Media protects and defends Obama as tide shifts toward Romney

Helping Bam save face

Michael Goodwin
New York Post
May 16, 2012

An Important change is happening in the presidential race — the belief that Mitt Romney could actually win is spreading. There is a growing confidence among his supporters, and the polls are starting to pick up a shift in his favor.

There is another indicator, however, and it is far more reliable. The left-leaning media is getting hysterical, launching over-the-top attacks on Romney and moving to protect President Obama as they see the public turning away from their man.

A CNN anchor compared Romney’s statement that “marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman” to George Wallace’s statement in 1963 that he favored “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

An MSNBC guest compared Ann Romney to Hitler and Stalin.

The New York Times, faced with the fact that its own poll showed 67 percent of voters suspect Obama supported gay marriage mostly for political reasons, buried the story on the bottom of Page 17. And not until the 16th paragraph did it mention that the poll found Romney leading Obama by three points.

Then there’s the Newsweek cover that slapped a rainbow halo on the man it called “the first gay president” — an image that captures the quest to grant Obama messiah status.

The echo-chamber quality to the hysteria is of a piece with media cheerleading on the president’s gay-marriage stance, the lack of curiosity about how it came to pass, and what it means for the election.

Pundits and headline writers widely hail him as “brave” and “courageous” for “evolving” to yes, but Obama had little choice after Vice President Joe Biden announced his own support. True courage comes only when the choice is voluntary and there is another option. Acting when you have no other option is not courageous.

Moreover, the fact that Biden apologized to Obama for forcing him out is barely noted by the kudo chorus. The apology sequence doesn’t fit with the narrative of Obama “courage,” so the press ignores it.

Strange, too, that Obama declared gay marriage a civil right, but insisted it should be left to the states. His political allies are scratching their heads over that one — it’s a civil right or it’s not — but the media haven’t pursued that incoherent angle either.

Nor do his cheerleaders seem curious about whether he will support Harry Reid and others who want to include a call for gay marriage in the party’s official campaign platform.

A further twist adds more confusion. Obama said the law designed to leave it to the states — the Defense of Marriage Act, signed by Bill Clinton — is “unconstitutional.” So, is he going to propose another version? Nobody seems to care.

Whatever you believe about gay marriage, and I happen to support it, the media double standard is doing Obama more harm than good. Accusing Romney of using his stance as a “wedge issue” while painting Obama as a hero for his doesn’t pass the smell test.

Worse, Obama is falling into the adulation trap. His focus on gay marriage for the last week, complete with holding fund-raisers in Hollywood and having his campaign sell T-shirts celebrating the issue, adds to the perception that Obama is far more liberal than he admits.

Most important, it once again puts him on another page from the issues most voters care about — jobs and the economy.

The upshot is that Romney, simply by standing still while Obama whirls like a dervish at a private party, is consolidating conservative voters who were unsure of him in the GOP primaries.

Still, it must be said there is a certain logic as to why the media is so riveted by gay marriage, and why Obama, having taken the plunge, is talking about little else.

What else can the media possibly praise him for? And what else can he talk about?

Certainly not his record. So for now, it’s gay marriage — and bust.

Again, there is the same bullshit equating gay marriage with blacks and slavery. UGH!

The MSM are leftist whores. That is all.

dblboggie wrote:The MSM are leftist whores. That is all.

okay...and you guys suck up to the right.

Very few of us actually play it down the middle and offend or defend BOTH sides if warranted.

Find me a spot on this site where you defend and agree with the democrats...

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:

dblboggie wrote:The MSM are leftist whores. That is all.

okay...and you guys suck up to the right.

Very few of us actually play it down the middle and offend or defend BOTH sides if warranted.

Find me a spot on this site where you defend and agree with the democrats...

This is a political forum. People agree or disagree on political forums. Believe it or not, your opinion(s) are respected even if they're disagreed with. Your job? Make the case to prove anyone else wrong.

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:

dblboggie wrote:The MSM are leftist whores. That is all.

okay...and you guys suck up to the right.

Very few of us actually play it down the middle and offend or defend BOTH sides if warranted.

Find me a spot on this site where you defend and agree with the democrats...

I have never claimed to play anything down the middle. I have a side, I support that side, I fight to bring the ideals of that side to fruition.

I hold those who steer a middle course in disdain. After all, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things.

And right now, the left in this country are on the WRONG side of history and economics.

Sadly, far, FAR to many Republicans are also on the wrong side.

That said, I stand ready to praise ANY politician, no matter their party affiliation, if they do the right thing, and I am just as ready to condemn those who do wrong.