ODSD: Obama Double Standard Disease

ODSD: Obama Double Standard Disease
Larry Elder
Thursday, April 29, 2010

Obama Double Standard Disease: an affliction that causes the media to ignore, rationalize or trivialize in order to defend, support and advance the tax-the-rich, spread-the-wealth, expand-the-government agenda of President Barack Obama and his party. This stands in stark contrast with the media treatment of those who refuse to embrace the left-wing, America-bullies-the-world, dissenters-are-racist, pro-amnesty, gay marriage-is-a-right, pro-Roe v. Wade worldview.

ODSD is pandemic. Here are just a few cases.

When the economy recovered under President George W. Bush, the major news media pronounced it a "jobless recovery." Now, despite unemployment stalled at 9.7 percent for several months, the same media call it a "surprising" or "unexpected" recovery.

Obama urged passage of an $800 billion "stimulus" package in order to prevent unemployment from reaching 8 percent. Post-stimulus passage, unemployment reached 10 percent. Consider how the media would have treated President Bush had he given varying predictions about, and then varying accounts of, the number of jobs supposedly "created or saved" -- a laughably unprovable yardstick.

Obama brazenly claims that under his policies, 95 percent of "working Americans" received a "tax cut." But nearly half of American workers pay absolutely nothing in income taxes. And after exemptions, tax credits and other deductions, the Obama tax cut even exceeded many workers' payroll taxes. How does a check, given to someone who pays little or no taxes, become a "tax cut"?

The National Rifle Association backed the 2000 presidential candidacy of George W. Bush. Describing the organization's relationship with Bush as "unbelievably friendly," an NRA official said a Bush victory would mean "a president where we work out of their office." Envisioning then-NRA President Charlton Heston sitting at a fold-out table next to the President's desk, the media pounced.

Typical of the coverage was a Washington Post article with this headline: "The NRA Brags That They'll Work Out Of President GW Bush's Oval Office." The Post pointed out that the NRA gave more than $500,000 in 1999 and 2000 to the GOP and that it expected to spend between $12 million and $15 million more on the 2000 election. These stories elicited a denial of undue influence from the Bush camp: "Neither the NRA nor any special interest sets the governor's agenda."

The Service Employees International Union, to elect Obama and other Democrats in 2008, spent $85 million. And in support of corporate bailouts, ObamaCare and higher taxes to "spread the wealth differently," SEIU President Andy Stern said, "Western Europe, as much as we used to make fun of it, has made different trade-offs which may have ended with a little more unemployment but a lot more equality."

NBC's Matt Lauer did not ask Obama about the incredible willingness of the SEIU -- his biggest financial supporter -- to accept fewer jobs for "a lot more equality." CBS' Katie Couric did no story on the union's admission that higher taxes mean fewer jobs. No Washington Post editorial page asked how Stern's "trade-off" of fewer jobs squares with what Obama said about the importance of creating jobs: "That's the single most important thing we can do."

ACORN strongly endorsed Obama. The community activist group's CEO, Bertha Lewis, gave a speech at the winter conference of the Young Democratic Socialists. She said: "Any group that says, 'I'm young, I'm Democratic and I'm a socialist,' is all right with me. You know, that's no light thing to do, to actually say, 'I'm a socialist.' ... Right now, we are living in a time which is going to dwarf the McCarthy era. It's going to dwarf the internments during World War II. We are right now in a time that is going to dwarf the era of Jim Crow and segregation. ... This rise of this tea party so-called 'movement' -- bowel movement, in my opinion -- and this blatant uncovering is ripping off the mask of racism."

Did the media ask Obama about Lewis' lunatic attack on those who disagree or about her open embrace of socialism? Did the media ask if Obama cared to comment on his promise, made during the campaign, to allow ACORN to "shape the agenda" of his presidency? Did they ask why Obama dismisses critics who call his agenda "socialism" -- even as one of his biggest backers uses that very word?

ODSD ravages the country.

It guarantees a pass is given to an administration that refuses to use the term "Islamofascism"; that offends traditional allies like Israel and new ones like Poland and the Czech Republic; that apparently accepts a nuclear Iran; that ignores government's role in the housing meltdown while blaming Wall Street "greed"; and that makes appeals to voters along racial lines.

It means that the harmful consequences of the exploding welfare state get ignored, trivialized or disputed. It means that "experts," hand-picked and quoted by the media, overwhelmingly support the administration's income-equality agenda. It means that inconvenient news stories -- ones that question "bigger and better" government or show there is another side -- are downplayed, underreported or dismissed.

The Obama Double Standard Disease is a pre-existing illness -- not covered, even under ObamaCare.