Not exactly going out on a limb, but Fox News senior political
analyst Brit Hume predicted President Barack Obama's success in
getting his health bill passed and signed will lead to "a wave of
gushing coverage" for "the determination of this President to see
his signature initiative through." Hume, during the panel segment on Fox
News Sunday:
The early political fallout will be, particularly in the media, there will be a wave of gushing coverage. We already saw some, it's already beginning about the tenacity and the determination of this President to see his signature initiative through. It will be said that this was an act of real leadership and he kept on persisting when all seemed lost and there will be a lot of that.
The media' enthusiasm, however, will not match the public reaction,
the ABC News and Fox News veteran forecast, continuing on the March 21
program:
The fact though is there's not much chance, in my view, the public is going to start liking the measure any time soon and the political consequences for the Democrats in the fall are likely to be very severe. And the question then becomes, how does this President adjust to a new atmosphere in which he doesn't have these overwhelming majorities. He had a terrible time getting this thing passed even with them. So the question then becomes what is he going to do in the domestic area after that. Could he pivot to the center, could he turn to the center? I think not. I think he's temperamentally and intellectually disinclined to do that and adapt and adjust the way Bill Clinton did...
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [1] to follow him on Twitter.