It admittedly doesn't come close to her ladies' room rant about her sister-in-law, but CNN Newsroom anchor Kyra Phillips experienced another oops moment Wednesday.  She devoted almost seven minutes to interviewing singer Stevie Wonder.  The musician was awarded the Gershwin Prize, and Wednesday evening would be honored in the White House.  So she let Stevie enthusiastically speak of someone she also deeply admires, Barack Obama:

PHILLIPS:  And as we wrap this up and take it on to the next hour, I know Obama has inspired you tremendously on many different levels. Tell us why.

WONDER: He really echoes the spirits of so many voices that have come before him, talking about bringing us together as a united people of the United States of America. And to live in a time and space where we have a second chance to really make this, again, the great country that we deserve to always be. And I'm just very, very proud to have said to him about five years ago, when he was running for senator, I said, you know, I know that this is what you want to do and this is what your goal is for Illinois. But I really believe that if we pray on this, you'll become the president of the United States. And so we prayed in my studio, at Wonderland Studios. And then here we are in 2009. It's a wonderful thing.

The anchor congratulated Wonder again and then wrapped up her interview:

PHILLIPS: Yes, you are. And he's still got the innocent baby smile. Stevie, great to see you. Come back and see us again, OK?

Wonder, of course, has been blind since birth and sadly won't be able to come back and see Phillips.  (Her comment comes at the 6:37 mark on the YouTube video).

Still, it's understandable how a gal could get befuddled while hearing rapturous praise about The One.  So it's OK, Kyra.  Don't you worry 'bout a thing.     

Americans increasingly see the danger in Barack Obama's scheme to spend our way out of economic difficulty.  So for the mainstream media, it's all hands on deck to bolster confidence in Obama and his decisions.  The dependable Jonathan Alter reports for duty in the March 2 Newsweek, also posted on the magazine's Web site.  Titled "America’s New Shrink: Chin up, everyone. This president is well poised to bring us back from the brink," the article is loaded with happy talk about Obama and his incredible attributes.  A few examples:

. . . Because my take on Obama, based on conversations with him and his team stretching back more than four years and extending into the White House, is that he has a firm grasp of the psychological and substantive challenges of the presidency. Equally important, his 2008 campaign proved that he possesses a superior sense of timing. He knows that now is not the moment to cheerlead, not when the financial players are lying dazed on the field. There will be time for that, when the banks have been "restructured" (see, that sounds better than "nationalized") and the credit starts flowing again.

. . . It's early yet and much can change, but the new president is showing signs of carrying himself in a more naturally confident way, with the right blend of traits. He's bold enough to add a couple of zeroes to the conversation about spending, but humble enough to utter those three most unpresidential words: "I screwed up."

Obama's confidence is the product of an unusual combination of good early parenting by his mother and grandmother and his own search for racial identity. "The earth shook under my feet, ready to crack open at any moment," he writes in "Dreams From My Father" of a moment of painful clarity when he was in high school. His white relatives, he now realized, could never understand him. "I stopped, trying to steady myself, and knew for the first time that I was utterly alone."

After this confusing period, raising himself—and learning who he was—became an enormous source of self-confidence. Faced with fitting in nowhere, he learned to fit in everywhere, or at least make an attempt to understand whatever new context presented itself. One critical inheritance was his mother's anthropological eye (she studied Indonesian culture). This open and nonjudgmental frame of reference—and his own writerly detachment—give him a rare mental buffer zone that is a great asset in the hurly-burly of the presidency.

. . . At a stop in Florida in mid-February, Obama said publicly what he has confided to aides since early in the 2008 campaign: he could be a one-term president. "I'm not going to make any excuses," he told the crowd. "If stuff doesn't work out and people don't feel like I've led the country in the right direction, then you'll have a new president."

This is an inspired psychological game because it doesn't sound like a game. It sounds like real accountability for results. . .

. . . Obama has the chops to sell that approach, starting with his already-proven ability to be the nation's teacher in chief. This was FDR's secret weapon on the radio, and it can be Obama's on TV and the Web. He's the smart, cool instructor, trusted by the class to explain something important even if a little complicated. All that's lacking is a bit more humor and a few catchphrases to simplify the message.

Speaking of simplified messages, the mainstream media inundate us with the view that Obama knows what's best for us and we should all strongly support his policies because - altogether now - if he fails, so does the United States.  Columnist Alter has been in the Obama tank for a while, contending last year, as noted at the time by NewsBuster Senior Editor Tim Graham, that only racism would keep his favorite out of the White House.

Still, the current pro-Obama bias is breathtaking.  But now we don't have to worry.  Our therapist-in-chief, as Newsweek deems him, is doing all the emotional heavy lifting for us.  He will, we are assured, "talk us out of a depression."

Feeling better now?  

Me neither.

