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Is the public overly critical of President Obama?

Posted by sumpterc • 10/21/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: election, joe wilson, president obama, press

Since taking office early this year, President Obama has had his share of critics. Not only has his critics been overly vocal, the press hasn't helped and some supposedley respectable members of Congress have lost all their decency. Is this the start of a new trend or have we been here before?

User Comments

10/21/09

jeremyjanson

First of all, criticism is not a bad thing. In fact, our democratic process is built on it. Without criticism, both from politicans and the public, there is no connection between the will of the people and our elected officials and voting becomes only a personal popularity contest. Now, has maybe the president been shown disrespect? Yes.

I don't approve of it, but I would also point out that the President to some degree coaxed some of this disrespect by the messianic portrait of himself that he liked to portray before the public. It doesn't make it right (two wrongs don't make a right as they always say) but it does mean that there's just a little bit more blame to pass around.

It's also important to point out that during the election, Obama received nearly no criticism from established media. This has two consequences: first, it legitimized the somewhat sleazy world of tabloid media by making them the only people in town with anything to say. Second, it made a lot of people very antagonistic towards the leadership of society in general by making them feel stifled, manipulated, irrelevant, and some of that antagonism translated straight to Obama himself, right or wrong. These forces shape our current environment.

FYI: There is a politics forum. www.blogcatalog.com/politics/discuss

[reply]
1. 10/21/09
  
  sumpterc
  
  fair enought, thanks
10/21/09

ThriftShopRomantic

I do think there's a certain portion of his constituents who are looking to find fault where ever they can, and promote that, yes.

I also have noticed that almost every thing that was said about Bush, is now being applied to Obama...

Such as being "stupid," taking too much vacation, etc.

I mean, like one of them or the other or neither or both, they're very different people. So these insults really cannot be one-size-fits all.

[reply]
1. 10/21/09
  
  sumpterc
  
  Your absolutely right...I am hoping it all swings back to being somewhat fair and balanced.
2. 10/21/09
  
  jeremyjanson
  
  There are a few legitimate criticisms too, however, especially about his health care policies. We need to see more of those.
10/21/09

MissSuzie

If the public wasn't overly critical of (any) President, I'd begin to worry.

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