Obama and the Media

I watched a big chunk of Obama press conference on health care. I was very impressed with how intelligently he spoke and how fully in command of the issues he was. Here's Krugman's impression in his NY Times blog:

OK, so let me get this straight. The initial reaction of the cable talking heads was that Obama blew it because he didn’t couch his argument in terms of personal anecdotes, Reagan-style. Then, when it was pointed out that he did, in fact, offer a number of specific examples of people harmed by our current system, the whine became that he didn’t give their names.

Now, it’s true that George Bush liked to give names of people who would benefit from his tax cuts; but Ronald Reagan’s anecdotes — about, say, the Cadillac-driving welfare queen — generally didn’t name names. And there was a good reason for that: with rare exceptions, Reagan’s folksy anecdotes weren’t true.

So what are the talking heads really complaining about? It’s not what Obama didn’t do — it’s what he did, namely talk seriously about policy. How unpresidential of him!

I guess having an intelligent, competent President is just too much for most people. They want to go back to the "good old days" of a cynical, incoherent George Bush who would lather them up with lies and distortions. They want a President who not only gave away the country to the rich, but cut taxes on the rich, and then started a big unnecessary war in Iraq that will eat up way more than Obama's health care initiative. But you don't see the media in a lather ovedr this. Nope. They loved Bush. They tossed Bush softball questions. They never did any muckracking. But with Obama in power, they have turned the dogs loose and they go crazy over everything. Nutty.