Bush treated less fairly than Obama, survey says

BUsh stole the election. Obama won the vote.

and exactly why would anyone expect otherwise.

the old shot in the foot /

the new hope.

cast your vote

That's one hell of a story, Boston.com.

Isn't that called sour grapes?

I think it's called respect.

Obama, the Democratic Party, and the mainstream "old" media are the same "thing" and we all know it. Readers and viewers must boycott the "old liberal media" or nothing will change. The "old liberal media" is manipulating elections to favor democratic aspirants and this must stop!!!! Boston.com is a great example!

Maybe it's because Bush spent the last years flushing America politically, socially, and economically down the toilet.

Fair? You people are kidding, right?

Lifelong registered democrat here.........

The treatment of W by the press since BEFORE he was first elected in 2000 has been the most horrible, despicable things I've ever witnessed. Now, the MSM in this country have given us a man who is the antithesis of MLK imprecation that we judge a man not by his skin color but by the content of his character.

Obama has chosen, CHOSEN to associate with people who show us by their words, deeds and actions that they possess NO CHARACTER. Heck, Bill Ayers is a MURDERER. Jeremiah Wright is filth personified. Ad infinitum.

God help thge USA.

Although it's probably true that the media isn't being quite fair to Bush, in a way he deserves it.

From an article in the online-only newspaper New York Times, published on January 1, 2090.

It’s hard to imagine this now, but while he was in office, George W. Bush was considered by many of his critics the worst United States President in history. The 44th US President, liberator of 60 million citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan, focal point of a unique dual-nation national holiday on Bush’s birthday, and the man responsible for the birth of democratic ideals which have now spread throughout the Middle and Near east, suffered abuse from critics in the media comparable only to that suffered by America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Although their leadership styles where vastly different, and they were two very different kinds of men, they shared similar circumstances in that they presided over wars that were initially backed by large majorities of the American public who then turned upon them both with unprecedented savagery when the wars dragged on inconclusively for several years. Virtually alone, both men prosecuted their wars to ultimate victory, with enormous long-term successful consequences for all three nations.

Lincoln, of course, had much the harder job. The American Civil War ultimately cost the nation 650,000 lives, 2% of her population, an equivalent of 8 million lives today. The total American deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stood at just over 5,000 at the close of major hostilities in 2009. It became public knowledge at the end of his term in office that Bush personally visited with the families of fully a quarter of the war’s fatalities, personally composed and signed letters of condolence to the families of each soldier lost, and quietly visited the wounded in military hospitals hundreds of times. This exacted an enormous emotional toll on the 44th president, and almost certainly contributed to his death of heart disease three years into the one term-presidency of his successor, Barack Obama.

The addition of Bush’s visage to that of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan is expected to be completed in time for the celebration of Bush’s 150th birthday on July 6th, 2096.

So, folks think Obama has been treated more fairly by the press than has Bush. No kidding? Well, Duh.

Maybe its because Bush had screwed up, and Obama have not had a chance yet. If a democratic president was leaving the office with a horrible track record as Bush, I bet conservatives would sing a different song.

Well, that isn't news. The media have been negative towards Bush since the first day he was elected. Hell, the New York Times spent an unbelieveable amount of time and money trying to prove that Bush didn't win Florida in the election, only to find out that when the recount was finally finished, Bush won more votes than he was credited with in the official tally. The only problem with Florida that year was a Democrat operative who was caught with a ballot punching machine in his auto trunk by the Florida Highway Patrol couldn't count correctly and didn't punch enough Gore votes.

Difficult to Overcome "Bush Effect", and Legacy...