We all know that Barack Obama, if he isn't actually divine, at least qualifies as a Superman.  So I guess it's fitting that he's married to a Superwoman.  Or at least that's the impression we get in today's Chicago Sun-Times article "Michelle: Her first month as first lady  THE EAST WING | In just a month, Michelle Obama has put her mark on her new domain, as she embraces an activist agenda."  Authored by Washington Bureau chief Lynn Sweet, the gushing appraisal begins:

It's Friday in the East Wing of the Obama White House, the realm of first lady Michelle Obama.

Many of the cream-colored walls are still bare. The Obama administration, after all, is just one month old.

But there is a growing photo collection in the hallways that charts the increasing activity of the first lady in the last two weeks as she settles in to her new role and starts expanding her portfolio of issues.

The newest item on her non-controversial agenda is healthy living. That's in addition to assisting military families, pushing work-family balance, national service, women's concerns and opening up the White House to the community.

Wow!  Can you imagine one woman accomplishing so very much so quickly?  But the fawning has just begun as Sweet moves on:

In this first month in the White House, Mrs. Obama has:

†Visited five federal agencies on her meet-and-greet tour. Besides Transportation, she has stopped at the Departments of Education, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture, where she plugged fruits and vegetables.

†Become more familiar with her new city. She has lunched with Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty and Jill Biden, taken in a ballet with the family at the Kennedy Center and visited a community health center.

†Hosted an African-American History Month event at the White House.  "African-American slaves helped to build this house," she said.

†Discussed balancing family and work at a panel aimed at women at Howard University.

†And, of course, continued her key role as mom-in-chief to daughters Malia and Sasha, with an assist from her mother, Marion Robinson.

Now some spoilsports might question why Obama is spending time at so many Federal agencies.  It's not, after all, as though she's the one who was elected president and chief executive of those agencies.  Yet Sweet apparently sees such activism from Obama as positive.

And some grouches may point out that going to two lunches, showing up at a ballet and a community center, hosting an African-American History Month in your home, participating in a Howard University panel, and having your Mom help take care of your daughters doesn't come close to filling out a month.  Especially when you have a staff of 20 to lend a hand.

Lynn Sweet knows better.  So she quotes the first lady's chief of staff, Jackie Norris.  Obama is an "active presence" and "comes in wanting to be value-added and wanting to support the president and the president's agenda."  Thank heaven.  Would we want a first lady who's an inactive presence or - even more worrisome - doesn't insist on being value-added?

Sweet's puff piece is just the latest in a series of slavish Obamamania we've come to expect from the mainstream media.  If Obama's chief of staff ever leaves, Sweet would make an ideal replacement.  She knows an activist, value-added gal when she sees one.   

CNN and The Washington Post had institutional memory lapses today.  On CNN Saturday Morning News, this was the lead story from anchors Betty Nguyen and T.J. Holmes:

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. We do want to thank you for starting with us. It is the 21st of February, and we do want to begin with some breaking news.

HOLMES: Yes, and kind of a -- a shocker that went through the -- the newsroom this morning.

Yes, you remember that name and you remember that face in all likelihood. That is Chandra Levy, the 24-year-old who went missing some nine years ago now -- eight years ago, more specifically. An arrest, we're being told now, is imminent in this case. This is coming to us from our CNN affiliate out in the Bay Area, KGO. This is one of the most infamous D.C. cold cases out there. Again, some eight years old.

Just a little background on this case. You remember this young lady went missing in D.C. Got a lot of attention for one reason because of her relationship that it came out that she had with Congressman Gary Condit, who is no longer a congressman now. But a relationship that came out.

He was never -- there he is there -- never officially a suspect in the case.

NGUYEN: No.

HOLMES: But that was a reason this case got so much attention. And now, Betty, as we're hearing, an arrest...

NGUYEN: Yes.

HOLMES: ...is imminent in this case.

NGUYEN: The case not only ended Condit's career, but we are learning this morning that there is a suspect, a man who is indeed behind bars at this hour.

The Washington Post's Web site this morning featured the story "Arrest in Chandra Levy Case 'Imminent.'"  The article ended with:

Levy, a 24-year-old intern for the federal Bureau of Prisons, was having an affair with Gary Condit, a married congressman from California, when she vanished. Police focused on Condit rather than Guandique as the case endured a firestorm of world-wide media coverage.

Condit was never charged and lost a reelection bid in 2002. He has long maintained that he had nothing to do with Levy's disappearance and was the victim of overzealous investigators and a media pack.

Neither CNN nor The Washington Post identified Condit as a Democratic congressman.  Had he been a Republican, that affiliation would no doubt have been mentioned.

As we've seen again and again, when members of the GOP get in trouble, the spin is that it's a Republican scandal.  When it's a Democrat who's involved, then the story line is that the scandal involved a politician who just happened to be a Democrat.

The double standard continues to thrive among the mainstream media.

This made my weekend.  Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times reported "Obama beats out Jesus as America's hero."  The article starts:

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Americans named President Obama as their No. 1 hero, followed by Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, in a new Harris poll.

Others in the top 10, in descending order, were Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger and Mother Teresa.

People were asked whom they admired enough to call their heroes. Those surveyed were not shown a list of people to choose from. The Harris Poll was conducted online among a sample of 2,634 U.S. adults by Harris Interactive.

