It can be a powerful drug. I’ve seen many of my media friends swept off their feet by its incredible power and influence. Hopeium. Oh, the mere sight or sound of the junk can cause the most callous and caustic reporter to wither and melt like Nancy Pelosi during a free Botox party.

The first time the media heard Barack Obama use the phrase “Hope”, they were hooked.

It explains what caused NBC’s Chris Matthews to get the “thrill up going up my leg”, as Barack Obama spoke. It explains why ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and his wife cried on Inauguration Day. Maybe it explains what Evan Thomas of Newsweek was thinking when he proclaimed Obama is, “sort of god.” Here’s the full quote so you have the context:

I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God.

Timothy Leary would love this. That’s some powerful stuff. High on hopeium.

The first step towards rehab is recognition. If you don’t KNOW you have a problem, how can you begin to solve it? This is where Scott Brown comes in. The new Senator from Massachusetts might have caused a few media people to drop the needle, flush the pills, or at least think about it. Paul Krugman, lib writer at the New York Times even said the other day, “I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama.” Wooooah! Calm down Paul, don’t go cold turkey on us! (more…)

Did you believe in “Hope?”  Millions of American obviously did, including 99 percent of the media, as they elected Barack Hussein Obama II the 44th President of the United States in the fall of 2008.

Despite the loss of “Teddy Kennedy’s seat” in Massachusetts, the collapse of “health-care reform” and really ugly poll numbers, some members of the official Media Cheerleading Squad apparently still do, and nothing to the contrary is going to convince them otherwise.  Here’s Frank Rich over the weekend in the New York Times, head still firmly in the sand:

It was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America. It was not a rejection of universal health care, which Massachusetts mandated (with Scott Brown’s State Senate vote) in 2006. It was not a harbinger of a resurgent G.O.P., whose numbers remain in the toilet. Brown had the good sense not to identify himself as a Republican in either his campaign advertising or his victory speech. (more…)