Iraq: lack of preparation for occupation; looting; insufficient troop levels; lack of protective armor; failure to secure munitions; disbanding of Iraqi army; banned Baathists from gov’t; large scale inability to account for funds; denial of actual status and conditions; escalation rather than withdrawal; lack of mission, no Iraqi WMDs, use of US WMDs against civilians.
Afghanistan - resurgent Taliban, exploding opium production
Failure to catch bin Laden
Civilian contractors without accountability, no bid contracts, overpriced gas
The Military Commissions Act, torture, indefinite detention, the end of habeas corpus and kangaroo courts, rendition, black sites
Banning photography of coffins of returning war dead;
False military reporting: Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch
TALON-surveillance of civilians.
Trauma training by torturing live animals;
Exposure of marine mammals to high-powered Navy SONAR
Dept of Education - Reading First scandal; student loan scandal; improper billing; Theresa Shaw ‘bonuses’
DOE –Energy Task Force; refusal to intervene in Enron-driven energy crisis; failure to secure fissile material at US nuke sites
Dept of HHS – FDA: food safety underfunding; inspection cut-backs; reliance on self-policing; lack of inspection of imported foods; inability to force recalls; Crawford undisclosed conflicts of interest force departure as FDA head; refusal to dispense care found morally or religiously objectionable
DHS - Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, destruction of New Orleans, FEMA, politically-driven “threat levels”; Julie Myers; no bid cost overrun privatized intel contracts to Booz Allen; dozens of air marshals charged with crimes and hundreds accused of misconduct;
OSHA - Coal Industry Attorney Prevent Enforecement of Clear Air Act.
HUD – Jackson cancelled contract because recipient wasn’t pro-Bush; GOP-friendly deals
DOJ – US Attorney firings; Loyalty Oaths; Harriet Miers for Supreme Ct; phone jamming in New Hampshire; administrative warrant overuse and abuse; voter ID laws, exaggerating voter fraud, attempts to eviscerate Voting Rights Act; FBI domestic spying without probable cause; use of political or ideological affiliations in assessing candidates
Dept of Labor - self-regulation of industry, by industry, for industry; Wall Street Journal notes DOL has ruled in favor of whistleblowers in only 17 of 1,273 complaints in subsidiaries of public companies since Sarbanes-Oxley
Dept of State – Understaffing; enabler of Blackwater; arms contracts; Keyser feeding secrets to Chinese spy
Dept of the Interior – Global warming denial and stalling; MacDonald’s subversion of science
Dept of the Treasury – Illegally changed tax code that allowed banks to merge with other banks and combine profits and losses for tax purposes, since been used by Wells Fargo to acquire Wachovia
Dept of Transportation – Relaxes rules on truck driver sleep requirements (similar to ones thrown out by the DC Circuit Ct of Appeals)
Dept of Veterans Affairs – Poor treatment and living conditions in Walter Reed, undelivered mail, shortage of caseworkers,…; data on 26 million veterans stolen
EPA - Global warming denial and stalling; Christie Todd Whitman declares toxic Ground Zero to be “non-toxic”; cancelled plans to phase out MTBE; wetland protections tailored for industry; forced resignation of administrator Mary Gade, who demanded Dow Chemical clean up dioxin
FCC – Media consolidation
CIA – Investigates own Inspector General, compromising the integrity of the office; destruction of torture tapes; politicized ‘intel’
CPSC – Gutted by Bush appointee
NASA – NASA’s O’Keefe alerted to pending investigation of office
Other: Multi-trillion dollar deficit; theft of 2000 election, rigging of 2004 election; voter suppression in 2008 election; manipulation of 9/11 Commission; Marginalization of the UN; Bush Doctrine; Geneva Convention –“quaint”; loss of US goodwill; underfunding of basic research; signing statements; Unitary Executive doctrine; subversion of science; paid propagandists; asserted right to open US mail (made in a signing statement); outing of CIA agent; violations of Hatch Act and Presidential Records Act; Swift boating; subversion of separation of church and state; Boeing tanker procurement scam; coverup strategies to fight Congressional oversight; reversal on Intl. Criminal Court; Downing Street memo; anti-regulator appointed as top regulator in OMB; politicization of PBS; ‘4th branch’ of government; Scalia/Cheney hunting trip; Medals of Freedom; ethanol; attempts to overrun ‘Roadless Rule’; coverup of uranium losses; removal of protestors; 11th hour rule changes; firing of whistle blowers; Bolton; military propagandists; violation of Posse Comitatus Act
P

Are you kidding me ? With what the Bush administration had done to this country and getting away with things are unbelievable. And with the nerve of trying to make himself look good before leaving off....and I just can't believe of all the ignorance people out there letting Bush and his gang getting away with taking the our country's money and lining his friends with millions/billions of dollars ...Don't even get me going on Cheney and Halliburtons...This is where I have karma works.....

This is no surprise to me. What was left of journalism died during the last four years and has been replaced by a bunch of partisan hacks. It is interesting that during the last two years the approval rating for Bush, as low as it was, was consistently 10 percentage points higher than that of Congress, which doesn't say much for our Congressional leadership.

This only demonstrates how short a memory the public has. Have we forgotten already Bush's 70% approval rating right after 9/11? Back then, he could do no wrong.

Neither the press, nor Barack Obama had anything to do with Bush squandering that legacy. He—and his Administration—bear that responsibility alone.

The Bush team is now desperately trying to recast Bush as a reincarnation of Harry Truman, i.e., reviled during his tenure, but rehabilitated by History. However true this may be (and, truth be told, even the most impassioned of historians would never label Truman a "great" President), it's likely Bush will retain his moniker of "The Worse President We Ever Had."