This question was first asked in a Harris Poll in 2001. In that survey Jesus Christ was the hero mentioned most often, followed by Martin Luther King, Colin Powell, John F. Kennedy and Mother Teresa.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised with the results.  Obama has been sold as a secular God.  In November, NewsBuster Brent Baker documented the opening of a Time Magazine article that began:

“Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope...”

Last month, an actress compared Obama to Jesus.  According to The Hill:

Movie star Susan Sarandon compared President Obama to Jesus. Broadway and film actor Alan Cumming thought of him more like Mahatma Gandhi.

“He is a community organizer like Jesus was,” Sarandon said Tuesday night on the bright blue carpet leading into the Creative Coalition’s 2009 Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts in Chinatown. “And now, we’re a community and he can organize us.”

Last September on CNN Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer, political contributor Donna Brazile spoke of a link between Jesus and her candidate for president:

BLITZER: Let me bring Donna in on the whole issue of being a community organizer. Now we know a lot of those community organizers are in the big urban areas and there are some suggesting that when they -- when the Republicans, whether Giuliani or Sarah Palin went after Obama for being a community organizer there was a racial overtone there. Do you believe that?

BRAZILE: First of all, I don't think they understand the role of a community organizer, often to help people who are in distress, they've lost their jobs, they've lost their homes, they've lost their health care. And for many of us, it's a time honored tradition to give back, especially those who have been rewarded with so much.

The Bible says to whom much is given much is required and it comes out of that tradition. So it was insulting to see both, you know, the governor as well as Mayor Giuliani criticize people. There's some on the Internet now that Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor. And perhaps they should understand the role of a community organizer, do help people in distress.

Days later, CNN reported Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee said on the House floor: "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus."

Apparently, Americans got the message.  I know that polls like this one have little meaning.  I know that the people who participate in them volunteered to participate, possibly with an agenda in mind.  I know that the results in surveys like this tend to be a reflection of who's been in the news recently.

It still makes me tremble for my country.

In a news story not covered by other major media, the Chicago Sun-Times today reported that the Democratic National Committee still hasn't paid Chicago for November's Obama victory celebration.  "Obama victory bash owes city $1.74 mil." begins:

Chicago has yet to recoup the $1.74 million cost of President Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park -- despite a burgeoning $50.5 million budget shortfall that threatens more layoffs and union concessions.

"The Democratic National Committee has not yet paid us,'' Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city's Office of Budget and Management, said Thursday after questions from the Chicago Sun-Times. "We're reaching out to them this week."

Stacie Paxton, a spokeswoman for the Obama-controlled DNC, explained the reimbursement delay by saying, "We are still looking at various costs and bills.'' She would not say whether parts of the bill are disputed.

The city spent $1 million on police protection for the rally. The Office of Emergency Management and Communications racked up more than $120,000 in expenses, including $19,500 paid to police official Neil Sullivan to quarterback election night logistics.

In late October, Mayor Daley assured that the cash-flush Obama campaign would reimburse the city for every penny spent on the rally. "We have a financial crisis," he said at the time. "The City of Chicago could not afford $2 million on this because we're gonna be laying off people, cutting back. That [cost] would really be unfortunate. . . . It's a huge cost to the City of Chicago.

Days later, Daley was again asked about the debt:

"Yeah. I don't know why you're so negative. ... What is this? He just won for president, and you say, 'He's not gonna pay his bills,' " the mayor said then.

The skepticism that Democrats would timely pay their debt was justified.  No doubt prompted by a press inquiry, Chicago is now - in the jargon so beloved by politicians these days - "reaching out" to the Democratic National Committee.  Maybe the city should try a collection agency.  Or even ask Senator Roland "How'd I Get Here?" Burris for assistance.

The Chicago Sun-Times should be commended for carrying a story most of the mainstream media won't touch.  Don't count on seeing the item on CNN anytime soon.      

Maureen Dowd's New York Times opinion piece yesterday was "Cheney and the Goat Devil."  The mainstream media are reveling in the purported falling out between former President George Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney.  Supposedly the two disagreed over granting Cheney's previous chief of staff, Scooter Libby, a pardon.  Dowd joins in the fun:

There were clues in the last couple of years that W. and Condi were trying to sidle away from Cheney by using the forbidden strategy of diplomacy in dealing with Iran and North Korea, and by cutting loose Rummy.

As one official who worked closely with both W. and Cheney told The New York Daily News’s Tom DeFrank the last week of the administration: “It’s been a long, long time since I’ve heard the president say, ‘Run that by the vice president’s office.’ You used to hear that all the time.”

The clearest sign of disaffection we have is Bush’s refusal to pardon Scooter Libby, the man known as “Cheney’s Cheney,” despite Vice’s tense and emotional pleading. It was his final, too little, too late “You are not the boss of me” spurning of Dick Cheney.

It may seem pointless for W. to worry about his legacy at this juncture, but he clearly did not want to add a Marc Rich blot to all the other gigantic blots on the copybook.

