Obama Watch

As a service to the 10 people who will somehow manage to find the Bloomberg Television channel on their cable box tonight in order to watch the network's GOP presidential debate, Bloomberg News today published and the Washington Post syndicated a "Viewers' Guide to Economic Jargon."

While most of the article is helpful and unbiased, Bloomberg News seriously downplayed the scandalous nature of the ill-conceived Solyndra loan. Here's how Bloomberg defined the controversy surrounding the firm that was raided by the FBI in early September:

The media said there was "good" but "not great" news on the unemployment front in September with 103,000 jobs added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate remained 9.1 percent.

But even with that growth, Obama's jobs promises have fallen far short. His economic policies were supposed to create 4 million jobs by the end of 2010. Now, ten months later the economy is still dealing with net job losses of 2,229,000 since February 2009.

I'll be live-blogging the questions from reporters below the page break:

"Grab a blanket, kids. Congress wants to cut your home-heating benefits," MSNBC's Martin Bashir teased viewers of his October 4 program as he went out to a commercial break with Dean Martin's "Baby It's Cold Outside" playing in the background.

Upon his return from break, Bashir tag-teamed with Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) to bash Republicans are heartless bastards who want children to shiver through the coming winter (video follows page break; emphasis mine):

On the Chicago Tribune's Web site today appears Breaking News with the headline "Corruption sentencing delayed for Rezko, fundraiser for Blagojevich."  Tony Rezko, convicted on corruption charges, did indeed raise money for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL).  More significantly, however, he also raised many dollars for President Barack Obama in Obama's earlier political contests.

From a March 15, 2008 Tribune article:

Trying to put his past with Antoin "Tony" Rezko behind him, presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday said he never thought the now indicted Chicago businessman would try to take advantage of him because his old friend had never asked for a political favor.

But in a 90-minute interview with Tribune reporters and editors, Obama disclosed that Rezko had raised more for Obama's earlier political campaigns than previously known, gathering as much as $250,000 for the first three offices he sought.

ABC News did not get around to the story that Michelle Obama wore a $42,000 set of bracelets to a Democratic fundraiser. But they certainly helped the Obama campaign by touting her appearance on Sunday night's season debut of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The Obama campaign used the appearance to promote the First Lady's work on behalf of military families (and let's not recall how her liberal husband won the Democratic nomination by promising to clear American soldiers out of Iraq by like, yesterday.) This episode dealt with a woman helping homeless female vets.

On Thursday's Good Morning America, news anchor Josh Elliott prodded Extreme Makeover host Ty Pennington to tell the folks at home just what a "cool lady" the First Lady was, and promote the "very special episode" ABC made. Pennington insisted she wore low-top Converse sneakers [video follows page break]:

In 2008, NPR's All Things Considered tried to take apart the "swift-booking" of Barack Obama by conservative author Jerome Corsi, insisting in several places "we know" Corsi's reporting wasn't factual. On Friday's All Things Considered, NPR media reporter David Folkenflik took a looser standard in publicizing the Palin-bashing book by liberal author Joe McGinniss. Folkenflik eventually found book experts who disdained the difference between a "warts and all" book and an "all warts" book. But none of the book's claims were held up individually as false. It just on the whole "felt unreliable."

This leads the listener to wonder what might be true: Palin's cocaine-snorting, the premarital sex with NBA stars, the neglect of her children? Which? Folkenflik brings up McGinniss's tawdry publicity stunt, renting right next to the Palin home in Wasilla, running some mini-soundbites of outrage from conservative talkers like Sean Hannity ("creepy") and Bill O'Reilly ("immoral"). But Folkenflik tweeted Friday "How rascally is the writer behind 'The Rogue'?" All in all, the stunt was a plus:

The media "are so vested" in Obama "not being a failure that it's going to be amazing to watch the lengths they go to protect him," Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) told NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell in an exclusive for CNSNews.com earlier this week.

