Breaking Point: Even the mainstream media are getting sick of Barack Obama
Sure, like the rest of Obama’s loyal fan base, they’ll fall in line in time to try to push him over the finish line first in November, but for right now, some journalists in the mainstream media are making it clear he’s annoying even them at this point:
Prior to President Barack Obama’s marathon 54 minute speech in Ohio today, the Obama campaign sent our several statements promising the speech would be a major address framing the campaign going forward. Despite the hype, the speech was mainly a rehash of themes and ideas from the president’s recent stump speeches and his remarks were widely panned as overly long by the political press corps.
In the speech, President Obama outlined his view that this election is a choice between “two fundamentally different views of which direction America should take.” He characterized Mitt Romney’s vision as being the same as the “policies of the last decade,” specifically deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy while he described his own “vision for America” as boiling down to five things: “Education. Energy. Innovation. Infrastructure. And a tax code focused on American job creation and balanced deficit reduction.” President Obama also stressed that the economic crisis began during the Bush administration and that is “started growing again” after he took office and has since “continued to grow.”
All of these points have already been featured in the president’s other recent speeches. Between the pre-speech hype from the campaign, the lack of new material and the overall length of the speech reporters were clearly dissatisfied with end result. Read on for a sampling of Tweets from the political press slamming the president’s speech.
Before the speech was over, Politico’s Mike O’Brien begged the president to stop.
And he’s not the only one. Click here to see Tweets from several eye-rolling journalists who watched today’s so-called “major economic speech” that wasn’t so “major.”
For the record, here are President Obama’s prepared remarks from his speech earlier today. I can’t even bear to read what he has to say, let alone watch it in its entirety anymore – which is one good reason why I’ll probably never be a “real journalist” …
In other Obama news, Mr. “I have presidential responsibilities” will be in attendance tonight (if he’s not come and gone already) at a swanky $40,000 per person fundraiser in NYC hosted by (and in the home of) SATC actress Sarah Jessica Parker, her husband actor Matthew Broderick, and Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour. For anyone deluded enough to think the amount of time Obama spends fundraising is just “standard operating procedure” for a President at this stage of a re-election campaign, think again:
President Obama today will continue his record-smashing fundraising schedule with six events in two states, tying the number for most fundraisers attended in a single day of his re-election campaign. Obama will raise north of $3.6 million for the Obama Victory Fund in Baltimore and Philadelphia, according to figures provided by the campaign.
The latest round of money events – with several more scheduled for New York City on Thursday, including a star-studded reception at actress Sarah Jessica Parker’s home – underscores the unprecedented amount of time the president is spending on the money trail.
In the first 12 days of June, Obama has attended 21 fundraising events. All told, he has now attended 163 re-election fundraisers for his campaign and the Democratic Party – almost double the number George W. Bush attended in his entire first term (86) and more than any other president in history.
“Responsibilities” indeed.
BTW, Sarah Jessica Parker really IS a great actress – in this video clip promoting Obama and announcing the dinner party, she actually LOOKS like she knows what she’s talking about. She doesn’t of course that but that’s the secret to being a good actress, you see.