Approximating the Marc Rich case to that of Scooter Libby is akin to comparing Barney Frank to John Wayne.  They have almost nothing in common, something even Dowd may have noticed.

As Time Magazine reported soon after Bill Clinton pardoned Rich, who had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List:

In 1983, Rich was indicted in federal court of evading more than $48 million in taxes. He was also charged with 51 counts of tax fraud and with running illegal oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis.

Furthermore, Time noted, "Marc Rich's socialite ex-wife has donated an estimated $1 million to Democratic causes, including $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's successful Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library fund."

In contrast, Scooter Libby greatest crime was at worst lying.  The New York Times reported:

I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted today of lying to a grand jury and to F.B.I. agents investigating the leak of the identity of a C.I.A. operative in the summer of 2003 amid a fierce public dispute over the war in Iraq.

Senior U.S. News & World Report writer Michael Barone succinctly explained what had transpired in the Libby case:

Libby was a dedicated and hypercompetent public servant who was brought down by a prosecutor investigating a scandal that wasn't a scandal. The investigation purportedly was an attempt to discover who had told Robert Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA "operative" (Novak's word). But prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald knew before the investigation began that the leaker was Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. It is astonishing that Armitage and his friend and boss Secretary of State Colin Powell didn't inform Bush of this and allowed two of his top aides, Libby and Karl Rove, to be harassed by Fitzgerald for months and years.

There is no comparison between Marc Rich and Scooter Libby.  Still, had Bush done the unthinkable and actually pardoned Libby, no doubt we'd have heard about it incessantly from the mainstream media for years to come.  You'd think that Scooter Libby had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.      
 

Today on The Washington Post's front page appears the article "Back Home in Alaska, Palin Finds Cold Comfort: Scrutiny Has Been Intense Since Election."  Staff writer Michael Leahy reports that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has had a rocky return following her run on last year's Republican national ticket.  Writes Leahy:

A number of factors seem to have contributed to the bumpy homecoming: a residual anger among Democrats for the attack-dog role Palin assumed in the McCain campaign, lingering resentment from Republicans for the part she may have played in McCain's defeat, and a suspicion crossing party lines that the concerns of Alaska, at a time of economic crisis, will now be secondary to her future in national politics.

The claim that Sarah Palin hurt McCain's candidacy has been refuted by various sources including, coincidentally enough, The Washington Post.  Chris Cillizza covers the White House for the newspaper.  Shortly after the election he cited five election myths.  One of them was that McCain made a mistake by selecting Palin as his running mate:

Remember where McCain found himself this past summer. He had won the Republican nomination, but the GOP base clearly felt little buy-in into his campaign. A slew of national polls reflected that energy gap, with Democrats revved up about the election and their candidate and Republicans somewhere between tepid and glum.

Enter Palin, who was embraced with a bear hug by the party's conservative base. All of a sudden, cultural conservatives were thrilled at the chance to put "one of their own" in the White House. In fact, of the 60 percent of voters who told exit pollsters that McCain's choice of Palin was a "factor" in their final decision, the Arizona senator won 56 percent to 43 percent.

For skittish conservatives looking for more evidence that McCain understood their needs and concerns, Palin did the trick. It's hard to imagine conservatives rallying to McCain -- even to the relatively limited extent that they did -- without Palin on the ticket. And without the base, McCain's loss could have been far worse.

A Rasmussen Reports national survey taken immediately after the election found that 69 percent of Republicans believed Palin helped McCain and 91 percent held a favorable view of the Alaska governor.

Perhaps the Post article, using multiple anonymous sources to buttress its findings, is right in the assessment of difficulties Sarah Palin now encounters back home.  The belief she hurt McCain's chances for the White House, however, doesn't appear to be held by very many Republicans.  So why would lingering resentment be a significant factor?  
 

So you think Barack Obama has done nothing yet but coddle terrorists, kill unborn babies, and shove through Congress a spending bill of gargantuan proportions?  Well, think again, Buster.  The Associated Press reported in passing yesterday that The One also "has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people."

Now precisely what those wonders are isn't detailed.  We have to take the AP's word for it.  Still, the piece titled "New e-book captures kids' hopes, dreams for Obama" is brimming with the hope and change we've come to expect in mainstream media accounts of Obama.  The article begins:

NEW YORK (AP) — End war, forever. Make the planet greener. Please help my dad find work. Make it rain candy!

Thousands of kids detailed their hopes and expectations for President Barack Obama in letters and drawings as part of a worldwide project, with 150 chosen for a free e-book being released on Presidents Day.

Most had tall orders for the new guy in the White House.

Anthony Pape, 10, of DuBois, Pa., offered: "I hope that we will have no war ever again. I mean why are we fighting why can't we all be friends."

Fellow 10-year-old Sasha Townsend of Soquel, Calif., had a similar request, and then some.

