When an adoring mainstream media suspend their fawning long enough to point out that he's lying, Barack Obama must realize his presidency is in trouble. That's what happened Friday night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees.
Naturally, Cooper began by claiming Republicans who argue Americans don't want higher taxes use polling data "that's just not true." No mention was made of this week's Rasmussen Reports survey showing 55 percent of respondents oppose a tax hike in any debt ceiling deal. But then Cooper turned to Gallup Poll findings used by Obama:
Well, President Obama mentioned that poll today, but keeping him honest, his numbers didn't quite add up. Here's what he said. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: You have 80 percent of the American people who support a balanced approach. Eighty percent of the American people support an approach that includes revenues and includes cuts. So the notion that somehow the American people aren't sold is not the problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, in fact, a large majority does support a mix, but not 80 percent as the President said. Here's the poll again. It does show only 20 percent support for spending cuts only, but add up the number for some kinds of mix and cuts and taxes and you get 69 percent, not the 80 percent the President said, an 11-point difference.
Granted, Cooper declared GOP officials employed data "that's just not true" while soft peddling Obama's use of numbers that "didn't quite add up." Yet the fact Cooper even called Obama out suggests that maybe, just maybe, the mainstream media won't be as worshipful of The One as they were in 2008.
