What if Bush had done that?

Early on in the Obama Administration I ran a series of posts titled "What if Bush had . . . . . . ?" Most of those posts focused on gaffes and mistakes made by our inexperienced and unprepared to lead president and how the media was not covering those mistake with anywhere near the fervor they would have if President Bush committed a similar offense. In the comments section of my post regarding President Obama being criticized by NOW for not having female golfing buddies, an old friend pointed out a column addressing that subject. From Josh Gerstein of Politico.com we get What if George W. Bush had done that? Obviously, the story is more related to the failings of our mainstream media to be objective reporters.

A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser.

Snubbing the Dalai Lama.

Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers.

Freezing out a TV network.

Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too.

President Barack Obama has done all of those things — and more.

What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character — or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda.

It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news judgment, and an illustration that, in politics, context is everything.

President Bush was not perfect (no one is), however his abysmally low popularity ratings by the end of his second term was as much or more a product of media complicity with the Democrats as it was a result of his policies.

(h/t Julie)