Who wrote this nonsense? Fair and negative are not the same thing. Fair reporting is honest reporting. If the guy is not doing very well, it should be reported as such, and vice versa. The consolidated press' contribution to the mess(es) we are in today is the "fairness" concept this article is trying to peddle, which is telling the truth is not fair if it can be construed as "negative" reporting by somebody. If you cannot present the facts as they are, you are not being "fair" to me, the reader.

61% believe the coverage of Obama has been "fair"? You've GOT to be kidding me! "Fair" is not the correct word, in this case. Coverage of Obama by the MSM has been:

Fawning. Obsequious. Ingratiating. Servile. Toadying. Submissive. Deferential. Bootlicking. Brownnosing. Sycophantic.

Take your pick.

Why should Bush not receive more unfavorable press? After all, he inherited a balanced federal budget and is leaving office with a $1.2 trillion deficit plus wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an unsettled situation in Gaza, huge unfunded mandates with Medicare and a US image in tatters abroad. The Clinton eight years created 22.5M new jobs and Bush has had negative job growth plus a recession to close out his term in the White House. What is there to admire about George W. Bush?

"Republicans are far more likely to believe that Bush is getting the short end." That's the nut that explains why this is a non-story. And the 29% is about equal to the die-hard "thirty percenters" who always support Bush no matter what the fool does. He deserves more critical treatment. If he'd been given MORE critical treatment over the last 8 years, we wouldn't be in some of the messes we're in.

The failure of too many Republicans and conservatives to discriminate between heavyweight and lightweight Presidential candidates makes it appear that the Press is treating President Bush unfairly. Until the Republican Party embraces a higher level of maturity, it will probably continue to disenfranchise itself from center-stage politics rather than lead.

More than by "party lines" people who know the real reason for the economic crisis don't blame 100% of it on bush. The huge national debt is his fault the mortgage meltdown was caused by the CRA and poor lending standards to less worthy borrowers. The bill (CRA) was passed in 1977 but deregulated by Clinton in his term. This opened the floodgates to poor people buying houses. The problem with poor people buying houses you ask PEOPLE ARE POOR BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO MONEY

No $$ = No repayment: also called the bubble bursting.

WHO CARES???? Good riddance. I think the press has been more than "fair" in the way they treat the "outgoing" president considering the huge mess he made and now leaves behind.

Bush is a complete idiot who got in due to his daddy's connections and big oil contacts! HE'S A GOOD OLD BOY! WE ARE TIRED OF THIS MAN! THANK GOD HE IS GOING HOME!

Gee...maybe because G.W. Bush didn't win in 2000? We (the American People) let him steal the election and look what it got us. Congrats on being stupid!

President Bush may indeed have been treated "less fairly" than Senator Obama or, in fact, than any president in our history, including Nixon.

And that's what comes of appointing the management of a nation state to an intellectually disengaged, morally apathetic, Christio-fascist, C-student, college jock who never bothered to properly complete his military service, who guffaws like an adolescent, and who never even took an opportunity to look up the correct pronunciation of the word "nuclear" before ascending to the unlikely office of command-in-chief.

I mean give me a ******* break.

I LOVE these republican goobers that are complaining about "ooo the liberal media constantly gets Dems elected by swaying people!" etc. Are you serious? Who's been the President for the past 8 years? A Repub. Who controlled both the House and the Senate 6 of the last 8 years? Repubs. Ya'll just need to chill out. You had your turn. You failed. Now it's our turn to give it a shot.

Everyone will understand one day-- and then it will be too late---

and boston.com needed a poll and research to know this?

SBJ (#22) says "He deserves more critical treatment. If he'd been given MORE critical treatment over the last 8 years, we wouldn't be in some of the messes we're in."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JUST as Obama deserved a helluva lot more "critical treatment" during his campaign. But he never got it. the MSM gave him marshmallow questions; with actual fawning over him with sickening, simpering attitudes instead of doing their journalistic duty. They were like dogs cowering before their master, hoping for a little bone to be thrown so they could be in favor in his eyes.

No one drilling down on HOW he planned to do all of The Chosen One's decrees that would solve the world's problems. It was all "time for a change" and "we have to have hope" and voila! He was "The One". Never more so in the 30 years that I've been voting have I seen the press *not* do their jobs as they haven't done these past two years. They are *supposed* to be journalists - they are supposed to REPORT the news, not MAKE it - which they did with their constant, fawning coverage of "their chosen candidate".

What would Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, or Peter Jennings think of their former compatriots in the press? I can only assume the disgust would be obvious on their faces. The MSM is no better nowadays than the entertainment shows.