"I would appreciate it if you would try to make this a greener planet and try to bring home the troops and end the war," the fifth-grader wrote. "I am very luckey because I am not part of a military family, but it saddens me to hear about all the people who die in Iraque and know that somewhere In the world people are greiving over a lost family member."

Seven-year-old Aaron Van Blerkom's letter was simpler — but no less problematic.

"Dear Mr. Obama," the Pasadena, Calif., first-grader began, "Please Make it rain candy!"

The "Dear Mr. President" project was a joint effort between the National Education Association and kidthing.com, which is putting out the book for use with its downloadable media player. A special hardcopy edition of the book will be sent to the White House for Obama, who has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people.

The letters were written in January amid Obama-mania at inauguration time as schools scrambled to bus kids to special viewing events and come up with computer screens and TVs for them to watch in classrooms and auditoriums.

And then the ending paragraphs:

"Make fires and earthquakes not exist. Make no tornadoes or any of those things that break things."

An 11-year-old boy from Ohio drew himself in tears at the side of a relative. His dream, he wrote, is that a "cure for cancer will be found" with Obama in the White House, "Because it took my aunt to a better place on father's day."

Another child drew Obama as the "new sunrise of America." One made Earth and labeled it "Obamaland," and still another created the president's face as half dark and half light skin tones with the words: "United We Are One."

Sasha's drawing is an all-green globe. Her enthusiasm for Obama and his ability to get the job done speaks volumes: "I just think he's really, really awesome."

Could such unrealistic expectations have anything to do with the fact that at inauguration time "schools scrambled to bus kids to special viewing events and come up with computer screens and TVs for them to watch in classrooms and auditoriums?"  More accurately, the story would have noted that members of the ultra liberal union calling itself the National Education Association scrambled to make certain their students could be indoctrinated in the wonderfulness of The One.

Where in the world would kids possibly get the notion that an Obama administration could mean a cure for cancer, stopping fires and earthquakes, a permanent end to war, a holiday for children around the world, and a "new sunrise of America?"

Maybe they got those ideas from the same place the Associated Press did when it reports as fact that Obama "has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people."

Let's not let facts get in the way, especially when reporting on someone who is, as Sasha in the story maintains, "really, really awesome."  The mainstream media agree.  

So you think Barack Obama has done nothing yet but coddle terrorists, kill unborn babies, and shove through Congress a spending bill of gargantuan proportions?  Well, think again, Buster.  The Associated Press reported in passing yesterday that The One also "has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people."

Now precisely what those wonders are isn't detailed.  We have to take the AP's word for it.  Still, the piece titled "New e-book captures kids' hopes, dreams for Obama" is brimming with the hope and change we've come to expect in mainstream media accounts of Obama.  The article begins:

NEW YORK (AP) — End war, forever. Make the planet greener. Please help my dad find work. Make it rain candy!

Thousands of kids detailed their hopes and expectations for President Barack Obama in letters and drawings as part of a worldwide project, with 150 chosen for a free e-book being released on Presidents Day.

Most had tall orders for the new guy in the White House.

Anthony Pape, 10, of DuBois, Pa., offered: "I hope that we will have no war ever again. I mean why are we fighting why can't we all be friends."

Fellow 10-year-old Sasha Townsend of Soquel, Calif., had a similar request, and then some.

"I would appreciate it if you would try to make this a greener planet and try to bring home the troops and end the war," the fifth-grader wrote. "I am very luckey because I am not part of a military family, but it saddens me to hear about all the people who die in Iraque and know that somewhere In the world people are greiving over a lost family member."

Seven-year-old Aaron Van Blerkom's letter was simpler — but no less problematic.

"Dear Mr. Obama," the Pasadena, Calif., first-grader began, "Please Make it rain candy!"

The "Dear Mr. President" project was a joint effort between the National Education Association and kidthing.com, which is putting out the book for use with its downloadable media player. A special hardcopy edition of the book will be sent to the White House for Obama, who has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people.

The letters were written in January amid Obama-mania at inauguration time as schools scrambled to bus kids to special viewing events and come up with computer screens and TVs for them to watch in classrooms and auditoriums.

And then the ending paragraphs:

"Make fires and earthquakes not exist. Make no tornadoes or any of those things that break things."

An 11-year-old boy from Ohio drew himself in tears at the side of a relative. His dream, he wrote, is that a "cure for cancer will be found" with Obama in the White House, "Because it took my aunt to a better place on father's day."

Another child drew Obama as the "new sunrise of America." One made Earth and labeled it "Obamaland," and still another created the president's face as half dark and half light skin tones with the words: "United We Are One."

Sasha's drawing is an all-green globe. Her enthusiasm for Obama and his ability to get the job done speaks volumes: "I just think he's really, really awesome."

Could such unrealistic expectations have anything to do with the fact that at inauguration time "schools scrambled to bus kids to special viewing events and come up with computer screens and TVs for them to watch in classrooms and auditoriums?"  More accurately, the story would have noted that members of the ultra liberal union calling itself the National Education Association scrambled to make certain their students could be indoctrinated in the wonderfulness of The One.

