obama's ideology dictates his failed policies. He just cannot process any reality that goes against his belief system."