For example, while running for office, Obama made it clear that he would be the most pro-abortion president ever, and that certainly has been the case. I have documented his many pro-death steps since taking charge. But there are plenty of other concerns. Let me canvass some views from the US, and present their assessment.
Media analyst Brent Bozell agrees that this has been one long passionate love affair. The MSM is besmirched with their leftist hero: "There's something very curious - even laughable - about watching the media assemble to offer President Obama a grade after the first 100 days. They weren't exactly a team of dispassionate scientists in a lab. They continue to be what they've been all along - a rolling gaggle of Obama cheerleaders - only before it was a campaign, and now it's an administration. So now they're assessing whether their awe-inspiring historic candidate still glows with the luster of victory. Hmm … let's see. They applied the luster, they boasted of the luster, and you can bet your bottom dollar they'll continue doing both."
Janice Shaw Crouse concurs, "Few of the political commentators are willing to take off the rose-colored glasses about this president. 'The Ethicist' columnist for the New York Times Magazine thinks it's an 'unbelievably great thing' to have a President who is 'competent and not insane' (or you can choose your preference among the columnist's previous dismissive and disdainful labels for former President Bush: a liar, corrupt, immoral or dishonorable). The left is bending over backwards to describe Obama's policies as 'moderate' and to promote his 'change' as positive. Even the stimulus package/bailout that passed along party lines was portrayed positively â€" never mind that it exponentially increases the deficit and will create a multi-trillion-dollar inflationary effect."
Speaking of the way Obama has run the economy, Burton Folsom, Jr. finds "parallels to FDR and his first hundred days as president 75 years ago during the Great Depression". Here is one of them:
"President Obama, like FDR, has used the economic emergency to pass massive spending bills. For example, Obama warned of dire consequences if Congress failed to pass his 1,100 page emergency 'stimulus bill' of $787 billion. Congressmen had no time to reflect on the bill, or even read it. They passed a bill that would spend $25,000 per second every second of the year 2009–without serious debate. In doing that, President Obama was taking a page from FDR's emergency banking bill, which the House passed, sight unseen, after only thirty-eight minutes of debate. As Congressman Robert Luce of Massachusetts responded, 'judgment must be waived… argument must be silenced, we should take matters without criticism lest we may do harm by delay.' The atmosphere in the House in 2009 was almost identical."
It appears that we have an administration waging war on free enterprise. Larry Kudlow makes this observation, "The president is seeking to change the whole relationship between the government and the free-enterprise private sector. He is steering the country away from democratic capitalism and toward his big-government command-and-control vision. We are witnessing a triumph of government bureaucrats over entrepreneurs, investors, and small businesses.
"This looks very much like a war against investors, businesses, and entrepreneurs. Shareholder rights are being eviscerated. Political decisions are replacing the rule of law, the rule of bankruptcy courts, and free-market principles. We are witnessing more spending, deficits, and debt-creation than anyone ever imagined. Bailout Nation has run amok. This started under Bush, but Obama is raising the stakes exponentially."
Janice Shaw Crouse says that we must get down to some realism here: "Enough, already. After a 100-day honeymoon, it is past time for everyone to take a cleansing breath of fresh air and taste a bit of reality. According to the Gallup Poll, this president is the second least popular president in 40 years. Even Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon had higher approval ratings at this point in their presidencies. Underneath all the media 'visuals' that make a compelling story, there is the sobering reality that this president is very divisive and extremely partisan. President Obama's policies are 'socialist,' and it is not just the GOP's 'knuckle-dragging base' that think so. George Will describes the President's picayune policies as 'supervisory liberalism of the most nagging, annoying sort'."
Finally, the messianic pretensions of Obama have also been noted by many. As Charles Murray writes, "One of Lyndon Johnson's press secretaries, George Christian, once said that no one should be allowed to work in the West Wing who has not suffered a major disappointment in life â€" the atmosphere is too intoxicating and the power too great for callow young things who do not know from personal experience how badly things can go wrong.
"Unlike George Christian, we don't have to worry about just a few special assistants. We have a president who, from the time he entered Honolulu's Punahou School as a teenager, has lived a magical life. Everything has gone right for decades now. Nor are any of his aides crouching beside him in the chariot whispering, 'You too are mortal.' On the contrary, if we are to judge by Larry Summers, even his most astute advisers suppress what they know to be true to accommodate Mr. Obama's wishes."
The first hundred days in office are traditionally viewed as the honeymoon period. The trouble is, a leftist media in love with a leftist president will ensure that the honeymoon period lasts a whole lot longer than three months. Bozell documents this media bias:
"A Media Research Center study of all 852 stories about the Obama administration on ABC's 'World News,' 'CBS Evening News' and 'NBC Nightly News' from Jan. 20 through April 15 found most of the coverage tilted in favor of Obama's liberal agenda, with conservative spokesmen and experts virtually shut out of the debate.
"None of the three broadcast networks aired a single story on whether the new president's economic policies were driving America toward European-style socialism. Not a single network news reporter used the term 'socialist' to describe how his policies are shifting economic authority to the federal government. On only four occasions was the word 'socialist' used on camera at all - all by outside sources.
"Network reporters never called Obama or his agenda even 'liberal.' NBC and CBS never used the word, and ABC only aired the term twice, citing Republicans using the word 'liberal' to describe White House policies. On three of these major economic policies - his banking bailout, his auto bailout and his plans for socialized medicine - the networks never had a single soundbite from a conservative expert. After 100 days, the media still look more like the president's advertising team than the people's watchdog."
Given such a leftist MSM white-washing, the task remains for the alternative media to keep an eye on this administration, and point out the whole picture, warts and all.
http://townhall.com/Columnists/BrentBozell/2009/04/29/a_hundred_days_of_media_love
http://townhall.com/Columnists/JaniceShawCrouse/2009/04/29/one_hundred_days_of_spring_time_in_america
http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryKudlow/2009/04/29/100-day_lurch_to_the_left
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/29/fdr-and-obama-their-first-hund
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTYyMWRiZTVkYjlmMmY3MjVmYzFmYmVmMDA2NDZkZDE=&w=Mg==