Insofar as Obama getting a pass from comedians, not from Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Bill Maher and a few others. While Bush gave comedians plenty of material to work with — the script practically wrote itself — comedians expressed concern that they would have a difficult time skewering Obama — not because they don’t want to, but because they lack material.

On the other hand the media abrogated their responsibility to the public by not asking Bush tough questions or holding him accountable. They let him slide for years until Katrina. That was the turning-point.

In contrast the press has been relentlessly scrutinizing Obama’s every move. They question whether he is too black or not black enough, too centrist or not centrist enough, too liberal or not liberal enough, is he patriotic enough — he doesn’t always wear the flag pin — is he doing too much or not enough, on and on and on. No matter what Obama does it is never good enough. He has been held to unrealistic standards and expectations.

The media stirs up controversy where there is none. I would like the press to do a better job of analytical reporting rather than infotainment. I have no problem with challenging, probing questions, but ignorant and/or trivial questions, I do.

The interesting aspect is through out it all Obama stays calm, confident and focused on the problems that challenge the nation. He will not please everyone, he’ll make mistakes, but Obama is a human being, not a super hero.

Jeff, I believe if all of us were more circumspect in our thinking and heedful of the sobering challenges facing the country we’d see that Obama is doing the best he can under the circumstances.

We may not always agree or see eye-to-eye, but that is okay; it is life. By the same token we can differ on opinion, but let’s not revise history.

I think that any person who becomes president should be skewered….it’s an American tradition:)

Obama is very funny but in this environment it’s not PC to make fun of a black guy unless he’s a caricature like Don King.

You’re right about Bush being funny. I enjoyed the satire and got many hearty laughs as Bush just provided such great material. That guy on SNL that did the Bush/Gore debates did the best job of Bush I’ve ever seen. One should be able to laugh at their own side and I strongly suspect that the left isn’t ready to do that.

Jeff

The real issue is the reception by the “press.” With Bush, they simply laid down and REFUSED to do their jobs. Obama is already enduring more scrutiny (much of it ginned up faux-scrutiny, to be sure) than Bush did through his first six years combined. Which is fine – presidents need scrutiny. The problem is that the scrutiny Obama is enduring is mostly of the ginned-up variety, with comparatively less attention being paid to some of the real stories underlying his actions.

Give Obama the same chance they gave Bush. Bush never got one from day one. In fact, has it escaped anyone’s notice that the late night shows don’t make fun of Obama, but still bring up Bush all the time? I guess the late night comics understand the gravitas of Obama’s mission and are giving him a pass.

How Macchiavellian to write: “Sad as it is, the timing of Obama’s grandmother’s demise could not be better for the candidate. The lonely walk down the Honolulu street to visit her last week, captured by invasive photographers, and now the death, which he did not announce even as he gave a speech in Florida, but which broke later, in time for the evening news. These events can only help Obama, because they remind people of his Kansas roots, his humble white ancestors. And suggest that he is not completely coldblooded.”

Of like mind, thus wrote columnist Frank Rich on October 28: “The original “racist for Obama,” after all, was none other than Obama’s own white, Kansas-raised grandmother, the gravely ill Madelyn Dunham, whom he visited in Hawaii on Friday. In “Dreams From My Father,” Obama wrote of how shaken he was when he learned of her overwhelming fear of black men on the street. But he weighed that reality against his unshakeable love for her and hers for him, and he got past it.”

Indeed. The madding crowd has fallen to a new low, the same madding crowd that failed to notice that Barack Obama reclaimed the name of the father who deserted him and his mother when he was but two years old, thereby revealing his contempt for the feelings of his mother and the grandmother who really raised him. Remember, they called him Barry. How must they have felt when he did that? He further denigrated his grandmother when, in his famous “race” speech he memorialized her attitude toward blacks as that of “a typical white person” In addition, in the same speech he included a totally gratuitous line exonerating Israel and blaming Islamic extremism for all of the violence in the Middle East. Yet the pundits compared that speech with those of Thomas Jefferson.

Last week while the gravely ill grandmother he routinely credits with having made him what he is, was dying, Obama managed to take a mere 22 hours from his campaign to visit her in Hawaii. He told the press she might not live to November 4th and he wanted to be with her while she was still “lucid.” So much for his lucidity. And so much for his priorities. He left her to die with only his half sister by her side. Obama routinely insists that his grandmother always stood by him. Clearly he didn’t stand by her. He had more important things on his mind: his presidential ambitions.

