By contrast, on the same program, NPR's Joel Rose reported on the president's visit to Ground Zero, where he found people enraptured with the president, that "he's the best president we've ever had." The only potentially critical voice in the Rose story, a man worried about a "victory lap" for Obama, was pleased "I haven't heard any gloating." There was no room for the "bashing" that was quite routine on NPR when George W. Bush was running for re-election in 2004. Would they have skipped Howard Dean's digs as undignified? Even mild-mannered Pawlenty had sharper passages, like this:
Bret, we have $4 a gallon gas. This morning they announced $6 gas in Hawaii. We have crushing levels of unemployment. Almost unbearable for so many of our fellow Americans. A federal government that is out of control and spiraling towards financial insolvency. If you look at thosefacts and say president Obama is unbeatable, I say respectfully, those polls are wrong. We can't restore America’s promise unless we have a president who keeps his promises to America. He stood before the American people and said he's going to cut the deficit in half in his first term and he didn't keep that promise either.
Now see the Rose story. There's zero mention of the hostile exchange Obama had with Debra Burlingame, an activist whose pilot brother was killed in the plane that rammed into the Pentagon on 9/11. She told Fox's Martha McCallum (at about 3 minutes into the video) that she confronted Obama on how Attorney General Eric Holder is still considering criminal charges against CIA interrogators, even after interrogations helped with intelligence that located Osama bin Laden. "We wouldn't be here celebrating today if they hadn't done they job," she said she told the president, "and they have the hammer of a possible indictment over their heads, and can't you at least give him your opinion? And he said 'no, I won't' and he turned around and walked away."
NPR might say they never watch that noxious Fox News Channel since they fired Juan Williams for lowering himself to appearances on The O'Reilly Factor. They live in a land where almost everyone (or everyone worth quoting) has a favorable opinion of our liberal president.
JOEL ROSE: The president's first stop in New York was Engine 54, the midtown firehouse that lost 15 men on September 11th, more than any other. Mr. Obama told the firefighters, quote, "What happened on Sunday sent a message. When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say." Then he sat down for lunch at the station, prepared by Firefighter Joe Ceravolo.
Mr. JOE CERAVOLO (Firefighter): He was a great guy, you know. He...
ROSE: What did he say to you?
Mr. CERAVOLO: He just he loved the shrimp. He loved the veal. He really liked the eggplant parmesan. He was a really down-to-earth guy. We were just, you know, it was just like hanging out with the rest of the guys in the firehouse.
Can you be "down to earth" with the eggplant parmesan? That's a pretty classy firehouse. Then the First Celebrity went to Ground Zero:
ROSE: Mr. Obama did not hang out with the assembled reporters. Instead, the motorcade headed south to lower Manhattan and a brief visit to the First Precinct Police Station, near the World Trade Center site. Then it was on to Ground Zero, where Mr. Obama laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers to honor the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives there in September 2001. The president observed a moment of silence while photographers snapped pictures. (Soundbite of camera clicks)
Mr. Obama spoke privately to the families of September 11th victims and local elected officials from all parts of the political spectrum. But again, he passed on the opportunity to address the media or the hundreds of people who crowded the narrow streets around the World Trade Center site hoping for a glimpse of the president.
ROBERT HALLETT(ph): I was here 10 years ago. Actually, I was down in the one block up from here when the second plane hit. So it kind of comes full-circle today.
ROSE: Robert Hallett of New Jersey works a few blocks from Ground Zero. He says this crowd was more somber than the one that celebrated Osama bin Laden's death through the wee hours of Sunday night and right into Monday morning.
HALLETT: People chanting, and people had signs and flags and newspapers holding them up. And we got him, we got him. I think that today's a little bit different. The president is coming to Ground Zero. It's not really a time for a lot of hoopla.
ROSE: That changed - momentarily, at least - when the presidential motorcade rolled by, causing a forest of cameras and cell phones to shoot up into the air.(Soundbite of cheers) Silvia D'Addario(ph) of the Bronx didn't get a picture of the president, but she did see him waving from the window of his car and seemed happy about it.
SILVIA D'ADDARIO: I think that he's the best president we've ever had. So he's formidable. He gets the job done, and he does things in a very orchestrated manner. That's what we needed, someone on point, and he's got point.
ROSE: But not everyone in the crowd was so star struck. Matthew Botwin(ph) works a few blocks from Ground Zero. He thinks the president's appearance in New York could be seen as exploiting the capture of Osama bin Laden for political gains.
MATTHEW BOTWIN: You know, that phrase has been thrown around, victory lap. That doesn't sit well. You know, it seems like gloating, a little bit. But he didn't give a speech. I haven't heard any gloating. So it was a thought, and I'm glad he hasn't done that.
ROSE: The White House seems to be aware of that potential criticism, and that may be why the president avoided addressing the public or the press. John Lesquadro(ph) of Brooklyn thinks that was the good choice.
JOHN LESQUADRO: Personally, I think it was done tastefully. I don't think it was overdone. And I think it's making New York and the United States come together again and feel good about themselves.
It might seem natural that New Yorkers would be in a happy mood, and charitable to the president. But NPR had critics like Burlingame handed to them on a silver platter from other national media outlets and they typically stuck to the happy talk.
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