This is the first presidency in history where the media has been in campaign mode from DAY ONE.

[Bicoastal]

It can't be repeated too many times--two months.

That's how long Obama has been in office. If I remember correctly, Bush essentially spent the first two months of his presidency shaking hands with foreign leaders and simply easing into the job. But the newsmakers in 2009, now not just represented by 24/7 cable news coverage, but bloggers by the hundreds, are still treating President Obama like Candidate Obama. They're perfectly within their right to do so, but is our national attention span now really so short that, a few months after a resounding landslide, we treat the White House as if its still on the verge of regime change?

* I mean, a Republican on CNN--Alex Castanellos, is that his name?--is currently opining that Obama is bound to be a one-term president. Already? Was ANYONE talking about the possibility of Bush's second term in early 2001, or Clinton's in early 1993? Did the equivalent of Bobby Jindal or Sarah Palin keep popping up like mad, ready with their party-approved talking points, telelgenic pressers, and money-making PACs?

* Even back in 2001, Bush was making "gaffes" on a daily basis, but few in the media seemed interested. Now, if Obama so much as LAUGHS too much, like in his 60 minutes spot a few days ago, it becomes this huge event of "Will this hurt him or won't it?" HURT him? Presidential approval ratings used to make news every month or so, especially when a presidential term had only barely started; now, they seem to come up on MSNBC or FOX every week. Who is he running against at this moment, pray tell? Rush Limbaugh?

* And the populist rage from the Glenn Becks and the Michelle Bachmanns of the country--they talk as if Obama's administration has been in power for the last 3 years. How can you be in full tilt mad-as-hell, not-going-to-take-it-anymore mode when your President hasn't even made it to the start of his first Baseball season in office? Is it a Jackie Robinson thing, speaking of baseball, where so many are irrationally uneasy about the Presidents skin color and background that the media must examine his progress with a larger microscope than most of the presidents directly before him?

All of this wouldn't be so ludicrous if Obama and his team weren't hard at work tackling a recession. Everyone, even the media, knows our country's massive economy doesn't turn on a dime--it took Clinton most of his first term, and even FDR's "New Deal" wasn't so quick to show actual results. And yet every morning, we wake up to blaring headlines: "IS THE ECONOMY IMPROVING? WHY NOT? WHAT'S TAKING SO DAMN LONG?" The beast is hungry for flash points and events, like the conquering of a foreign capitol or finding a dictator in a spider hole. The media is covering the economy like they covered the Iraq war--or at least, the way they should have covered it back in 2003, back in the Dark Ages when a Republican who didn't even win the popular vote was allowed all the time, patience, and inherent trust that our current President truly deserves.

[WeDidIt]

1. Obama has to be the greatest president in history

just to be considered in the same league as Milliard Fillmore.

Tha'ts how racial equality works at this time in American history. I've seen it my entire life in business. African Americans have to exceed all expectations and surpass the performance of their white colleagues to be considered worthy of being considered at the same level.

[pnwmom]

2. They did it to Clinton, too. From the time he took office,

they acted as if he were a usurper.

They couldn't believe this "trailer trash" guy from Arkansas had unseated one of their beloved aristocracy.

[Bicoastal]

4. I was only 11 in '93, so my memory of that time is fuzzy...

...but I DEFINITELY remember how nonchalant the press was in early 2001. Remember how much of the country didn't realize how tempestuous Bush's First Inauguration was until we saw the footage in "Fahrenheit 9/11?" That's because, strangely enough, no one covered it.

Cut to 8 years later and Fox News is outraged, OUTRAGED, that Jay-Z used off-color language at an unofficial Inaugural Ball. "Is this really a post-racial President? When is Obama going to make a statement condemning these people?" If people had been throwing eggs at the presidential limo, it would have been the only thing anyone could talk about for weeks on end.

[Jennicut]

17. I was 16 when Bill Clinton took office in 1993 and they did the same thing to him

It was awful. We were all filled with hope and promise and the media and even his own party (from the conservative Dems) attacked him. Health care was going to go nowhere as the media was against it from the very beginning.
I think its Dems are attacked more by the corp media and we have a huge financial problem right now. Those two things make the Obama Presidency one of the most scrutinized in modern history.

[ejpoeta]

19. i was 19, and i honestly wasn't paying much attention.

[Jennicut]

21. LOL! Its okay. I was and still am obsessed with politics.

My parents are conservatives but always talked politics with me. They are still upset that I am a Dem and I am in my early 30's now!

