TIME - "The Secrets of Obama's Underappreciated Success" - Lost In The Fox News Narrative

TomCADem

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Mon Sep-20-10 11:22 PM
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TIME - "The Secrets of Obama's Underappreciated Success" - Lost In The Fox News Narrative

I have posted how all cable news seems to follow the same script as Fox News. Even MSNBC is reactionary, in that KO and Maddow often respond to and debunk right wing narratives, which takes away from the coverage of pro-liberal stories.

No one really seems to dispute that the U.S. has been in the deepest recession since the Great Depression, and the U.S. was not alone. Indeed, in today's interconnected world, it is almost impossible to avoid getting sucked into a recession when world financial markets implode as they did in late 2008. Yet, People pay lip service to the fact that President Obama inheritted a huge mess, but then they expect the U.S. to be well on the road to recovery a scant year or two later? Worse, the U.S. media simply pushes right wing talking points about inflation and the need to cut the deficit in the face of substantial contradictory evidence.

President Obama saved the U.S. auto industry, passed the most comprehensive health and financial reform in decades, and saved thousands of jobs through the passage of the stimulus in the face of Republican opposition that is willing to plunge the U.S. into Great Depression II for political gain. Also, he did this while he was handled two wars by Bush.

So, here is a nice article from April that is a welcome reminder and exception from the typical media narrative of polls predicting dismal results, and the Tea Party being a harbinger of a conservative renaissance. Still, the corporate media narrative is pervasive, and Fox News talking points can very well be repackaged as progressive ones by an anonymous Rand Paul staffer.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1984460,00.html

Barack Obama's right-wing opponents cast him as a socialist failure. His left-wing hecklers see him as an overcautious hedger. But, critics notwithstanding, the President is on a path to be a huge success by the time of November's midterm elections.

Before the jabberers on the right (What about the huge debt, the broken tax pledge, the paucity of overseas accomplishments?), the yammerers on the left (Guant�namo hasn't been closed, gays aren't serving openly in the military, and too many policies cater to business interests) and the chides in the media (POTUS and party poll numbers are down, and Washington is more partisan than ever), look at the two key metrics that underscore Obama's accomplishments. It is too early to assess the ultimate measure of victory: whether the President's actions have been prudent and beneficial, domestically and internationally. But by Election Day 2010, Obama will have soundly achieved many of his chief campaign promises while running a highly competent, scandal-free government. Not bad for a guy whose opponents (in both parties) for the White House suggested that he was too green in national life to know how to do the job � and whose presidency began in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis that demanded urgent attention and commanded much of his focus.

Let's start with the competence Obama has shown. As he proved in the campaign, he is a master of personnel decisions, choosing people who are excellent at what they do, but also requiring that they play nicely with others. In the two most vital areas, national security and economic policy, all the President's women and men generally get along well with one another, and have had critical roles in advancing the agenda. It is true that the economics team has some rivalries, and the Administration still hasn't figured out how to overcome its collectively weak public-communications skills on the economy. But overall, the White House is populated by hard workers who are rowing in unison to advance the cause and rarely take their disagreements public through damaging leaks.

* * *
Over the past 16 months, both Biden and Emanuel have expressed concern internally that Obama has been too bold, risking his presidency on big bets. But those disagreements with the President have been fleeting and mostly futile � and, as it happens, unwarranted. So far, most of Obama's big bets have paid off.

TIME - "The Secrets of Obama's Underappreciated Success" - Lost In The Fox News Narrative

"You now have people who are deliberately distorting information, pumping viruses into the body politic and creating confusion. This is not just an attack on individuals. It's an attack on democracy." Van Jones