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President Obama and his advisors appear to have convinced Americans that the Islamic State militants wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria are a threat to the U.S. This week he'll try to prove he's capable of taking them on.

In laying out a plan to use U.S. air power, multinational partners and proxy fighters to "ultimately destroy" the Al Qaeda offshoot, Obama appears to have landed in a rare moment of bipartisan backing. Polls released over the weekend show that sizable majorities of both Republicans and Democrats support Obama's tactics.

But the support hasn't immediately translated into a clear political boost for the president or a surge of congressional support for him. In one survey, most Americans said they have little confidence that the plan will succeed and added that his remarks didn't change their opinion of Obama.

The skepticism reflects the months of sagging public confidence in the president, particularly when it comes to foreign affairs. A summer of crises in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Iraq and Syria has sunk Obama's approval rating to near lows in some polls. Both friend and foe have criticized the president for his seeming indecisiveness or tentative reaction to global trouble. Democrats running in tight races have kept a safe distance.

The doubts have been clear in Congress, where GOP lawmakers grappled Monday with how to support a strategy from a president they say they do not trust. Meanwhile, administration officials tried to persuade foreign leaders to go all in.

At a conference in Paris on Monday, key players Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates agreed to support the Iraqi government in its fight against Islamic State "by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance." But the statement made no reference to taking the fight to Syria, the extremist group's stronghold.

Pentagon officials announced Monday that the U.S. had expanded the fight on its own, with airstrikes launched southwest of Baghdad that destroyed an Islamic State fighting position firing on Iraqi government forces. The attack was the first to be conducted as part of the expanded mission announced by Obama last week to help Iraqi troops mount a vigorous new offense against the militant group.

On the diplomatic front, the White House has scheduled a week of events that could burnish the president's image as commander in chief and demonstrate his willingness to use military might.

Obama is slated Wednesday to visit U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., to huddle with advisors planning newly expanded military operations in Iraq and Syria. The visit will focus in part on how to manage the emerging coalition of allies, senior administration officials said Monday. The president is also expected to address troops at the base.

The visit will follow a similar briefing Tuesday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he'll outline a new effort to use U.S. military resources to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

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Obama has bipartisan support against Islamic State, still faces doubts

President Obama is making sure Congress is a partner in the escalation of U.S. involvement in the bloody Syrian civil war with a vote to approve funds to train and equip about 5,000 Syrian anti-Islamic State, anti-Assad fighters over the next year.

One key problem is making certain any congressional authority does not restrict the program by setting unworkable limitations on which Syrian fighters can participate.

In June 2013, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill that authorized the president to provide arms and military training to the Syrian opposition. However, the bill contained provisions that said, Only units and entities that have gone through a thorough, statutorily-required vetting process by the U.S. government would be eligible for such assistance, according to the committees report on the bill.

Those vetting provisions required U.S. officials to assess whether the units and individuals met certain detailed and specific criteria on human rights and terrorism, as well as whether they demonstrate clear support for civilian rule, cooperate on international counterterrorism and non-proliferation efforts, and are committed to regional stability, among other things, according to the report.

It wasnt clear how other than just asking the Syrians U.S. officials could determine who met those criteria.

The measure also required the Defense Department to report whether Syrian groups receiving military equipment were in adherence to U.S. chain of custody requirements a provision clearly related to the millions of dollars worth of U.S.-provided weapons reported missing in the past by special inspectors general in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to current and former Pentagon officials, these provisions, had the Senate panels bill become law, would have created almost impossible legal requirements for U.S. officials to meet during a brutal civil war in vetting Syrian fighters and tracking weapons.

Up to now, the president, along with many top military and intelligence officials, have believed any such train-and-equip program would not be successful until the hundreds of Syrian armed groups mostly various Sunni factions united against Syrian President Bashar al-Assads army.

That hasnt happened. Rather, the Free Syrian Army has struggled to unite groups while jihadists such as the al-Qaeda-connected Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State grew stronger.

Publicly, the Obama administration began in February 2013 to provide $60million in nonlethal aid to the Free Syrian Army. At the same time Washington initiated a modest CIA covert program for training vetted Syrian moderates in Jordan, which did not require public congressional support. Since then, 1,000 or more Syrians are reported to have received that training. CIA officials, however, will not discuss the vetting process.

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Obama looking for Congress in the fight against the Islamic State

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Obama administration has failed to make corporate tax inversion a major issuefor the fall Congressional elections, and that's a pity.

President Obama hascalled out"corporate deserters" for using foreign acquisitions to move their company headquarters offshore. He even sent Treasury Secretary Jack Lewin search of congressional support for legislation on the issue. But the fact is that there's little or no chance of such action before the November elections or even in the near future.

Read More: Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks

Maybe the issue just doesn't resonate with the electorate. Warren Buffett, who has supported the president in other areas in the past, has defended Burger King's (BKW) announced acquisition of the Canadian chain Tim Hortons (THI) , the air basically went out of the Obama administration's anti-inversion balloon.

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Obama Should Make Corporate Tax Inversion a Campaign Issue

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SHOCKING Demonic Photos of Obama!
Viral photos show Obama with multiple #39;devil horns #39; during speech on ISIS. Follow Alex on TWITTER - https://twitter.com/RealAlexJones Infowars on G+ - https://plus.google.com/+infowars/ Like...

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