Obama is partially at fault, the media is partially at fault, but there is one group you seem to be letting off the hook here. The American People.

It is the peoples' responsibility not to be fucking morons, and yet, they are what they are.

Spike is right. The American people need to pay more attention and listen. I would add that they listen to the president and not to the pundits. I've heard the president say a few times that hcr would not add to the deficit. I have to wonder though if these people in the poll heard the president, but just didn't believe him.

Or maybe they were just stupid. I'm still annoyed because none of the media has reported that the Republican "plan" wasn't scored by the CBO which says the President's bill would decrease the deficit. Or maybe the people their polling are just really stupid too. It does annoy me how many ignorant and proud of it, people we have in this country. I think the smart people still have them out numbered, for now.

Absolutely Spike

While Obama needs to take the lead on this--the misinformation noise machine created by our mainstream media, and led by Fox and talk radio, has led to this mess.

Plain and simple. This Democracy is toast is our media continues on this trajectory. A misinformed public is a weapon of mass destruction.

Most people want to live their lives and not have to worry about researching the minutiae of a policy dispute. Lazy? Perhaps, but it's understandable. I don't give the public a pass in this, mind, but I'm willing to cut the (inadvertently) uninformed and misinformed some slack. The folks who camp out in front of FOX and quote Limbaugh, not so much.

Which is a long-winded way of saying I agree with JG above.

Exactly. 99.9% of the public perception is shaped by our media because 99.9% of people do not follow the minutiae of politics.

What they do follow is the messaging. And that is created by Fixed news and talk radio, and legitimized by our corporate media.

Read Luntz' memo on financial regulation. I guarantee you Fox and talk radio will have the teabaggers in the streets over the bank fee--and the media will legitimize it.

In my experience with journalists....they tend have liberal values more often than not. So why does the MSM go out of their way to serve as the GOP mouthpiece? Republicans know how to work the system to get airtime. It's sleazy but it works for them. Democrats have to figure it out. But I don't see it happening.

eljef, journalists may vote liberal, but most of the talk-talk has little to do with journalism. So who knows how most of the talking heads vote?

Besides journalists don't decide what gets covered or how it should be presented. Owners and executives decide what is news.

This is not the president's fault at all. Even if Rahm has not been perfectly clear, Obama has been since the start.

Its ridiculous in itself that the president has to sit down with the republicans and explain to them why its bad to be such douchebags, but he can't sit down with the whole country and do that.

This society is dangerously masochistic.

In addition to the fact that it is unbelievable to em that Obama's first year is NEVER framed as clean up from the DISASTROUS Bush years. The media was given a giant "roofy" by Fox News and talk radio. It really is stunning. The buck stops with Obama, but he was left with a country in shambles.

Deficit talk has returned with a vengeance (without ANY context as if Obama created the mess)--and yet nothing about the HUGE middle class tax cut Obama and congress passed. The CNN thing is also really scary. Erick Erickson analyzing politics without another blogger for balance!?!?!?!?!? Endless "stimulus" investigations which started after the SOTU--hmmmmmmmm, where were the investigations on the BILLIONS lost in Iraq? If the media continues this, democracy is doomed.

more CNN--all morning they have used "Spending Bill" as their headline instead of "Budget."
F corporate media.

JG, why are you watching CNN if you F corporate media?