Obama bashing

[Jim Hand]

A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll finds that President Barack Obama enjoys a 60 percent job approval rating from voters and even higher personal favorability grades.
Perhaps the high marks are not surprising for a new president who came into office bearing the hopes of a better day.
But, the ratings are downright shocking considering the relentless bounding Obama has taken from virtually all corners in the media.
Eight years ago the media was going hard-hitting stories about President Bush giving reporters nicknames and the president having a baseball field for little kids built on the White House lawn.
Obama was greeted with an assault accusing him of causing the stock market to crash, and of bringing socialism to the United States. Many of the reports were laced with outright falsehoods spread by his opponents.
Fox News even used a Republican memo and claimed it was its own analysis of Obama's economic stimulus plan.
There has been a campaign in the media to blame the current economic recession and financial meltdown on Obama.
Sean Hannity at Fox News declared the recession was Obama's fault on Obama's second day in office. CNN's John King made the incredible claim a week later that Obama cannot say he inherited the recession from Bush.
Really?
The National Brueau of Economic Research says the recession started in December of 2007. Obama was a little-known freshman senator at the time.
The financial meltdown on Wall Street that is causing so much chaos happened in September of last year, about two months before Obama was elected and four months before he took office.
Conservatives are trying to make the case that the stock market is crashing because of tax increases called for in Obama's new budget proposal.
The tax increases - which are really restorations of the rates under President Clinton - do not take effect for another two years and they only impact people making over $250,000 a year.
About 95 percent of taxpayers are getting an immediately tax break from Obama's stimulus plan.
The media has also declared the stimulus plan a failure because the recession did not immediately end.
But, most of the stimulus plan does not take effect until this summer of later.
It is refreshing to see that voters for the moment are seeing through the propaganda, but whether they will stick with him as the recession lingers and the media assault continues is another matter.

[Steve]

now it's 35% strongly approve, and 32% strongly dissaprove. i guess you'll stil be with the "in" crowd for 3-4 more days :)

[Steve]

Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll has much more accurate polling. 1st they're an independent polling company, so they’re only agenda is to be right, whereas NBC arguably has a pro-administration slant. The more important categories are strongly approve at 36% vs. strongly disapprove at 31%.

[AttleboroResident]

HI Jim, all depends on what channel you are watching. Fox will always bash Obama. I missed John Kings comments, but with the exception of Lou Dobbs, most reporting on Obama on CNN seems positive. I cannot recall a negative story on ABC, CBS, or NBC national news. Obama's favorable ratings are likely influenced by the overall positive reporting in the electronic media. He's had a relatively free ride since the 04 convention.

Obama pledged to not raise taxes on any families making less than 250K as you stated. The recent increase in federal cigarette tax to fund the heath plan received little play in the press . I happened to hear on Fox News. It's commonly understood that taxes on cigarettes has a greater impact on the lower class. This tax is in contrast to pledges made during the campaign. - From Obama "“Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”" . That is fairly close to Bush 1 "read my lips" . The White House has tried to alter the campaign pledges, now claiming that Obama meant "The president’s position throughout the campaign was that he would not raise income or payroll taxes on families making less than $250,000, and that’s a promise he has kept,” - quote from spokesman Cherlin. The no new taxes is now qualified to mean -payroll- taxes.

I don't smoke so am not impacted by this tax. I also do not make more the 250K so will not be impacted by future increases to that tax bracket. However, am concerned about other non-payroll increases that will be snuck (due to lack of national media exposure) to the budget by a spending happy congress.

[Steve]

The CBO paints a MUCH gloomier picture than you.

[Steve]

"Fox News even used a Republican memo and claimed it was its own analysis of Obama's economic stimulus plan."

Please cite your sources.