Media Is Blind To Obama’s Mandate
Posted at 11:21 am on Friday, February 27, 2009, in Uncategorized, and tagged bush, economics, gore, media, obama.
In 2000, Texas Governor George W. Bush received less votes than Vice-President Al Gore. After a lengthy legal battle over the contested results from the tie-breaking state of Florida in the historically close election, a legal process that found itself in the Supreme Court, Bush was decreed the victor. Two months later, the president was touting a tax-cut for the wealthy. The president’s party had power of the House and (at that time, however fleeting) the Senate, and by a thin majority, the president got his budget — and his tax-cut. It was largely partisan, but the president got what he wanted. He won.
The media didn’t rip Bush for not getting larger bipartisan support for his (arguably senseless tax-cut). The media didn’t question Bush’s willingness to cross party lines, a governing attribute he had campaigned mightily on only months earlier. The fact is, the media simply allowed the new president to get what he had wanted. The administration worked the halls of Congress and got the budget they sought, complete with wealthy-man tax-cuts (tax-cuts that would ultimately prove to be detrimental).
Flash forward to today. Illinios Senator Barack Obama won what could be described as a landslide in November. His party gained seats in the House, the Senate, and in governorships. On the brink of an economic collapse — or amidst the largest contraction since the Great Depression, however one views it — the president (and his party) wants to provide stimulus. They hammer a deal together and push it through Congress. The problem? The media doesn’t see bipartisanship; the media doesn’t see the waning republican viewpoint being explored. So the media harps on the new administration, unlike what they had done eight years earlier to a president who didn’t win the popular vote. The republican ideology was soundly defeated in November. The president has arrived in the Oval Office with a defined job to fix the economy. The president should be able to pursue his objectives, along with his ruling party, because he won.
Obama has a mandate. Bush never did. Unfortunately, the media doesn’t see the difference.
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February 27th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
but dude, the media has a clear liberal slant. didn’t fox news tell you that?