How do you know that the White House's anti-Fox News campaign has gone seriously wrong? When CNN, let alone Anderson Cooper, begins to compare the Obama and Nixon administrations (video embedded below the fold, h/t Mediaite's Colby Hall).
On last night's "360," Cooper stated that "this White House is starting to look like another White House and the comparison is not flattering." He showed a clip of Sen. Lamar Alexander, documented yesterday by NewsBuster Noel Sheppard, offering a "friendly suggestion" to President Obama.
I have an uneasy feeling only 10 months into the new administration that we're beginning to see the symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama administration. And as those of use who served in the Nixon administration know, that can get you in a lot of trouble... Don't create an enemies list.
Democratic strategist James Carville insisted that Alexander needed to "study his history," and reminded viewers that eleven members of the Nixon administration had been charged with felonies. Legal troubles of Obama's appointees and would-be appointees (e.g. Geithner, Daschle, Richardson) aside, Carville failed to note that media manipulation is not criminal, just unethical and un-presidential.
Carville added, in a seeming rebuke of Obama's claims to 'post-partisanship' that "this is something called politics." Surely the nation will understand that Obama is simply playing Washington hardball.
Republican strategist Kevin Madden agreed with Carville, and argued that this fact is exactly the problem for Obama.
You have to remember that the president, this president, President Obama, you know, he reached the White House on a message of post-partisanship and inclusiveness. He was going to change the status quo here in Washington. And I think that's the bigger problem that the Obama administration has now is that they tend to look like they're very hyper-partisan.
Cooper offered a follow-up to Madden's comments, displaying an on-screen poll showing that fewer Americans now than in April agree with President Obama "on issues that matter to you."
So in all, Cooper compared the Obama administration to the Nixon administration, albeit in a lukewarm manner, and posted an on-screen poll bolstering the claims of his conservative guest. If more of the mainstream media follow his lead, it could be trouble for Obama. He can't attack every news network, after all.