[pnwmom]

23. When Clinton was inaugurated, the press was laughing

at the streak in his mother's hair, and she had some unsavory personal habits in their opinion.

She wasn't a lady like the beloved Barbara Bush.

[progressoid]

14. Yep - I remember it well.

And even on the local level it palpable. I remember the raw hatred for Clinton from some of my co-workers.

[nichomachus]

15. Yeah, they were in attack mode against the Clintons before he was sworn in

[EFerrari]

22. YES! They did it to the Clintons, too, from Day 1. They disrespected

the president just as they're disrespecting Obama. It used to make me furious.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Point well taken -

but please, don't refer to Beck and Bachmann as 'populists'. They are insane, racist, fascist assholes.

Get the terminology right, please.

[WI_DEM]

5. The media is trying to appease conservatives and republicans who think they were in Obama's

back pocket during the campaign. The national press in this country takes themselves way too seriously, but, unfortunately, they should be taken seriously because they really do mold the debate. Nobody I ever spoke with said that Obama was "doing too much" but the national press began that dialog and it became a week long story. I'm glad that Obama has his priorities straight and didn't show up, for example, at that silly gridirion dinner (the first president since Grover Cleveland in his first year not to attend! Oh MY!!) and spent it with his family instead. The media in this country are just a bunch of pompous blow hards who have to be pampered and stroked, or else they will go on the attack. They deserve to be put in there place.

[w4rma]

8. They aren't trying to "appease" anyone. The owners hate Democrats. They think Democrats and unions

are anti-American and Communist and Satan on Earth. The owners are the *base* of the Republican Party.

[WI_DEM]

9. No I think they are trying extra hard to counter the criticsm that they were too pro-Obama

during the campaign. Yes, the owners are the base of the GOP but I think the rank and file reporters are trying extra hard to be tough on Obama.

[Supersedeas]

25. More than that -- CNN is professing Obama's Presidency a failure 2 months in

Imagine the Lou Dobbsian cynicism 8 months, 24 months, 36 months in.

[Zenlitened]

6. That's a good point, and a great way to put it.

Too many people are acting as if this is all a referendum on whether he's a likeable guy or not.

They don't seem to realize we've already elected him... to roll up his sleeves and start crafting real, tangible solutions to real, tangible problems.

I enjoy -- and think this country NEEDS -- good discussion of policies, approaches, etc.

But the pundit-caste doesn't do that sort of thing. They do gossip, backbiting, popularity contests... and endless self-preening. All with the attention span of a rabbit.

[redqueen]

7. It makes me wonder why anyone watches teevee news at all, really.

It's nearly all spin and BS.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

hopefully most of them will go bankrupt (I like BBC world news though)

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. hopefully most of them will go bankrupt (I like BBC world news though)

[redqueen]

11. Same here. It's one of the few examples

that kept me from saying that they're all just spin and BS. :)

[high density]

12. The news media and DC are still wired for the GOP way of doing things

Whether or not that will slowly change, it's hard to say. Currently I think the entire system is still in shock that Obama was elected. The only way they know how to report the story is to regurgitate what they read in the GOP fax blasts. That's the "fair and balanced" way of doing it given Obama has such good command of his own message.

[Zen Democrat]

13. No, not the first. It was done to Clinton and Carter.

Soooo, apparently the Republicans, prima facie, are THE POWERS THAT BE, elected or not. The trick is not to play their game. As long as Obama's numbers stay high, TPTB are thwarted, hamstrung, and fucked and far from home. But they never give up, and we can't either.

[Puzzler]

18. Yes...

... that's exactly the unstated core belief, I think. The GOP are prima facie the powers that be... and the Dems, even when elected are treated as usurpers.

[pnwmom]

24. Their excuse then was the Clinton had only been elected with a plurality,

that the majority of the country had opposed him. So said the Rethugs, in explaining why they weren't going to give him the traditional "honeymoon."

This time they're not bothering with an excuse, except for the birthers.

[bettyellen]

16. Not the first, same happened with Clinton- perhaps "in history" shld be replaced w/ "in my memory"

[cottonseed]

20. Clinton as w/ Obama will seem like 8 years of a mess (by media accounts)

However, when we make it to the other side, our lives will be appreciably better.

More than I can say for Republican administrations. I remember Clinton and I'm seeing what's happening with Obama. Democrats are a diverse party and the press can always find a wedge. That's what they seem to report on best. Republicans on the other hand ram it down in lockstep -- the press stays out of the way and everything looks pretty clean. However, at the end of the day, your life turns out better after 8 years of a Dem administration.