Obama and the Media

In this article, Howard Kurtz, of the Washington Post, hypothesizes that the media love affair with Barack Obama maybe ending. This may in fact be true, however what Kurtz points to as evidence is anecdotal, frivilous, and for the most part makes the attackers look worse than Obama himself.

Kurtz hypothesis is based on three incidents in which the media challenged Obama. The first involves Jack Tapper of ABC...

During a campaign stop in Ohio last week, ABC's Jake Tapper asked Barack Obama about what he called "an attempt by conservatives and Republicans to paint you as unpatriotic."

Tapper's litany: "That you didn't put your hand over your heart during the national anthem, that you no longer wear an American flag on your lapel pin, that you met with some former members of the Weather Underground, and now they are questioning your wife's comments when she said she hasn't been proud of the U.S. until just recently."

Now, if this is the best the media will challenge Obama, then we may as well swear him in now. This is frankly a frivilous and largely irrelevant question. Whether or not Obama thinks putting your hand over your heart is patriotic is largely irrelevant in this campaign. What is more relevant is what policies he will implement, and so far he has been asked little about that, and Tapper's question had nothing to do with policy.

The other two examples were of radio host Bill Cunningham, who crudely referred to Obama with all three names constantly, and conservative blogger Erick Erickson of Redstate. First, Obama's conservative opponents have been attacking him for much of this campaign. These two attacks aren't new, and if only Conservatives challenge Obama then again we may as well swear him in now. Second, both the attacks that Kurtz referenced were in and of themselves quite crude. The attackers looked much worse as a result, rather than any damage that was done to Obama. Here is Erickson's attack...

the liberal anti-gun former cokehead whose feminist wife hates America

What Kurtz continues to miss is that Obama hasn't been challenged on any issues of policy. For instance, based on his voting record, Barack Obama runs to the left of Planned Parenthood on abortion. He is actually in favor of infanticide, a procedure in which a baby is killed after a botched abortion. Now, this article was published in the conservative web site Human Events. No media has asked him about this vote. Furthermore, this vote raises the question of what sort of Supreme Court justices he would choose. That is also an open debate because no one in the media has asked him that question either.

Obama came out with a job's plan a couple weeks back. The job's plan calls for spending 200 billion dollars over ten years or 20 billion per year. Our economy is about thirteen trillion dollars yearly, as measured by the GDP. That makes his plan about .15%, or infinitesimal. Furthermore, much of the plan is paid through tax increases. Yet, no one in the media has challenged him on how he plans on creating jobs while raising taxes and spending so little.

Here is how Barack Obama characterizes his health care plan.

We now face an opportunity — and an obligation — to turn the page on the failed politics of yesterday's health care debates… My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less. If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness.”

In other words, not only will he make sure that those that can't afford health insurance will have it paid for them, but those that do will pay less than they do now. This is not merely pie in the sky but flat out impossible. Yet, no one in the media has yet to challenge this absurd assertion.

On Iraq, he has both asserted that he will withdraw troops immediately and that he cannot promise to withdraw troops before the end of his first term. Yet, very few in the media have asked him about this dichotomy.

His entire plan for the GWOT has been woefully analyzed. He wants to withdraw from Iraq and thus leave it to Iran, Syria and Al Qaeda. He wants to negotiate with Iran and Syria, and also has indicated he may bomb Pakistan without warning. No one in the media has asked how he expects this strategy to achieve victory. They allow him to create the narrative that this is a new kind of foreign policy without challenging the specifics of the foreign policy itself.

On issue after issue the media has taken a hands off approach toward challenging the specifics of any of Barack Obama's proposals. If by the media lover affair being over it means that Obama will be asked frivilous questions about loose affiliations with those of questionable integrity, then again we may as well swear him in now. If, on the other hand, the media begins to examine his record and ask probing questions about its specifics then the lover affair will really be over.