The Real Obama Revealed

War on Fox News Reveals Obama’s Failings
By Ronald Kessler

If there is anything more bizarre than the decision to award President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, it was his administration’s decision to wage war on Fox News.
The Obama administration has been warning cable networks not to follow up on Fox News stories, which have included an exposé of ACORN and the radical backgrounds of some Obama appointees, and even attempted to exclude Fox from network pool coverage.
In doing so, Obama and his aides revealed in one stroke the most telling weaknesses of his administration:
• Obama is a whiner. At almost every chance he gets, the president whines about the previous administration and how it is responsible for every problem he faces. He neglects to point out that in the examples he cites — as with deficit spending — he has made the problems worse.
• Obama is fixated on spin rather than substance. Why else would he and his aides become so agitated about what a network is reporting? Obama’s decision to outsource drafting of healthcare legislation to Congress shows his lack of interest in performing the basic functions of his job.
• Obama is ineffective. The spectacle of refusing to let Fox participate in a pool filming, then backing down when the other networks objected, shows that Obama is over his head. That same ineffectiveness prompted him to announce the closing of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay without having any idea where he would send its prisoners.
• Obama has no appreciation for the profit motive and its importance in America’s success. In warning networks not to follow Fox, Obama adviser David Axelrod said, “Mr. [Rupert] Murdoch has a talent for making money, and I understand that their programming is geared toward making money.” Never mind that Obama is making millions in profits from book royalties.
Obama appears blind to the fact that there is a reason Fox, which was started 13 years ago, now has more than three times more viewers between the prized ages of 25 and 54 than either CNN or MSNBC: Fox provides news and commentary that the other networks ignore.
If Obama and his aides actually watched Fox, they would see that its news coverage — as opposed to its commentary programs — really is fair and balanced. When controversial issues are discussed during news programming, guests from opposing sides are invited on.
If Obama understood the importance of the profit motive, he would have reduced taxes to help small businesses so they could expand and hire more workers, instead of throwing money at government programs as part of the stimulus package. By pushing a public option and failing to include incentives to reduce healthcare costs, Obama demonstrates that same lack of appreciation for the profit motive and the entrepreneurial spirit that has made America great.
• Obama is weak. The press ganged up on the Bush administration, but Bush never tried to isolate a news outlet. By showing how thin-skinned he is, Obama reveals his fragility. That is symbolized by his constant need to apologize to the world for imagined failings and by his hand-wringing, while finding time to play golf, about making a decision on his own commander’s request last August for more troops to fight the war in Afghanistan.
• Despite his claims during the campaign that he would bring people together, Obama is the most partisan president in recent memory. As one example, Obama and the Democrats have entirely shut out the Republican leadership from participation in drafting healthcare legislation that will affect one-sixth of the economy.
The White House crusade for fairness works in one direction: against Republicans. Asked by Campbell Brown on CNN if Fox News is biased, Obama aide Valerie Jarrett said Tuesday evening, “Well, of course they’re biased. Of course they are.” But when Brown asked if MSNBC, whose Keith Olbermann recently accused Fox of being filled with racists, is biased, Jarrett did not answer the question.
• Obama and his aides have a blatant disregard for the truth. They openly demonstrated that by saying that Fox is not a news organization, when anyone who has watched the network knows that it is. Criticizing Fox, Obama told NBC that if “media is operating, basically, as a talk radio format, then that’s one thing. And if it’s operating as a news outlet, that’s another.”
In the same breath, despite his aides’ orchestrated attempts to isolate Fox, Obama pretended he is really unconcerned about Fox, saying he is not “losing sleep” over the issue.
Rather than being of no consequence, Obama’s outlandish attempt to muzzle Fox News and discourage others from picking up its stories vividly reveals Obama’s failings—and why he will prove to be a one-term president.