Where in the world would kids possibly get the notion that an Obama administration could mean a cure for cancer, stopping fires and earthquakes, a permanent end to war, a holiday for children around the world, and a "new sunrise of America?"

Maybe they got those ideas from the same place the Associated Press did when it reports as fact that Obama "has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people."

Let's not let facts get in the way, especially when reporting on someone who is, as Sasha in the story maintains, "really, really awesome."  The mainstream media agree.  

CNN Newsroom anchor Rick Sanchez may want to give stand-up comedy a try if his career in journalism falters.  On Friday's program, Sanchez said - with a straight face:

To be clear, we don't fit into any template here, Democratic or Republican or otherwise. I play it down the middle.

Anyone who's seen Sanchez at work knows how funny that is.  Throughout his program posts from the microblogging service Twitter crawl across the screen.  Known as tweets, the messages Sanchez selects to air come overwhelmingly from liberals.

Friday's program was instructive.  Newshound Rick on Monday had interviewed porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she's being urged to run against Louisiana Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter, himself involved in an earlier sex scandal.  Interviewing Stormy is the sort of hard news on which Rick thrives, so he ran Monday's interview again on Friday.  Then he moved on to discuss Rush Limbaugh:

SANCHEZ: So, by the way, among those participating these days, Rush Limbaugh. He was watching us again this week, when we broke the news about a breakthrough on the president's stimulus package.

And now, as you listen to Rush, see if you can decide who he's more mad at, me for reporting the news of an apparent legislative victory for President Obama, or the three Republicans who broke ranks with Rush Limbaugh and sided with the president?

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, "THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW")

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Exactly right. Rick, let me help you out. I know it's going to be in vain. If you show too much intelligence, CNN will move you over to Headline News and nobody will ever see you.

But this was a clear victory for the Republican Party. Snowe, Collins, Specter? Rick, if you would listen to this program, I predicted back in November-December the Democrats didn't need 60 votes, because they have got at least two of these three on every piece of legislation. So they don't have to worry about what happens in Minnesota. They're going to have 60 votes, because you're going to have a number of RINO Republicans.

I said earlier today it's great to flush them out, get them out of there. Let it be known that they are not Republicans. The Republicans lost seats in the House precisely because we're cleaning up. We're getting rid of the Republicans in name only.

This is a clear victory for Republicans, in the sense that they are establishing an identity, an identity based on opposition. When this bombs out, Rick, when it doesn't work, there aren't any Republicans that can be forced to take the blame for this.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Aye-aye, sir. And I do listen, by the way. He seems to be telling all Republicans to oppose the president at all costs and in every way. Imagine that.

To be clear, we don't fit into any template here, Democratic or Republican or otherwise. I play it down the middle.

So what does Rick consider the middle?  Of the tweets he aired Friday, here are the ones that had an obvious political view.  Keep in mind that they are repeatedly displayed through the entire show:

Rush limbaugh again?  Doesn't this guy have a job. . .or have bigger fish to fry?  Say, like our falling economy & wars?  Geesh

Can somebody PLEASE tell me Y it is the GOP has such issues w/trying to help Americans here at home?

phelps, moh - rush needs to just go away - run stormy run!

Who cares what Rush "limbo" says.  He's a wasted up drug addict

Limbaugh is just jealous b'cause ur twitterers can read & write independent thoughts.  His followers can only follow.  Baaa!

Why don't Republicans work with the Democrats on a bill that they could support?  Don't complain, offer solutions!

I wish CNN would stop giving limbaugh's the attention he wants.  Those of us that have a life don't want to hear about him!

it's obvious that Bush was attacked because he was stupid.  Obama being attacked because he's intelligent.  Much more vitriolic

Rick. . . Where can we contribute money to Stormy's run against that Republican prostitute monger?

Rick, it's time to vote the obstructionist Republicans out of office!

I'm telling you man. . .invite Rush over for pinata party and fill it up with hornets; invite Beohner too

why even have a adult actress on a national show anyway?  Isn't that a form of endorsement?  P.S. is Rush on dope again?

Rick, don't back down on Rush.  He's hoping to get free advertising for his show from you

Rush Slimbaugh needs to get mad at something worth getting mad at.  Good Grief

Yes, indeed, right down the middle.  Nearing the end of the show, Rick moved to what he calls the Twitter board:

All right. We got another one. It says: "Let Rush fulminate. If he's not for you, that means you must be a thinking human being."

And then finally: "Joaquin Pheonix, ELRUSHbo on Oxycontin. Phelps on a bong. Only your show reports the real news."

Real news, like Stormy Daniels's political aspirations.  And for background, crawling messages with a definite liberal spin.  Are we to believe that yesterday he didn't get any Twitter messages from conservatives?  

Maybe Sanchez is already doing stand-up.  He's just doing it sitting down.