"There's going to be a real desperation" as the media ramp up their attacks on conservatives who are taking on the president, Walsh noted.

That's something the Illinois Republican can personally attest to, having sparred with MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Martin Bashir recently.

We've embedded the video after the page break:

MSNBC ranter extraordinaire Dylan Ratigan is no fan of "crony capitalism" -- when businessmen get government to help them socialize the risk of their ventures through government subsidies or bailouts, leaving taxpayers on the hook for failure while reaping the benefits of government largesse.

The Obama administration's handling of solar energy firm Solyndra is a perfect example of same.

Yet this week, Ratigan's been strangely silent on the Solyndra congressional investigation this week, even as it's been covered in major newspaper outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post.

Ratigan likes to present himself as one who marches to the beat of his own drum, but on this matter, he seems to be following the silence of the rest of the MSNBC choir.

A few days after he hit Republicans from the left when he moderated a presidential candidates debate on MSNBC, NBC’s Brian Williams pressed President Barack Obama with the concerns of Obama supporters to the President’s left (“Members of your base are asking: ‘When are you going to get your Harry Truman on?’” and “What do you say to those Americans who voted for that man on the poster that said ‘Hope’?”).

In between, he empathized with how Obama had to deal with an irrational House Republican caucus, ie the Tea Party members. (Video after the jump)

While columnist Dana Milbank complained about "The irrelevancy of the Obama presidency" -- noting Republican laughter during the Obama speech (especially the line "This isn't political grandstanding") and Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) reading the newspaper -- TV critic Hank Stuever sat at the Tom Shales Desk of Obama Speech Puffery. "Obama reiterates his mastery of medium" was the headline on the front of the Style section.

Stuever's expert of choice on Obama was Lou Dobbs of Fox News, whom he plucked out for declaring it was "The best speech he's ever given." That's not exactly what Dobbs said on The O'Reilly Factor after the speech. Dobbs said it was the best speech of his presidency. But then Dobbs agreed with Bill O'Reilly that it was extremely political and not a transparent proposal:

"I know you'd like to focus on language, that's not what the American people are focused on."

That's how Democratic Party chairwoman and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz  dismissed "Fox & Friends" co-host Gretchen Carlson earlier today when she asked the DNC chief to repudiate Teamster president James P. Hoffa's "take these sons of bitches out" comment that was directed against the Tea Party at a Labor Day rally that President Obama attended yesterday.

By contrast, earlier this year, Wasserman Schultz insisted to "Meet the Press" host David Gregory that "we have to think about our word choices carefully" and that "we also have to realize that, someone who is unhinged, someone who is mentally unstable, we don't know the slightest thing could set them off."

Our friends at The Right Scoop have video that you can watch embedded below:

If we gave out a prize for the media personality who was the biggest drama queen over the non-scandal regarding the disagreement about when President Obama should address a joint session of Congress, I'd nominate Mediaite's Tommy Christopher, who yesterday insisted that "Speaker John Boehner Should Resign For His Unprecedented Insult to the President":

Speaker John Boehner politely suggesting that President Obama can be accommodated to give an address to a joint session of Congress a day later than the date he originally requested is "contemptuous," "cynical" and "craven" to the New York Times editorial board.

In their top editorial headlined, "Oh, Grow Up," the Times childishly whined about Speaker John Boehner's "unprecedented" request.

"Speaker Says No, So Obama Delays Speech" is how The New York Times's September 1 front page headline spun the short squabble over the timing of President Obama's upcoming speech before Congress on his job creation plan. "Spat Over Which Day to Address Economy," added a subheadline.

The online version opted for a headline that went lighter on the loaded language: "Obama Moves Jobs Speech After Skirmish With Boehner."

For their part, Times writers Helene Cooper and Jackie Calmes ginned up the perpetual lament of partisan discord in Washington, before going on to portray President Obama as the bigger man for amending his initial wish to speak to Congress next Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern: