In a display of the ever lowering standards by which the media judge Barack Obama's presidency, on Sunday's CBS Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer downplayed the President's failed Olympic bid: "this is going to come as a surprise to some but the world did not end Friday....a lot of people thought it might if the President flew to Copenhagen and failed to bring home the Olympics."
Schieffer went on to chastize those who speculated that Obama would take a political hit for such a failure: "Washington spent most of the week gnashing its teeth about whether he should have gone. Republicans accused him of dereliction of duty. Some in his own party shuddered at the possible humiliation of it all. Frankly, it didn't seem all that big a deal to me." He added: "I said at one point that if a trip to Copenhagen took his presidency over the side then it wasn't much of a presidency." Schieffer was referring to his defense of Obama's trip on last week's Early Show [1].
Wrapping up his end-of-the-show commentary, Schieffer argued: "If he wanted to give his hometown a boost, why not? Chicago is part of America the last time I looked." He then sarcastically declared: "Anyway he's back. Nothing happened. When I drove in this morning, the Washington Monument was still standing." So as long as the nation's capital isn't crumbling to the ground, Obama is doing a fine job.
Schieffer continued: "The problems that were here when he left are still here. No better, no worse. But so bad, my guess is the great Copenhagen gambit will soon be forgotten." That's exactly the point, while Obama was wasting his time on a fool's errand, the pressing issues of the country were not being addressed. No one claimed the world was going to end.
Here is a full transcript of the commentary:
10:55AM
BOB SCHIEFFER: And finally today, this is going to come as a surprise to some but the world did not end Friday. And from what I heard all week, a lot of people thought it might if the President flew to Copenhagen and failed to bring home the Olympics. Well he went. He asked. He failed. He was not even close. So he came home.
Washington spent most of the week gnashing its teeth about whether he should have gone. Republicans accused him of dereliction of duty. Some in his own party shuddered at the possible humiliation of it all. Frankly, it didn't seem all that big a deal to me. I said at one point that if a trip to Copenhagen took his presidency over the side then it wasn't much of a presidency. If he wanted to give his hometown a boost, why not? Chicago is part of America the last time I looked.
Anyway he's back. Nothing happened. When I drove in this morning, the Washington Monument was still standing. The problems that were here when he left are still here. No better, no worse. But so bad, my guess is the great Copenhagen gambit will soon be forgotten. Still, let us mark a moment of sympathy for the unfortunate White House staffer who told the President 'if you'll just fly all night to Copenhagen and then fly back, we're sure to get the Olympics for Chicago.' No. I wouldn't want to be that person.
-Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.