Everything good that happens is because of Barack Obama. Everything bad is attributable to George Bush or Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin or some other Republican. In keeping with these mainstream media-manufactured verities, USA Today's Web site reports "President-elect Obama's actions perk up stock market." The story begins:
President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even moved into the White House yet. But Wall Street is already showering him with praise for injecting confidence into the battered psyche of investors and working quickly to hatch a plan meant to jolt the economy out of its worst funk in decades.
A market that two weeks ago was desperate for political leadership and a clear strategy to repair the economy appears to have found it in Obama, who is fast emerging as a decisive economic commander in chief.
Stocks soared last week after Obama moved aggressively to fill the power vacuum until he's sworn in and demonstrated his commitment to dig the USA out of its economic rut.
How did USA Today determine that Wall Street is "showering" Obama with praise? Easy. They found two people who have good things to say about him. Harris Private Bank's chief investment officer opines that Obama has been "a solid force behind the recent moves in the stock market." And a hedge fund manager believes "the market is thinking that Obama will put a fix to (the economy)."
USA Today is correct that stocks soared last week. What the outlet didn't mention was that, as reported by the New York Times, November 4 saw the biggest stock gains of any Election Day in 24 years while the next day the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 486 points. Bloomberg.com noted: "The stock market posted its biggest plunge following a presidential election . . ."
The Dow was at about 9,600 the day Obama was elected. As of this writing, it's under 8,500.
That's some real perking up. It's great to see all that hope and change kicking in so quickly. In the meantime, the MSM will keep up its mantra that anything good that happens is strictly the result of actions taken by The One.
