Lowering Expectations for Obama

January 5, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

Reuters ran a little flak for Barack Obama trying to help dull the outrageous expectations placed on The One by his irrationally exuberant adherents in theirs headlined “Congress faces historic challenges” — As if no other Congress has faced “historic challenges” before? Reuters assures us, though, that times are so bad that we should not expect Obama to live up to any of his outlandish promises. This way, of course, if Obama reneges on them, the Old Media can remind everyone that it’s really our fault for expecting too much, not Obama’s for reneging.

Naturally, we get the kind of Bush-is-worst rhetoric we expect from Reuters but we also find that Reuters seems to have forgotten that Congress itself has even lower ratings than does Bush. And Reuters starts off the story conveniently forgetting that the Democrats have controlled Congress since 2006.

Democrats will pack greater clout when the new Congress convenes on Tuesday but they face enormous expectations from voters as they grapple with two wars, a financial crisis and record budget deficits.

Yeah, “greater clout.” But they’ve been in control since 2006 and faced a weakened president to boot. But, have Congressional Democrats had no “expectations” since 2006? Let us also not forget the two wars they have to “grapple with” were approved by the Democrats almost to a man and that the record deficits and the financial crisis were engineered by many of their own votes.

The Reuters piece then outlines some of the promises that Obama and the Democrats have made once they got the nod for a controlling lock on power, promises that Reuters estimates could cost us $775 billion — a low estimate, of course.

But, let’s give Obama some cover, shall we?

“Congress will respond in time. But Obama needs to lower expectations,” said Paul Light of New York University’s Center for the Study of Congress.

“There is a historic gap between promises made and promises fulfilled. Converting promises into reality is a difficult process,” Light said, noting major legislation must wind through a maze of committees.

One wonders if it’ll be more like a histrionic gap between what Obama promised his extremely leftist base among the MoveOn and DailyKos crowd and what he bothers to try and deliver?

Then we get another one of the LeftMedia’s favorite lies (bold mine)…

He (Obama) is aiming for an overhaul of the U.S. health care system, a $2.3 trillion industry that accounts for about 16 percent of the U.S. economy. Some of the cost could be covered by letting Bush’s tax cuts for the rich expire next year.

Bush’s tax plan was not merely “tax cuts for the rich.” It was tax cuts for all.

Next Reuters misleads with its description of why the Democrats didn’t get much done since 2006.

Democrats controlled Congress during the past two years, but Senate Republicans routinely blocked much of their agenda with procedural hurdles known as filibusters.

Obviously it didn’t occur to Reuters that nearly half the electorate — the ones that voted for Republicans — didn’t WANT the Democrats to succeed in making America into a socialist nation?

Sadly, it does not so occur to them.

Reuters takes one more stab at tamping the irrational exuberance of Democrat supporters by softening expectations for the Democrat controlled Senate, too.

WORD OF CAUTION

Sixty votes are needed in the 100-member Senate to end filibusters. Republicans will hold at least 41 seats, barely enough to sustain a filibuster provided they keep all members in line.

Yes, Reuters actually used “word of caution” to head the segment.

The net effect is excuse making for what Reuters expects to be multiple failures by the Democratic Party in the upcoming legislative year. But, at the same time, Rueters doesn’t want to upset Democrat supporters or derail support for The One. See, all the failures will be that of the evil Republicans, not his. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of this sort of flak taking by the Old Media for The One and his lefty cohorts, especially when they fail.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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