CNN correspondent Jim Acosta was positively giddy while covering President Obama's inauguration parade on Monday afternoon, and didn't hold back his feelings on-air.
"You know, I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can't believe I have this vantage point of history in the making," Acosta gushed. [Video below the break. Audio here.]
Acosta later added that "It's good to be the President. It's almost like being a rock star on every street corner of Washington on this day."
Acosta showed no such excitement when he covered the Romney campaign for CNN during this past election.
For instance, he asked Mitt Romney this barbed question on race: "If you were to somehow beat the first African-American president, what would you say to the black community to assure them that you would be their president also?"
Another feat of quality journalism came when Democrats at the Massachusetts State House complained to him about Romney hogging one of the elevators while he was governor. The story aired on CNN.
Acosta was quite adept at hyping tiny distractions, sometimes to the point of overshadowing the Romney campaign's message.
He could be sanctimonious, like when he targeted Romney for using the term "ObamaCare" when even CNN was using it in broadcasts.
And one of his CNN.com headlines was so pointedly anti-Romney that the Obama campaign used it prominently in an ad.
Unfortunately, Acosta has not been alone at CNN in exhibiting extreme enthusiasm for President Obama. During the inauguration parade, Wolf Blitzer raved about "history over here" and shouted out and waved at Obama as he passed by.
As NewsBusters reported earlier, CNN reporter Tom Foreman made it a personal task to write a letter to the president every day of Obama's first term. In one of his over 1,400 missives, he called Obama "such a kidder" for ignoring him and wondered why the Secret Service had not tried to put a stop to his strange activity.
CNN has been far from the only network to feature left-leaning correspondents feeling giddy over the second Obama term, however. NBC's Al Roker shouted and cheered as the president walked past him and later begged Vice President Joe Biden to shake his hand. His NBC colleagues cheered his supposed triumph afterward.
Over at ABC, reporter Bill Weir, oohed over the festivities and pronounced that people attending the inauguration were "counting on history to keep them warm." Four years ago, Weir was even more effusive, proclaiming that local seagull birds were "awed" at Obama being sworn in.
Meanwhile, less convenient news is being ignored. The media are devoting very little coverage to the fact that more than $50 million has been spent on inauguration activities during wartime (a big no-no to the liberal press during the Bush years) and that rapper Lupe Fiasco was kicked off the stage at a DC concert after criticizing Obama.
A transcript of the Acosta segment, which aired on January 21 on CNN Presidential Inauguration 2013 coverage at 3:47 p.m. EST, follows:
JIM ACOSTA: And obviously, this is the moment that everybody is waiting for on Inauguration Day when the President and the First Lady step out of their limo and walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. You know, I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can't believe I have this vantage point of history in the making.
WOLF BLITZER: You're literally what, about 15, 20 feet away from the President?
ACOSTA: I'm probably a good – I would say 50 feet away from the President right now, Wolf. Very, very close.
(...)
ACOSTA: But one thing you can say, Wolf. It's good to be the President. It's almost like being a rock star on every street corner of Washington on this day because every time he hits a new intersection, the cheers go up on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue, and for the President it's just a whole new group of Americans to greet as he makes his way towards the White House. And I have to tell you, it's been pretty exciting to watch all of this unfold from the back of this flatbed truck.