Many folks realize that the Obama stimulus plan is little more than a list of long-held liberal dreams tossed together in hopes a scared American public will demand its immediate approval.  Over at CNN, they've bought into the politics of fear and are openly cheering for the bill making its way through Congress.  On yesterday's CNN Newsroom anchor Tony Harris spoke with CNN senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash about it:

HARRIS: Let's make a deal. Negotiators say they could agree on a final version of the massive stimulus bill as early as today.

Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash is on phone from Capitol Hill.

Dana, really, by today? Is that possible?

DANA BASH, CNN NEWS SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPODNENT: Their cautiously optimistic. I think we should stress the word cautious. I'm sitting in the hall of the capitol down the hall from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office. And there is a huge meeting going on, it's even going on for 24 hours. The White House has said the budget director said many some of the key centrist Senators who really hold a lot of power between the House and Senate on the president's stimulus package.

I can tell you, talking some of the Senators going into this meeting, Tony, it looks like they are now working on an overall spending bill that's lowered a little bit, about $789 billion. But I'm cautioned that this number could change as these talks continue.

One other interesting note is, you know, we've been talking about the issue of education, and that House Democrats were not happy that the Senate sliced some of their education funding, particularly nearly $20 billion in school construction. Well, they're trying to figure out a way to keep that money, keep it - change it a little bit in terms of how it will be spent on schools. So that gives you a sense of some of the things (INAUDIBLE) going on in these intense, intense negotiations. I got to tell you, they've been going on all night through last night and into this morning.

HARRIS: Boy, that's kind of encouraging that the deal could be struck. There is a possibility that it could be struck today, and that it could come in with a lower price tag.

All right, our Congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, for us. Dana, appreciate it. Great news, thank you.

Certainly that's not great news for the more than 200 economists who've voiced their opposition, saying in a public statement:

Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance.

Nor is it great news for people who don't see how millions for digital converter boxes, organizations like ACORN, and tax rebates for illegal aliens will put millions of Americans to work.

Such concerns have done little to dampen the enthusiasm for the stimulus package at CNN.  They are true believers.        

On Friday's CNN Newsroom, anchor Rick Sanchez dazzled viewers with his profound grasp of economics.  His guest was CNN chief business correspondent Ali Velshi, whose most recent achievement was being called "incompetent" by Rush Limbaugh:

SANCHEZ: You know, it's funny, but, as I hear him (President Barack Obama).talk, I'm just thinking, tax cuts are spending, right? I mean, they really are, because you have got to get it from somewhere.

VELSHI: Right. If you think about it, is -- your own budget, right? If you have less money coming in, you have to have less money going out.

The issue is that -- the argument is that, tax cuts, while it brings less money into the government, which means it lowers the amount of money the government has, which makes it the equivalent of spending, it stimulates the economy, because it lets -- people will use that money in another way.

The way tax cuts could be considered spending, a contention with which Velshi agreed, is if one believes that all income belongs not to the individual earning it, but rather to the government.  It's then government's option to determine how much people are permitted to keep and if they're using it "appropriately."

Sanchez's reasoning reminds me of President Bill Clinton, who said of the budget surplus: "We could give it back to you and hope you spend it right." But "if you don't spend it right," bad things would happen to Social Security and other programs.

It doesn't, of course, conflict with the liberal prattle routinely enaged in by Sanchez.  He's the guy who read his viewers' minds and knew they couldn't understand Sarah Palin.   He's the man who called out Joe the Plumber.   Almost every day he has Patricia Murphy as a guest to explain current events.  Introducing her as the editor of CitizenJanePolitics.com, he doesn't mention that her work history includes employment with three U.S. senators, all of them Democrats.   This would explain where she's coming from politically, but perhaps Sanchez doesn't think her background is relevant.   

Rick Sanchez was in the vanguard of blending CNN with social network sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.  Urging his viewers to voice their opinions, he reads some reactions while others stream across the bottom of the screen.  There are invariably a highly disproportionate number of liberal opinions aired.

With only 53 percent of voters opting for Obama in the election, it's not reasonable to presume that Sanchez hears from almost no conservatives.  I have sent him numerous Twitter messages and, in fairness, note that he's aired perhaps half a dozen of them.  Certainly he's receiving communications from many other conservatives, yet broadcasts almost none of them.

Rick Sanchez is using new social networking technology to advance an old reality: mainstream media's liberal bias.

In the early 1980s, Don Henley hit the charts with the song "Dirty Laundry," a sarcastic view of television news.  It begins:

I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry

On February 4, Chicago Tribune media columnist Phil Rosenthal provided an insider's view of dirty laundry within the mainstream media.  His column "TV anchor in the news with racial bias claims" starts:

The biggest story in local broadcast news Monday night had well-known names, controversy, plenty of TV reporters on the scene—and it didn't air on a single station that night.

WMAQ-Ch. 5 lead anchor Warner Saunders accused former Chicago Sun-Times TV/radio columnist Robert Feder of bias at the local American Federation of Television and Radio Artists chapter's annual meeting, where Feder was a guest.

Saunders, 74, brought a prepared speech to confront Feder before 100 or so at the Allerton Hotel.

