Flailing: Right-Wing Media Scramble To Find Attacks On Obama's Jobs Address

From Media Matters

Right-wing media have continued their long history of attacking President Obama's speeches by scrambling to criticize his September 8 address in which he proposed the American Jobs Act.

Right-Wing Media Flail In Attempt To Criticize Obama's Jobs Address

Doocy: Obama Repeated "Pass It Right Away" Like "One Of Those Guys On A Late-Night Infomercial." On the September 9 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy, after playing a montage of President Obama urging Congress to pass the American Jobs Act, claimed Obama was "[k]ind of almost like one of those guys on a late-night infomercial. Act before midnight! You should pass it right away. In all, he said that phrase about -- pass it right away -- 18 times, I heard somebody say last night on the radio. OK, so last night he's saying, you should pass it right away. Eighteen times." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/9/11, via Media Matters]

Hannity: Obama's Plan Is "A Massive Giveaway Of Government Goodies." On the September 8 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity attacked Obama's plan, claiming it was a "massive giveaway of government goodies" and that Obama "included a swipe ... at his political foes." FromHannity:

HANNITY: President Obama just unveiled the jobs plan that we've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for. Just to an address to a Joint Session of Congress that sounded more like a candidate stump speech than a president's policy proposal. Now, the anointed one and his economic team had months to hammer out the terms of the American Jobs Act. And tonight, the president proposed a massive giveaway of government goodies, to everybody, from teachers to small business owners, to construction workers. All paid for with, well, he's not quite sure, except, of course, for this.

[...]

Now, since it seems like the words "stimulus" and "tax hikes" were thrown out by the president's pollsters before the speech, well, I think that's the president's new call to tax the rich. And given that it was President Obama himself who delivered the speech, it also included a swipe -- what a shock -- at his political foes.

[...]

You know, basic protections, there were always there, like Obamacare and Cash for Clunkers. You know, urgent legislation that the president used his political capital to ram through when he had majorities in both houses of Congress. Now, if that does not tell you what this man's priorities are, I don't know what does. [Fox News, Hannity, 9/8/11, via Media Matters]

Miller: "It Was A Great Speech" But "There Was No Mention Of Unity Or 9-11." On the September 8 edition of Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight, Fox News contributor Judith Miller said "it was a great speech" but "it was devoid of substance" and later complained "there was no mention of unity or 9-11." [Fox Business, Lou Dobbs Tonight, 9/8/11, via Media Matters]

Breitbart: Obama Was "Looking To Get Mommy And Daddy (Congress) To Open Up Its Checkbook Again." A September 9 post on the right-wing blog Big Government quoted blogger Andrew Breitbart as saying:

The sometimes quasi-conciliatory tone in his speech contradicts his and Big Labor's Labor Day declaration of 'war' against GOP 'barbarians' and 'sons of bitches'. Looking to get mommy and daddy (Congress) to open up its checkbook again will cause some behavioral modification. His presidency is effectively over. But that doesn't mean the press can't go full-court press to pretend otherwise as it goes to hyperdrive trying to turn the country's ire on the Republicans. [Big Government, 9/9/11]

Morrissey: "Obama Simply Acted As If The" Energy "Problem Doesn't Exist At All." In a September 9 post on Hot Air, conservative blogger Ed Morrissey wrote:

Barack Obama's supporters praised him for having it in his joint-session speech last night on job creation.  A national economy needs plenty of it in order to expand.  Consumers consider it one of the most pressing economic issues they face.  Yet Obama's speech was curiously absent of any mention of one word ... energy.

That's right; you could look it up.  There wasn't one single mention in a speech about jobs and economic stimulation that addressed the need for the energy necessary to support it.  Never mind that part of the problem in the economy comes from a blunted demand that can be directly associated in part with the erosion in buying power created by rapidly-rising fuel costs, or that a significant share of the reluctance to invest in American economic expansion comes from the considerable uncertainty of regulatory assaults on energy production and the impact on future energy costs.

Obama simply acted as if the problem doesn't exist at all. [Hot Air, 9/9/11]

NRO: "A Stale Speech." In a September 8 post on National Review Online, Victor Davis Hanson wrote:

Obama must be in a time warp -- he thinks the content of his speech is new, or can be made new by more soaring cadences. It's almost as if he is oblivious to the fact that, before calling for nearly half a trillion dollars in government borrowing to jumpstart temporary job creation tonight, he already oversaw a failed $800 million stimulus, "shovel-ready" jobs that were later admitted to be not so shovel-ready, "millions of green jobs" talk leading to sweetheart loans to now-bankrupt crony companies, nearly $5 trillion in new borrowing, and massive new financial and environmental regulations. Been there, done that.

[...]

Why all that straw-man caricaturing ad nauseam, when after three years it is well beyond old and stale and, what's more, Obama has a desperate need now for bipartisan support? Is Obama just politically dense, or he is so inured to the Chicago us/them confrontational mentality that he knows no politics other than polarization, even when appealing for help? [National Review Online, 9/8/11]

Malkin: Obama "Uttered The Word 'Individual' " With "Contempt." In a September 8 post on her blog, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin wrote:

A few things I found striking:

1)The contempt with which Obama uttered the word "individual" as he repudiated the tradition of American rugged individualism.

2) The new nativist theme of the White House through the repeated "We're American! This is America! Americaaaa!" exhortations of the Citizen of the World-in-chief.

Shorter Obama: Collectivism is all-American, you sons-of-b*tches. Now pass the bill now that I am proposing, but which no one has seen or introduced yet. NOW! [MichelleMalkin.com, 9/8/11]

Right-Wing Media Consistently Attack Obama's Speeches

Right-Wing Media Attacked Obama's 2009 Cairo Address. Right-wing media attacked Obama's 2009 address in Cairo, Egypt, on relations with the Muslim world.

For more on the right-wing media's attack on Obama's Cairo speech, SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Launched Kitchen Sink Attack On Obama's Afghanistan Speech. Right-wing media launched multiple attacks on Obama's June 22 address on troop withdrawals in Afghanistan.

For more on the right-wing media's attack on Obama's Afghanistan speech, SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Attacked Obama's 2011 State Of The Union Address. Right-wing media attacked Obama's 2011 State of the Union address.

For more information about the right-wing media's attack on Obama's 2011 State of the Union address,SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Attacked Obama's 2010 State Of The Union Address. Right-wing media also attacked Obama's 2010 State of the Union address.

For more on about the right-wing media's attack on Obama's 2010 State of the Union address, SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Attacked Obama's Memorial Address Honoring The Victims Of The January Tucson Shooting. Right-wing media attacked Obama's memorial speech following the January shooting in Tucson, AZ.

For more on about the right-wing media's attack on Obama's Tucson speech, SEE HERE.