Because the legacy media focused on the persona of Barack Obama and the “historic” nature of his candidacy, rather than anything substantive, it willfully neglected to thoroughly vet his specific campaign promises.  Like Washington Irving’s character Rip Van Winkle, the MSM’s critical thinking slept through the campaign, anesthetized by the popular cult of hope and change.

Rip van Winkle 3

Here’s an example of the MSM just now awakening to what it missed: On March 11, 2010, a Reuters article entitled “Obama facing uprising over new NASA strategy” stated that:

U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to tamp down an uprising in politically vital Florida against a new strategy for NASA that has rankled space veterans and lawmakers and sparked fears of job losses.

Obama’s decision to kill NASA’s Constellation program to launch astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon has prompted soul-searching about whether the United States is prepared to cede a pre-eminent space role to Russia and China.


A “new strategy” for NASA?  Maybe it will be “new” for NASA, but it’s an old promise Obama made during the campaign.

Obama’s primary campaign document was entitled “Blueprint For Change.”  The document was widely ignored by the MSM. The last paragraph of the 15-pages section entitled “Barack Obama’s Plan For Lifetime Success Through Education” read:

IX. A COMMITMENT TO FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Barack Obama’s early education and K-12 plan package costs about $18 billion per year. He will maintain fiscal responsibility and prevent any increase in the deficit by offsetting cuts and revenue sources in other parts of the government. The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years, using purchase cards and the negotiating power of the government to reduce costs of standardized procurement, auctioning surplus federal property, and reducing the erroneous payments identified by the Government Accountability Office, and closing the CEO pay deductibility loophole. The rest of the plan will be funded using a small portion of the savings associated with fighting the war in Iraq.

Now compare that paragraph to what candidate Obama said here.  Not a match.


USAToday did note the plan for NASA at the time, but only in passing.

To pay for his education program, Obama would eliminate tax-deductibility of CEO pay by corporations and delay NASA’s program to return to the moon and then journey to Mars.

“We’re not going to have the engineers and the scientists to continue space exploration if we don’t have kids who are able to read, write and compute,” Obama said.

Nearly two years ago a piece in a new media outlet, American Thinker, highlighted Obama’s plans for NASA. But the legacy media missed the consequences to NASA and Florida of “delaying” the Constellation program to NASA and Florida.

Meanwhile, Obama carried Florida in the 2008 election.

It’s just one more example of the willful negligence of the MSM, and why it become less relevant, daily.