Obama, the media, and the polls

By Creature

DougJ, over at Balloon Juice, makes a point I've been meaning to make:

But it’s strange to me that the same people who insisted Bush was a popular wartime president even when his approval rating was in the 40s are now concern-trolling Obama’s 55-60 percent approval rating. Note that while many media types say that the country only turned on Bush after Katrina, the reality is that his approval ratings were consistently well-below 50 percent starting a four or five months before Katrina. [...]

I can’t escape the feeling that many in the media are fixated on puncturing the Obama image in a way they never were with Bush. From 2001—2005, reporters boasted about the nicknames Bush gave them, now they boast about having asked Obama a “tough question”. What changed?

As Doug's commenters point out, it's the "D" after Obama's name that makes the difference. With the media geared toward internalizing GOP talking points, it can be no other way. It's either chip away at Obama's ratings or get yelled at by their Republican overlords. Since they fear Republicans more, it's a no-brainier.