Just how far are the media willing to go to get Barack Obama reelected?
As conservative author Ann Coulter told Fox News's Sean Hannity Friday evening, "He will have the entire mainstream media bucking for him and they will lie about the economy. 'Oh, it's a turnaround, don't stop him now'" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
ANN COULTER: I mean, Wall Street gave its biggest donation in world history to Obama. Why aren't they protesting Obama? They don't know what they're protesting. They're brainless. They're brainwashed and yes, there is always the possibility of violence with the mob.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. Did you ever give Chris Christie his inhaler back?
COULTER: I did because I'm now looking at Romney-Cain.
HANNITY: Wait a minute. Excuse me. His breathalyzer back.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTER: That was - for non-regular Hannity viewers - a reference to a mistake made by Obama.
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: And I want you to leave Obama alone, give the poor guy a break. He's still in grief over the cancellation of the first two weeks of the NBA season. Just back off.
HANNITY: I'm sorry if I'm going after the president. Well, it's getting cold, he can't play golf so he must be really upset. All right. But here's what I want to ask you, very simple. Now, who do you support?
COULTER: Romney-Cain, 2012.
HANNITY: OK. Romney-Cain, not Cain-Romney?
HANNITY: As bad as Obama's numbers are, can he make a comeback? In other words, could Republicans get overconfident and say, oh, unemployment is nine percent, he's in the 30s in terms of his popularity, 50 million Americans in poverty.
COULTER: To some extent. Yes. And you have to remember that he will have the entire mainstream media bucking for him and they will lie about the economy. "Oh, it's a turnaround, don't stop him now." But he doesn't understand the economy. He's done exactly the opposite of everything Ronald Reagan did and he's gotten the opposite results. I mean, he could turn it around by becoming the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan. What do you think the odds are of him doing that? And by the way, even that wouldn't turn the economy because once President Romney and Vice President Cain get into office, it's going to take 18 months to work through this schlock.
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: And then we are going to bring in Chris Christie as Mariano Rivera, he's getting going to be our closer, eight years out, and he will clean-up anything Romney and Cain left behind.
Coulter was 100 percent spot on concerning the media lying about the economy to get Obama reelected. That's how they got Bill Clinton in the White House in 1992.
Although Clinton-loving press members love to credit him with the '90s expansion, what they all conveniently forget is that it started almost two years before he was inaugurated.
As a refresher, the Clinton campaign's credo was "It's the Economy, Stupid." They knew the only way to beat the incumbent George H.W. Bush was to convince the American people things were far worse than they really were.
With the media's help, Clinton did exactly that. Yet the actual numbers don't support the premise.
The National Bureau of Economic Research - the entity responsible for officially determining when recessions begin and end - finds the '90s recession concluded in March, 1991. That's 22 months before Clinton was inaugurated and seven before he even put his name in as a candidate.
That's right - the recession that the media continued to report throughout the campaign ended 20 months before Election Day 1992.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis confirms the NBER's conclusion. The Gross Domestic Product grew by 2.7 percent in the second quarter of 1991. This was followed by gains of 1.7 percent and 1.6 percent in quarters three and four respectively.
Although growth was tepid in 1991, the recession actually ended in the first quarter of that year.
By 1992, the economy was beginning to explode with GDP gains of 4.5 percent, 4.3 percent, 4.2 percent, and 4.3 percent in quarters one through four respectively.
As such, despite what the Clinton campaign was saying on the stump - and the media were dishonestly reinforcing with their reports - the economy was in fine shape in 1992.
If the press had accurately conveyed this to the American people, George H.W. Bush would have been easily reelected despite the presence of Reform Party candidate Ross Perot.
Since this deceitful playbook worked perfectly in 1992, we should expect them to follow it once again 20 years later in order to keep Obama in the White House.
It's probably the only chance he has.
*****Update: Almost on cue, NewsBuster Tom Blumer offers a perfect example.
