As President George W. Bush prepared to give his State of the Union address eight years ago, the news media wanted it underlined that he was a lame duck. NBC asked repeatedly if "the country stopped listening to the President." After all, Democrats had captured both houses of Congress, so this presidency was basically over.
Not so, apparently, with liberal Democrats. Today, the same media outlets are announcing that Barack Obama has a spring in his step and a “breeze at his back” as he flagrantly goes around Congress, single-handedly legalizing illegal aliens and opening up diplomatic relations with Castro’s Cuba. They touted his rising approval ratings in the network polls. NBC has him up to 46 percent approval, as if that’s a heady achievement.
This after he has now lost control of both houses of Congress.
It’s shameless how our liberal media constantly distort political reality to serve their friends and impair their adversaries. Just as they spin lame-duck presidencies, so too do they shoot ideological spitballs when there’s a change in congressional leadership of which they disapprove.
When the Republicans were sworn in a few weeks back, it was the political equivalent of the Ebola virus surfacing in Washington.
NBC’s “Today” led the way, with correspondent Peter Alexander grasping on comments from the top Senate Republican to liberal reporters: “ Among incoming Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s main goals for his party: Don’t be scary.” There’s some grand old spin, eh?
When 25 conservatives voted against John Boehner as speaker because of his do-nothing leadership, this was a sign of extremism and division. The networks lamented how the group presented “a thorny obstacle to Boehner’s leadership” and, in turn, will force him to be “even more confrontational with President Obama.”On Twitter, NBC congressional correspondent Luke Russert even jeered that “the Kamikaze Caucus is alive & barking.”
This is considered light and witty banter. But would they in a million years say anything approximating that with say, the Congressional Black Caucus?
It could be more ridiculous. The day after the new Congress was sworn in, ABC’s “Good Morning America” offered no time in its two hours to the new Republican Congress or its agenda. Instead, ABC offered a full report on “the new way to fight frizzy hair.” They have their priorities.
The media elites are predictable lecturing Republicans they need to demonstrate they have the capacity to “govern” and show bipartisanship, which means compromising with liberals. It may appear odd for the president to greet the largest Republican majority in recent history with a defiant leftist laundry list. Team Obama clearly believes the media will project GOP opposition as an “overreaction” and “extreme.”
The national news media want Obama to fight the GOP majority and will give him all the oxygen he needs.
The media coverage has the over-salted flavor of “Heads I win, tails you lose.” Conservatives can’t stand up for their limited-government principles, because that’s suicidal and obstructionist. But Obama can fly his socialist banner and push for completely impractical “solutions,” and the media applaud his tactics as building a legacy for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in 2016.
The media are gearing up for another ridiculous presidential election cycle. Expect them to glorify Mrs. Clinton, an apology tour for throwing her under the Obama bus in 2008. By contrast, conservative candidates for president will be attacked, viciously and personally, as barking-dog Kamikazes and worse. It is going to get very ugly, very soon.
