But most established media outlets ignored the contradictions.
A Politico article, headlined, “President Obama; Likable Enough,” declared that Obama “lamented — tongue-in-cheek — that Republicans are too worried about Fox News and the tea party to allow themselves to be swayed by his charming, fun-loving personality.”
“President Obama vowed Monday that he would not negotiate with Republicans over the federal debt ceiling, warning that Social Security checks would be delayed and the nation could enter a new recession if Republicans do not agree to raise the limit on government borrowing,” led a Washington Post article, which highlighted Obama’s hardline rhetoric, but not the contradictions and flips-flops.
“Mr. Obama called the final news conference of his first term to reinforce before national television cameras his demand that Congress unconditionally increase the legal limit on the government’s authority to borrow money to pay its bills,” The New York Times reported.
Obama also touted his claim that he has negotiated a cut of $2.5 billion in 10-year spending plans, but didn’t mention that his plan now projects deficit spending of $6.4 trillion over that period, nor did he acknowledge that his administration has spent $2.4 trillion in borrowed funds since 2010.
“President Obama showed that he either thinks he can pull the wool over Americans’ eyes through the sheer force of his own outrageous rhetoric, or else he really believes his own rhetoric and is living in a fantasyland,” read an article in The Weekly Standard. “The guess here is that it’s a roughly even mix of the two,” it added.
