The media hype and the “slobbering love” adulation (to use Bernard Goldberg’s term) about President Obama’s first 100 days is almost as distorted as the White House press releases that feed the fire of the frenzy over the new President. The leftwing PR campaigns spare no cliché or hyperbole — including the “hottie” swimsuit photo on the cover of the April Washingtonian magazine (with the bathing suit airbrushed red instead of black) and the gushing efforts to turn the First Lady into a fashion icon as well as fawning over her as a “force-multiplier” whose “symbiosis” with her phenomenal husband produces a “flawless concert” (Tina Brown’s description) that is producing “Springtime in America.”
Few of the political commentators are willing to take off the rose-colored glasses about this president. “The Ethicist” columnist for the New York Times Magazine thinks it’s an “unbelievably great thing” to have a President who is “competent and not insane” (or you can choose your preference among the columnist’s previous dismissive and disdainful labels for former President Bush: a liar, corrupt, immoral or dishonorable). The left is bending over backwards to describe Obama’s policies as “moderate” and to promote his “change” as positive. Even the stimulus package/bailout that passed along party lines was portrayed positively — never mind that it exponentially increases the deficit and will create a multi-trillion-dollar inflationary effect.
This President can do no wrong and cannot be questioned, even when he states obvious distortions and blatant falsehoods. Jed Babbin, in his inimitable way, described the media as “a pack of tail-wagging puppies not infrequently wetting the floor in excitement over their guy.” Remember Hardball’s Chris Matthews’ chills running up and down his leg? The inauguration was a national orgy of misplaced hopes and Hallmark Card expectations that continues to play out in the daily news coverage about the President’s “conciliatory message” and his “impressive debut.” Time magazine claims he is the “most impressive” president since Franklin Roosevelt. Newsweek says he has made “more points” than any other president. Others laud his rhetoric as “velvety smooth” (when accompanied by his ubiquitous teleprompter) and say that he is as handsome as JFK. Others admire his “cool” or his “grace,” “eloquence,” and “personal authority.” The consensus among the East and West Coast elites: his superb qualities assure his position among the “greatest” presidents.
Enough, already. After a 100-day honeymoon, it is past time for everyone to take a cleansing breath of fresh air and taste a bit of reality. According to the Gallup Poll, this president is the second least popular president in 40 years. Even Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon had higher approval ratings at this point in their presidencies.
Underneath all the media “visuals” that make a compelling story, there is the sobering reality that this president is very divisive and extremely partisan. President Obama’s policies are “socialist,” and it is not just the GOP’s “knuckle-dragging base” that think so. George Will describes the President’s picayune policies as “supervisory liberalism of the most nagging, annoying sort.”
Further, the major changes made by this administration are going unnoticed by the major media. President Obama is instituting domestic policies “under the radar” that will fundamentally change the nation’s social contract with its citizens. His foreign policy gaffes and his overreaching regarding the financial crisis have overshadowed his worst offenses and his primary agenda: restructuring the domestic social policies of the United States of America. Let’s look at just two significant issues.
1. PRIVACY — America is being overtaken by a culture of surveillance. There are efforts to turn over to the federal government the power to regulate “hate speech” and to determine the “motive” or “intent” of an individual and to produce “invasive” legislation that would interfere with our fundamental rights of free speech, including Internet privacy and the free flow of information via talk radio and conservative news outlets.
2. ABORTION — One of his first acts as President was an executive order that rescinded the Mexico City Policy. Now the U.S. can fund groups that promote and/or provide abortions around the world. Americans’ tax money will be used to promote and provide those abortions, and the new policy will increase (rather than decrease as promised) the number of abortions.
The grassroots “tea parties” around the nation are an indication of unrest that must be noted. These protests have been largely ignored or dismissed, but they are a significant reaction to the arrogance of an administration that seeks to fundamentally usurp the basic foundation stones of America’s domestic policies and the pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage stances that have made this nation the envy of the rest of the world.
The press gave Obama a pass when he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia — a bow that the White House has tried to deny despite photographs and video that prove otherwise. Now it is way past time for the media to stop genuflecting to Obama. The press had better stop kissing Obama’s feet, get up off of its knees, and use its constitutionally-protected freedom to start reporting the facts about the realities of the mess the country is struggling to get out of. If they do not get back to doing the job the Founders envisioned for them, newspapers will continue to lose circulation as the public’s tolerance with the Obama adoration reaches its limits. What is at stake, however, is more far more important than the survival of the newspaper business.
Truth is to mismanagement of government what bleach is to mold and mildew in the bathroom. Without regular applications, conditions deteriorate at an alarming rate and filth develops in every nook and cranny. If you want to see where this uncritical, mindless praise-fest will take us, think Detroit.