As Jim Geraghty concluded on National Review Online: "If Bush had said the above, it would be ipso facto evidence of his idiocy." But in this case, the networks ran it without correction. Are TV news stars that stupid about basic stock terms? Or did they merely play dumb?

Chuck Todd of NBC and John Ydstie of National Public Radio passively replayed both potentially damaging quotes without any pause for a critique. Todd exclaimed, "It's a rare day when a president hands out stock tips. But that's exactly what President Obama seemed to do today." He ran the mangled P/E ratio comment, and then served up the stupid tracking-poll quote: "At the same time, the president tried to distance his plans for reviving the economy from the market's movements."

CBS ran the "profit and earnings ratios" quote on "CBS Evening News" and "The Early Show" in the morning. Katie Couric started her newscast with the pom-poms: "Tonight, President Obama says he's absolutely confident the economy will turn around and warns against worrying about the daily ups and downs of the stock market." Chip Reid's evening story at least ran a clip of GOP Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite telling Obama what a lot of people are thinking: "It seems every time that a statement is issued by you, the stock market plummets."

Think about it. Obama's inauguration speech? The market dropped. Obama's first State of the Union-style speech to Congress? The market dropped. Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner tried to explain their under-baked bank rescue plan in February? The market dropped almost 400 points. Even Obama's most fervent fans -- like Chris Matthews -- have put on the tube a chart showing the stock market's precipitous decline since Obama's victory. That is a sober political and economic reality for Team Obama, and no happy talk is going to fix it.

That's not to say the media cheerleaders won't try. The day after Obama's tracking-poll gaffe, ABC's Diane Sawyer began "Good Morning America" by proclaiming: "This morning, the confidence coach takes charge. The president himself challenges a weary nation to buy stocks as the first stimulus shovels plow the ground."

Are these news reports, or White House press releases?