This is Why We Can’t Take the Media Seriously Anymore

Posted by in Blog, Featured on December 23, 2010 6:11 pm / 6 comments

by Brandon Kiser

If you’ll remember, President Obama and the Democrats took a beating in November. A “shellacking,” as the President himself called it.

As is usually the case with the media and the 24 hour news cycle, pundits quickly forgot about that.

Then the lame duck session started.

In one final gasp, the Democratic Congress pushed a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the passage of the DREAM Act and a pork-laden Omnibus, sought an end to the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 and ratification of the new START treaty with Russia. Of all those five things, the Democrats got a grand total of… two. And in the case of the Bush tax cuts, the great Democratic president of hope and change from the past eight years signed an extension of the capstone of the Bush presidency.

WASHINGTON - APRIL 29: U.S. President Barack ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

So what’s everyone talking about just before Christmas? Obama is the “comeback kid!” He’s the new Bill Clinton! This, translated, boils down to one word: “hallelujah!”

At Obama’s post-lame duck press conference, the media was bursting at the seams in manufactured excited for “the comeback kid.” The phrase itself is so annoying I don’t why anyone takes it seriously.

The first question was oozing with love and endearment: “You racked up a lot of wins in the last few weeks that a lot of people thought would be difficult to come by. Are you ready to call yourself the comeback kid?” said Reuters’ Caren Bohan.

Gag me. The fact is that even with a nearly identical Congress to what he had before the election, Obama still didn’t even manage to get half of his to-do list finished. This isn’t isn’t a comeback at all, it’s just pathetic. He had nearly insurmountable majorities in each chamber of Congress and that’s still all he could manage?

What’s more pathetic, however, is the media narrative throughout the whole thing.  If I hear the word “comeback kid” one more time, I may inject cement into my eardrums. Beyond the praise for the President, Politico is already shouting that Mitch McConnell is losing his “iron grip,” despite the fact he killed the Omnibus bill in the Senate by holding together the Republican caucus even though many of its members had special projects in the same bill.

The media may be feeling pretty good about their President at the moment, and I’m sure Obama is enjoying his Hawaiian vacation over Christmas. But when both come back at the start of the new year, they may find out the new House majority and an empowered Senate Republican caucus is less like a Hawaiian sunset and more like a Hawaiian Punch.

 
 

6 Comments

  1. Anonymous says:
    December 23, 2010 at 10:20 pm

    Great article… the last line was my favorite. LOL

  2. Paul Wagner says:
    December 23, 2010 at 10:32 pm

    Two words. Rules Change in the Senate. All 53 Democratic Senators have signed on. It will be MUCH easier to pass legislation through the Senate now.

  3. Tommy says:
    December 23, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    Great Post!!!

  4. Patrick says:
    December 23, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    I’m sorry, but after two years of selling the the 60 vote threshold in the Senate as normal, this is the line that the media has crossed that’s demonstrated that we can’t take them seriously?

    2 out of 5 doesn’t count the extension of unemployment benefits, the extension of Obama’s middle class tax cuts, or the small business tax credit. Or his appointees who have now been seated.

    Even if it were 2 out of 5, you could forgive the media for calling that a victory in this era of autocratic obstructionism by a handful of Republicans who decided that governing wasn’t part of their job title. Whether or not they actually liked the legislation didn’t matter, just that Obama not be given the photo op at the signing ceremony. How else could a Republican filibuster tax cuts?

    The downside of being on that end of the zero-sum game is that it amplifies all victories. By killing so many measures supported by congressional majorites, as well as majorities of the voting public, Mitch McConnell made the simple act of getting something through the Senate seem positively heroic. And now, as a result, Obama’s ability to get some things through in the lame duck, even after his 2010 drubbing, breaks the narrative of the GOP running the table.

    Nobody who supported politicians in their stalling tactics has any business getting up in arms when the tactic backfires and as a result Obama gets to take a victory lap.

  5. Nhuixnhuix says:
    December 23, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    The media narrative that Obama is the comeback kid is as stupid as the media narrative that had him completely done and over with three weeks ago. I agree with what you are saying, but wish you had acknowledged that the stupidity works both ways.

  6. LarryK says:
    December 25, 2010 at 10:22 pm

    “Lame Duck Congress” is more like a Lame Rat Congress. The rats are leaping off their sinking ship before the new majority takes control and ends the uber liberal congress. This is the best they could do in a last act of desperation to have something of a legacy to show their base. (what remains of it)

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