Ben Stein: They are Lynching My President

There was American Spectator columnist Ben Stein sitting back watching the president’s State of the Union speech. “I thought it was darned good. Realistic, gracious, modest, sensible.”  But as soon as it was over the media started in on it. 

Then, whaam, as soon as the speech was over, ABC was bashing him, telling us how pathetic he was, how irrelevant he was, how weak he was, how unrealistic he was.

NPR even dragged singer Merle Haggard in to say how bad things were.

And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush. They cannot impeach him because he hasn’t done anything illegal. But they can endlessly tell us what a loser he is and how out of touch he is[.]

So they are.  But how bad is it really?  After all, every Republican president since Eisenhower—no scratch that, Coolidge—has been painted by the media as a complete nitwit.  So what’s new? 

OK, so we get Hillary as president in 2008.  So what does she do?  A tax increase and universal health insurance?  Let’s see.  Something went really wrong for the Democrats when the Clintons tried that in 1993-94.

Let’s give the media their due.  Bush has been in for six years and it’s time for everyone to say that they would never have voted for him given what they know now.  That’s how democracy works.

But I don’t know that I’d want to be a Democratic president in 2009.  Too many chickens coming home to roost.  And not much lovely money to spend on Democratic voters.

And frankly, if I were the Democrats I’d hold off on universal health insurance.  If the already government-dominated health system were taken completely under the government’s wing, the mess would be indescribable. 

And you never know.  Voters might blame Democrats for the mess.