Some High Expectations for Obama: The Media Love Affair Edition

I did know that the media was in the tank for Obama in the runup to the election but they seem to be getting out of hand now with the Obama-mania.

Whew! Are journalists fostering the notion that Obama is invincible, the leader of what the New York Times dubbed "Generation O"?

Each writer, each publication, seems to reach for more eye-popping superlatives. "OBAMAISM -- It's a Kind of Religion," says New York magazine. "Those of us too young to have known JFK's Camelot are going to have our own giddy Camelot II to enrapture and entertain us," Kurt Andersen writes. The New York Post has already christened it "BAM-A-LOT."

I guess I kind of like how Obama has cured the Bush-derangement disorder and the anti-American bias that goes along with it. The problem is that I'm afraid the media might be setting the bar so high that if he doesn't clear it it might be disastrous. I mean the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in a guy who is described as Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan all at once.

So if he falters, is shown to be a crass politician, or badly bungles something like all Presidents eventually do (Lincoln got rid of Habeas Corpus, FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court, JFK had the Bay of Pigs, and Reagan had Iran/Contra) then the jaded backlash might damage his Presidency. Sometimes the worst enemies are the true-believers that think he has "sold-out" or somehow "betrayed them."

This is where I hope that the media stays in his corner for the duration just like they did for FDR. I mean the media pretty much hid the fact that FDR was in poor health at the end and could not walk-unaided because they knew that that information would hurt America. So maybe the media will gloss over any deficiencies Obama has and cut him some slack if he screws up. Maybe we will have less stories that damage America because they will damage the Obama Administration. Positive public perception is one of the key ingredients in a recovery.