[Gunnair]

Quote:

Rex Murphy

As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barack Obama’s rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since.

Much of the Obama coverage was orchestrated sycophancy. They glided past his pretensions — when did a presidential candidate before “address the world” from the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin? They ignored his arrogance — “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” And they averted their eyes from his every gaffe — such as the admission that he didn’t speak “Austrian.”

The media walked right past the decades-long association of Obama with the weird and racist pastor Jeremiah Wright. In the midst of the brief stormlet over the issue, one CNN host — inexplicably — decided that CNN was going to be a “Wright-free zone.” He could have hung out a sign: “No bad news about Obama here.”

The media trashed Hillary. They burned Republicans. They ransacked Sarah Palin and her family. But Obama, the cool, the detached, the oracular Obama — he strolled to the presidency.

Palin, in particular, stands out as Obama’s opposite in the media’s eyes. As much as they genuflected to the one, they felt the need to turn rottweiler toward the other. If Obama was sacred , classy, intellectual and cosmopolitan, why then Palin must be malevolent, trashy, dumb and pure backwoods-ignorant.

Every doubt they hid from themselves about Obama, every potential embarrassment they tucked under the blanket of their superior sensibilities, they furiously over-compensated for by their remorseless hounding of Palin — from utterly trivial e-mails, to blogger Andrew Sullivan’s weird speculations about Palin’s womb, musings that put the Obama “Birther” fantasies into a realm near sanity. (We are now seeing an echo of that — with a new book promoting all sorts of unconfirmed gossip about Palin, including her alleged sexual dalliance with a basketball star.)

As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. Under Obama, America’s foreign policies are a mixture of confusion and costly impotence. It is increasingly bypassed or derided; the great approach to the Muslim world, symbolized by the Cairo speech, is in tatters. Its debt and deficits are a weight on the entire global economy. And the office of presidency is less and less a symbol of strength.

To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a Styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.

National Post

Ouch, Rex, ouch.

Though I think Rex has missed what the Bush years did to prepare for the current economic catastrophe, I won't disagree that all told, Obama has been a disappointment.

[Proculation]

Barrack Hoover Obama

[Robair]

Stopped watching Rex a long time ago, he said something that was incredibly ignorant, or untrue, or... something...

Can't remember what it was anymore, but I know it made me angry enough to stop watching him.

Yea, not sure what a person could have done with the pile o shite he inherited and still come up roses.

[Gunnair]

Robair wrote:

Stopped watching Rex a long time ago, he said something that was incredibly ignorant, or untrue, or... something...

Can't remember what it was anymore, but I know it made me angry enough to stop watching him.

Yea, not sure what a person could have done with the pile o shite he inherited and still come up roses.

Yeah, Rex shit the bed a bit on this, at least as far as focusing the economic blame on Obama. Much of the rest of his rant rings true though.

It would have come off better had he tried to be a bit more balanced about it.

[ShepherdsDog]

He did nothing to downplay the hype around him. I thought for sure he'd be a one term wonder, but so far, all the Republican nutjobs make him the lesser of two evils. he'll have two terms because there isn't an alternative.

[Gunnair]

ShepherdsDog wrote:

He did nothing to downplay the hype around him. I thought for sure he'd be a one term wonder, but so far, all the Republican nutjobs make him the lesser of two evils. he'll have two terms because there isn't an alternative.

Agreed. The GOP should weep at the opportunity they've thrown away.

[Macguyver]

Gunnair wrote:

ShepherdsDog wrote:

He did nothing to downplay the hype around him. I thought for sure he'd be a one term wonder, but so far, all the Republican nutjobs make him the lesser of two evils. he'll have two terms because there isn't an alternative.

Agreed. The GOP should weep at the opportunity they've thrown away.

Us far left lunatics are generally just called nuts. The far right lunatics are generally called "candidates".

[Gunnair]

Macguyver wrote:

Gunnair wrote:

ShepherdsDog wrote:

He did nothing to downplay the hype around him. I thought for sure he'd be a one term wonder, but so far, all the Republican nutjobs make him the lesser of two evils. he'll have two terms because there isn't an alternative.

Agreed. The GOP should weep at the opportunity they've thrown away.

Us far left lunatics are generally just called nuts. The far right lunatics are generally called "candidates".

Any particular reason you feel the need to troll this thread?

[Macguyver]

Gunnair wrote:

Any particular reason you feel the need to troll this thread?

Gee, you and my girlfriend both a little sensitive today. Get over it. Both of you.

[DanSC]

The only way Barack Obama will win in 2012 is if the GOP nominates another John Kerry, which is exactly what will happen.

[rickc]

ShepherdsDog wrote:

He did nothing to downplay the hype around him. I thought for sure he'd be a one term wonder, but so far, all the Republican nutjobs make him the lesser of two evils. he'll have two terms because there isn't an alternative.

I have to ask: do you consider Mitt Romney a Republican nutjob as well? Here in the States, most of the complaining about Romney is coming from the right. I am curious as to how he is perceived outside of the States.

[Gunnair]

Macguyver wrote:

Gunnair wrote:

Any particular reason you feel the need to troll this thread?

Gee, you and my girlfriend both a little sensitive today. Get over it. Both of you.

Yep. Thought as much...

[Zipperfish]

It's sad to see Rex Murphy hitch is wagon to the "MSM" conspiracy theory. Pretty much pre-ordained when he joined the National Post, though, and drank the c=Cool-Aid there.

You know, Rex, it's just not that hard to fid criticism of Obama in the media, Rex. I'll even give you a hint--start with your own newspaper. Or, you could mosey on over to the top cable news channel in the US where you can watch Obama-slam 24/7.

And how exactly is he "disastrous." Disappointing? Perhaps Somewhat feckless? Maybe. But disastrous? Yeah...not so much. Especially considering the act he's following.

This is classic Rex, hoping that his grandiloquent prose will hide the fact that he doesn't really have a point.

[commanderkai]

Gunnair wrote:

ShepherdsDog wrote:

He did nothing to downplay the hype around him. I thought for sure he'd be a one term wonder, but so far, all the Republican nutjobs make him the lesser of two evils. he'll have two terms because there isn't an alternative.

Agreed. The GOP should weep at the opportunity they've thrown away.

Meh, I'm a bit more optimistic, be it more centered Romney, or more conservative Perry. Neither I'd consider radicals by any stretch of the imagination.

[Gunnair]

Zipperfish wrote:

It's sad to see Rex Murphy hitch is wagon to the "MSM" conspiracy theory. Pretty much pre-ordained when he joined the National Post, though, and drank the c=Cool-Aid there.

You know, Rex, it's just not that hard to fid criticism of Obama in the media, Rex. I'll even give you a hint--start with your own newspaper. Or, you could mosey on over to the top cable news channel in the US where you can watch Obama-slam 24/7.

And how exactly is he "disastrous." Disappointing? Perhaps Somewhat feckless? Maybe. But disastrous? Yeah...not so much. Especially considering the act he's following.

This is classic Rex, hoping that his grandiloquent prose will hide the fact that he doesn't really have a point.

I'll be the first to admit I had very high hopes and I'm disappointed. But I am consistently surprised at how much blame the guy takes for showing up when they were handing compulsory out bags of shit.

I'm very disappointed Rex conveniently forgot that part.