Obama's cheerleaders in the mainstream media

Why is every economic report prefaced with the word 'unexpectedly'?

Michael Barone comes up with the answer:

"As Instapundit reader Gordon Stewart, quoted by Reynolds on May 17, put it, "How many times in a row can something happen unexpectedly before the experts start to, you know, expect it? At some point, shouldn't they be required to state the foundation for their expectations?"

"One answer is that many in the mainstream media have been cheerleading for Barack Obama. They and he both naturally hope for a strong economic recovery. After all, Obama can't keep blaming the economic doldrums on George W. Bush forever."

"I'm confident that any comparison of economic coverage in the Bush years and the coverage now would show far fewer variants of the word "unexpectedly" in stories suggesting economic doldrums."

"It's obviously going to be hard to achieve the unacknowledged goal of many mainstream journalists -- the president's re-election -- if the economic slump continues. So they characterize economic setbacks as unexpected, with the implication that there's still every reason to believe that, in Herbert Hoover's phrase, prosperity is just around the corner."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/05/pro-obama-media-always-shocked-bad-economic-news

California is a 'failed state'.

I agree with Walter Russell Mead who said:

"Let there be no mistake: when you produce so many criminals that you can’t afford to lock them up, you are a failed state. Virtually every important civil institution in society has to fail to get you to this point. Your homes and houses of worship are failing to build law abiding citizens, much less responsible and informed voters. Your schools aren’t educating enough of your kids to make an honest living. Your taxes and policies are so bad that you are driving thousands of businesses away. Your management systems must be fouled and confused to the max for you to create something so dysfunctional, so wildly beyond your means, that the Supreme Court of the United States (wisely or foolishly is another question) starts to micromanage your jails."

"California used to be the glory of this country, the dream by the sea, the magic state. Now it produces so many criminals it can’t pay to keep them locked up."

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/05/27/scotus-makes-it-official-california-a-failed-state/

David Mamet's conversion to Conservatism

David Mamet has won a Pulitzer, and written plays (Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow), and movie scripts (The Verdict, The Untouchables, Wag the Dog). Mr. Mamet has written a new book, The Secret Knowledge: The Dismantling of American Culture.

Mr. Mamet has converted from Liberalism to Conservatism and in the book he takes on the liberal Hollywood Establishment whom he says were communists "because they hadn't invented Pilates yet."

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Knowledge-Dismantling-American-Culture/dp/1595230769/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306617918&sr=1-1