Matt, you are truly a fool. You take one part of this whole situation and make it the cause. If it was only the "poor people" who defaulted on thier loans only Fannie and Freddie Mac would be in trouble, the economic crisis would only be in the housing market and much smaller than it is now. Now you are correct about CRA and that it was deregulated by Clinton, but it took Bush to deregulate the SEC to the point where those mortages were rolled into sub-prime bonds and sold on Wall Street. Wall Street did not know what it was selling but sold it any ways as it was a great way of making a lot of cash with little or no risk. On top of that the people who grade these bonds did not understand them, but gave them AAA rates any ways because they were bought off by Wall Street, but the SEC never stepped in because of the REPLUBLICAN congress deregulated them, removed the glass-steele act which forbid bank from throwing thier own hate into the Stock Market. Then the derivative market off the sub-prime bonds was "invented", which is just a complete scam in and of itself. The insurance companies insure these loans, bonds, derivates and what you get is one giant house of cards that is now tumbling around our ears

There is much more to this economic crisis than just the housing scandels. This recession is not just in one part of the country or a few industries, like every other recession has been. This resession is everywhere and effects everyone. This was just not a democrat issue or a republican issue, this is all our fault. Every single American citizen fault. There is no partisan in this at all.

The press is not nearly as critical of Bush as he deserves .his country had the closest thing to tyranny that has ever occurred in this country and the press responds as if Bush is a variant of normal. He is not! He is a member of a fring element whose power has not withered.

Nice fairy tale by Ernie (#11) who is still drunk on the GOP koolade when he penned "the addition of Bush’s visage to that of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan is expected to be completed in time for the celebration of Bush’s 150th birthday on July 6th, 2096". Ernie, just pray you never have children so that your offsprings are not ashamed of their dumbass dad.

It simply amazes me that there are still people out there who support Bush. He has been the most incompetent failure I have ever witnessed. I can only believe that there is about 30% of the populace that is equally ignorant, and therefor identify with such a slow learner. What is to wonder about the press covering someone who does stupid, dangerous, destructive things on a routine basis? Of course GWB received more coverage, and of course it was more negative! When you can't string 10 words together into a comprehensible sentence, you beg to be covered like a blanket, with everyone anticipating your next major blunder, and GWB never failed to deliver.

I have never been a fan of G.W. but I do think that he is getting the short end of the stick on the transition. His handling of virtually everything else in his administration was god-awful but I do believe that he is doing an absolutely world-class job handling the transition. Cudos to President Bush on this one.

QUOTE: In the transfer of presidential power, Americans believe President-elect Barack Obama is getting a fairer shake from the press than outgoing President Bush, a new survey says. END QUOTE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, do tell. Is any of this news? I wonder if there were any "wet legged tingly feelings" among media types concerning President Bush. The American media is forever a sham. They will never recover any credibility after this election.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Redumlicans ... quit whining and boo-hoo-ing like a bunch of little girls. You elected an idiot ... twice ... your war on intelligence never ends!!! What a bunch of losers.

I just hope the Right will act more maturely during the next four years than the Left has the last eight.

After a recount that the "Big Media " did not publish it was proved that Bush won the Florida Vote and consequently the electoral vote. This is the same electoral vote that Obama is using to claim a landslide victory, even though the popular vote was a few percentage points apart.

As an educator I have learned to recognize an immature childish fit. We have seen one from the media and some of the "Left" for the last four years. I don't care if President Bush had cured hunger in the world, captured Osama himself with nothing more than a toothpick and a bandanna, he would not have received the credit.

I thought that after he won in 2004 things might change a bit. So much for change!

Bush was blamed for things he had nothing to do with and even a few that were caused by the far left. O well, life does go on. I just hope that the press will evaluate President Obama with the same critical eye they did Bush.

And no I am not real happy about the Iraq war either but I give my thanks that Gore was not in the Oval Office when 9-11 happened.

Have you noticed that none of the "Republican" responders have resorted to name calling or insults? Tells us something about the morality of the two parties and their supporters.

Roy Benson is an educator?? Yikes!!! We are truly in deep, deep trouble. Neither Roy nor "I vote for character" has any clue what has happened over the last eight years. Is it true that ignorance is bliss?

See what I mean about the name calling and insulting.

'Ignorance is blisss' ... I guess you didn't noticed the manner in which Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the Republican Party have conducted themselves over the last eight years. They went way too far with their venom, arrogance, tough talk, and hostility, and now a lot of people are pushing back ... forcefully. Enough, and never again. Funny how you are now calling for fairness and maturity ... too late, you blew it. Stop your crying.