‘Energy has become a hot button election issue. President Obama’s State of the Union address and his decision to reject TransCanada’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline crystallized the fact. The language of the GOP presidential candidates post-Keystone was suitably pithy. Gingrich intoned it “a stunningly stupid thing to do”; Romney cited the move as “shocking” and “revealing”. But just as the GOP candidate race is turning into a drawn out war of attrition, the mainstream media mood music has changed.
‘Over recent months the president’s approval ratings have been low. Not surprising given the administration’s lack of progress to impact the national debt and job creation. So the president took a calculated gamble over Keystone. Not wanting to alienate his significant environmentalist support base, he believes the decision will have little traction with key independent voters. As the political fall-out from Keystone continues apace in the more overt liberal and conservative media, high-profile elements of the alleged mainstream media may have chosen this moment to play a hand for the re-election of the president.
‘On the very week Gingrich surprised Romney with a clear victory in South Carolina – a mega national news development in the GOP presidential race – Time and Newsweek magazine both chose to run statesman-like cover stories on an entirely different candidate … President Obama.
‘Time’s “Obama’s World” front cover showed a thoughtful commander-in-chief leader in the Oval Office apparently weighing the great affairs of state. Inside the actual story was entitled “The Strategist”. You know the sort of thing, pretty much how every CEO would like to have his PR team depict him in the company annual report. Fareed Zakaria’s piece focuses exclusively on President Obama’s foreign policy record, arguably considered more successful than his combined domestic policies. Zakaria’s whole point is that Obama’s successful global policies have been overlooked as foreign policy has been largely omitted from the GOP debates. Only one problem with that, it wasn’t. Whatever debates Zakaria was watching, foreign policy came up continually in the Republican primaries. Remember Ron Paul’s 9/11 observations?
‘Newsweek went one better. They hired a self-proclaimed “conservative-minded independent”, Andrew Sullivan, to make the case that Obama’s critics are failing to see “How Obama’s Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics”, again implying a strategic mind on the case. You might be scratching your head at how anyone could put a positive spin on the running up of a $15 trillion national debt and an unemployment level doggedly sticking around 9 percent; especially, at a time when the newly reinvigorated national energy industry is desperate for drilling crews, drilling licenses, shale drilling development expansion and, oh yes, to build mega-pipeline projects. But Sullivan tried his best.’
— & Peter C. Glover
