Perspective

I realize that this is an old complaint, but I really cannot believe the difference in the media's treatment of Barack Obama versus the way they reported on George W. Bush.

This morning's paper had some stories that really made the point. The headline in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle states "Signs Point To Recovery". The basis for the story was improvement in consumer confidence and a 2% increase in housing prices. No mention was made of the fact that the economy is still shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. Neither does the rosy headline correlate to the reports that the Federal budget deficit will reach between 7 and 9 trillion dollars over the next ten years.

My recollection was that when Bush was President, dark clouds hovered over all economic news. If we had a recovery, it was a jobless recovery. Bush's deficits, in the hundreds of billions, were criticised in apocalyptic terms. Today, though, we have the story of how the President lauded Ben Bernacke for leading us out of the economic crisis which "existed". I guess its over now.

Similarly, there was a story yesterday about the potential for 90,000 swine flu deaths. Last week, there was another regarding difficulties in pharmaceutical factories leading to possible shortages in vaccines. I distinctly recall similar shortages in flu vaccines two years ago. At that time though, the media reported the problem as the Bush Administration's failure to prepare in time. Today its those darn factories.

Finally, what happened to the anti-war movement? When Bush was President, the war in Iraq was the worst thing ever and Afghanistan was barely tolerated. President Obama has taken the exact steps in Iraq that Bush proposed and he has expanded the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It appears that only Cindy Sheehan cares. Do the big news outlets still put the names of our dead soldiers on the air anymore?