Saunders said Feder diminished "the accomplishments of black talent while placing the spotlight on our deficiencies." Noting it was Black History Month, the Channel 5 anchor said inviting Feder was "like choosing David Duke to serve as mohel at a circumcision."

The comparison was loaded: Duke is a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Mohels perform Jewish circumcisions. Feder is Jewish.

"From the very beginning, [it] became a personal attack," Feder, who did not want to speak to the Chicago Tribune, said Tuesday to WLS-AM 890's Erich "Mancow" Muller and Pat Cassidy.

WBBM-AM 780's Craig Dellimore, AFTRA's local president and an African-American, was unavailable. But Eileen Willenborg, AFTRA Chicago executive director, said, "It was a forum for free speech to happen, and free speech sure happened."

WMAQ declined comment.

That's ironic.  WMAQ, like many television outlets, routinely sticks its microphones in the faces of people - even grieving parents who've just lost a child - in search of footage they can show viewers.  Yet when one of their major personalities attacks a newspaper writer for racism, the station doesn't have a word to say.

Apparently, neither do most of the mainstream media.  A Google search today for news items on Warner Saunders turns up only the Rosenthal column and references to it.  The Tribune in this instance deserves credit for reporting the news.

The media love dirty laundry.  But some stuff is apparently just too soiled to air on television.

The Reporter, a suburban Chicago newspaper, included on its commentary page last week this editorial announcement:

"The Reporter newspaper regrets to inform our loyal readers that columnist Michael Bates has chosen to discontinue his services after nearly 20 years writing for our commentary page.

"Mr. Bates is a polarizing commentator beloved by some readers and detested by others. . . We know some readers won't be upset by his departure, but we also understand those members of the unofficial Michael Bates fan club will be extremely disappointed. One or two readers have actually told us over the years that Mr. Bates' column is the reason they read The Reporter." The notice went on to say something complimentary about my writing and to wish my family and me well.

The statement was wrong about how long I've taken up space in The Reporter. It's been well over 20 years. Then again, since the editor was in elementary school when I began cranking — the emphasis here is on crank — out a weekly column, his error is understandable.

I do think the editor owed readers the explanation for why I quit writing for The Reporter. Since he didn't provide it, I will. The details likely won't be seen by a majority of "the unofficial Michael Bates fan club," newspaper subscribers who've loyally read my columns and been most generous in their approval. Still, I want the reason to be a matter of cyberspace record. You just never know what might someday be Googled.

Back to the grounds for discontinuing my services. I titled the last column I wrote for The Reporter "Include Me Out," penned the day before the inauguration. The principal point was that Obama's presidency will be a fiasco. (In his first hours, he kicked things off by coddling terrorists and killing unborn babies, so I'm still most confident of that forecast.)

The Reporter's editor changed the column title to "Success for Obama would be disaster." He's changed titles before and, although I didn't like some of his modifications, I never made a big deal about them. He is the editor, after all, and that's part of his job. Besides, neither he nor any of the previous editors tampered with column content and that was what primarily mattered.

This time, however, he also added a sub-headline: "Bitter conservative can't wish U.S. well." It took about 30 seconds from the time I saw that to call to complain. "What part of it didn't you like," he asked, "the bitter conservative?"

No, that element wasn't a problem. I am indeed a bitter conservative, bitter that leftist loon Obama is now destroying the nation.

No, the objectionable portion was his claiming I can't wish my own country well. It implies I'm unpatriotic. That isn't accurate. Well, he went on, if Obama doesn't succeed, then America will fail. How can you not wish Obama well if you love your country?

I replied that Obama is most emphatically not the United States, even though his admirers habitually think so. His "success" in imposing his radical agenda means America loses. National victory requires a vigorous rejection of most of Obama's schemes.

The Reporter has been drifting leftward for a while. If memory serves correctly, the newspaper never endorsed a presidential candidate before, certainly not a Democrat. Yet this year it urged readers to vote for Obama. Last week its front page announced:

"Tears flowed, cheers erupted — and in some dark, lonely and bitter places teeth undoubtedly gnashed — when Barack Obama was sworn in Tuesday. . . " How's that for balanced, objective reporting? So perhaps it wasn't a surprise that he slapped the sub-headline "Bitter conservative can't wish U.S. well" over the column.

One reader contacted me and asked if I had written that. Since my picture and name appeared right under the statement, it's easy to see why she'd be confused.

The editor is entitled to do his job. Obviously, he's free to voice his opinion and slant the news about those dark, lonely and bitter places as long as the publisher lets him.

But he doesn't have a right to question my devotion to America or assail my patriotism simply because I hold Obama's policies in contempt. I don't want to work with someone who'd do that.

And that's why I quit The Reporter. I'll still do some commentaries and perhaps a few discerning Web sites will occasionally use them. My Townhall.com blog (http://bates.blogtownhall.com/default.aspx) will continue to be updated, as well as my Web site (michaelmbates.com).

But the unofficial Michael Bates fan club previously headquartered through The Reporter is hereby disbanded. It's been quite a run and I thank you.