But the content of his character didn’t inhibit the New York Times from running two articles on his bedside visit, the one titled “Obama Makes Visit to a Most Beloved Supporter,” and the second, “Obama Takes Time for a Woman Dear to Him.” And TIME carried a similar expression of misplaced sympathy for him titled “Obama’s Hawaii Trip: Family Comes First.”

Nothing these days surprises me. During the primary, I watched his televised speech to an audience of women, more than a few of college age. When Obama paused to blow his nose, they screamed with delight and admiration. It was as if he had just parted the Red Sea.

I don’t blame Obama. He is what he is–a seller. I blame the buyers, particularly those who call themselves journalists, pundits and academics. And I worry about their lucidity. And I worry about the content of their character.

The conservative’s concerted campaign to undermine Obama is wearing and wearying. With Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, GOP, RNC, right-wing talk show “news” hosts on Cable TV and radio going on and on and on ad, naseum do so to scare the holy shit out of their audiences.

Their vigourous attacks on Obama are ferocious, mean-spirited, disrespectful and fact-less and without merit. They say the most inane things such as Obama a Marxist, a Manchurian candidate, socialist, communist, … will ruin the economy… the blathering is non-stop.

Aside from their nonsense Blue Dog Democrats may prove to be a bigger obstacle to implementing major progressive structural reforms that Obama campaigned on.

In the first sixty days Obama passed progressive legislation that deal with the environment, equal pay for women, a huge stimulus package, health care for millions of children, tax cuts for middle class Americans, etc…

Under the circumstances he has accomplished a lot. Never in history has a president come into office with so many crisis to deal with at once.

I appreciate the fact Obama takes his message to the people. Utilizing every venue possible to educate us is the only way to circumvent the spin, misinformation and distorted ‘analysis.’ For reasons stated above I disagree with the media’s perception that Obama is on a permanent campaign.

Do I agree with all his policies — no. But I listened to Obama, so my eyes were wide-open.

Living in an age of instant gratification patience is not our strongest virtue. Sixty days into his first term is not enough time to judge him.

Let’s give the man at the very least a year to prove himself.

In the meantime I suggest exercising healthy skepticism before jumping to conclusions is in order. Obama deserves that and more.

Jeff

Anyway, that’s my conspiracy story and I’m sticking to it.

Jeff

I meant the worst state our republic has been in, in regard to checks and balances, separation of powers, etc. The critical state our economy or healthcare is in is a moot point if the republic isn’t put back on track, as the founders intended it to function.

You said, “Remember that he got this mess in the worst state our republic has ever been in.”

Can you quantify this statement, or is this just hyperbole? Is today worse than 1907, 1873-74, 1864, or 1812?

Jeff

As a liberal, I didn’t enthusiastically vote for Obama, I voted for him because we needed someone who would keep a VERY cool head about himself with all the fuckups brought on by the Bush Jr Administration.

And I voted for him as a way to flip-off his knuckle-dragging RW critics, the ones who harped about his birth certificate and called him a “secret Muslim/socialist”.

My biggest gripe about Obama is that he’s determined to keep as many of the Bush Jr policies about expanding the Executive Branch’s powers at the clear expense of our Constitution.

Just as aggravating are all the Repubs and Bush Dog Dems who suddenly decide that any President other than Bush Jr should be held in check by legislative branch oversight, while at the same time whining about how unfair any aggressive criminal prosecutions would be against the Bush Jr crew of chickenhawks, neocons and blithering idiot warmongers.

Why anyone thinks the vast majority of US citizens would rise up in furious anger if the Bush Jr crew was criminally prosecuted, I have no idea, that’s just the Bush Jr lackeys whistling past the political graveyard.

The only problem with this, as well as the incessant, senseless war-mongering in Afghanistan, of which the blunt force trauma the Soviet Union suffered there, became the lesson ‘ignored’ by the Military Industrial Complex owned and operated government, under Mr. Obama.

A world depression looms large, and these feckless grinning fuckers who are handing out trillions of dollars to the incomprehensively wealthy and rich bankers, while doing very little to assuage and combat the root causes of this massive looting (the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act of 1933). I don’t see how giving Timothy Geithner the taxpayers money and allowing unprecedented bonuses to be paid to the fuckers in these corporations who took the nation into a de-facto ‘bankruptcy’, is any solution to the deregulation and the unchecked looting of the U.S. Treasury.

Obama is a fraud. A sham. Yet one more nail in this republic’s coffin. And a lot of you fuckers voted for his sorry ass. Kucinich was the only last hope.