Susan Page

Under Painting of Lincoln Peering Down at Obama, USA Today Explores Obama's Underappreciated 'Historic' Greatness
By Brent Baker | May 12, 2010 | 4:23 PM EDT

“Will doing 'big things' wind up costing Obama?” a Wednesday USA Today front page article worried, accompanied by a photo of contemplative President Barack Obama with Abraham Lincoln in a painting peering down at him. The caption: “History book bound?” The subhead for the story by Susan Page and Mimi Hall: “Voters' anxiety clouds his historic successes.”

The effusive lead presumed Obama deserves credit for great achievements the public has been slow to recognize:

Big problems. Big achievements. Big costs.

Historians say President Obama's legislative record during a crisis-ridden presidency already puts him in a league with such consequential presidents as Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt. But polls show voters aren't totally on board with his achievements, at least not yet, and the White House acknowledges that his victories have carried huge financial and political costs.

“There are always costs in doing big things,” Obama told USA Today.
The duo later declared: “Historians call Obama's record incomparable.” And they meant that as a glowing positive. (Larger jpg of the front page headline and photo)
MSNBC’s Matthews Finds Obama’s Weakness: He’s ‘Too Darned Intellectual’
By Kyle Drennen | November 20, 2009 | 6:35 PM EST
At the top of Friday’s Hardball on MSNBC, host Chris Matthews discovered the reason for President Obama’s political difficulties in recent months: “President Obama has his chin out on just about every hot issue out there....He’s exposed and vulnerable. His poll numbers are dropping. Is he just too darned intellectual? Too much the egg head?”

Later in the show, Matthews talked to Atlantic Media’s Ron Brownstein and USA Today’s Susan Page about Obama’s great flaw. He began by wondering: “I’m not attacking intellectuals because I do appreciate their contribution – but when politicians begin to get a little too intellectual, they lose connection with the American people....I begin to think this administration’s getting almost like one that you would imagine Adlai Stevenson running. Highly ethereal, highly intellectual, egg head. Not connected to real people and their emotional gut feelings about things.”    

Page agreed and pointed out: “...there are many strengths to the Obama administration, but they’ve got an awful lot of people who went to Ivy League schools, which is great, but you also need some people who went to big state colleges.” Luckily, Page found an ‘average Joe’ in the administration: “Vice President Biden’s been the target of some fun, he is maybe the only voice in that inner circle that reflects that kind of big state school mentality.”
DNC: GOP Has Thrown In With 'Terrorists -- Taliban and Hamas' in Opposing Obama's Nobel (Updated)
By Tim Graham | October 9, 2009 | 11:07 AM EDT

While two reporters -- Washington Post White House reporter Michael Fletcher and Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Gerald Seib -- criticized RNC Chairman Michael Steele this morning on NPR's Diane Rehm show for issuing a statement against Obama after the Nobel Peace Prize win [transcript now below], will reporters forward and criticize this, from the CNN Political Ticker?

'Nation's Newspaper' USA Today Devotes Just Nine Paragraphs to Tea Parties
By Ken Shepherd | April 16, 2009 | 4:11 PM EDT

<p>USA Today, which touts itself as the &quot;The Nation's Newspaper,&quot; devoted just nine paragraphs on <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-04-15-tea-parties_N.htm" target="_blank">page 3A of the April 16 paper</a> to the roughly 800 Tea Parties held nationwide yesterday.</p><p>By contrast, on Tax Day morning, readers of April 15 USA Today, some of whom probably reading USA Today over breakfast, were greeted with a front page story that was six times longer and insisted that &quot;<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-04-14-biggovernment_N.htm" target="_blank">Most Americans OK with Big Government, at least for now</a>.&quot; </p><blockquote><div>WASHINGTON — Most Americans say they're glad Big Government is back to help through hard times. But they aren't sure they want it to stay.</div>

Matthews: Is Obama Avoiding Tough Questions From the Press?
By Noel Sheppard | March 28, 2009 | 6:13 PM EDT

I don't know what got into MSNBC's Chris Matthews Thursday, but the "Hardball" host seemed rather annoyed by his President's recent treatment of the news media.

First, he opened up a segment with guests Roger Simon of "Politico" and USA Today's Susan Page by accusing Barack Obama of behaving "like the campaign never ended" asking:

[W]hat`s the president up to? Is he doing what he does well? Is he simply sticking to his strengths? Or is he trying to bypass what he sees as a problem area, meaning the national press corps?

Later, he suggested that the folks at Thursday's Internet town hall were "self-selected" much like a "Potemkin village" (video embedded below the fold with full transcript):

Andrea Mitchell Gushes Over Michelle Obama
By Lyndsi Thomas | July 1, 2008 | 10:11 AM EDT

Michelle Obama has made a lot of news with her now infamous soundbite about how America is “downright mean” and that “for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.”

But the mainstream media feel that they must defend the potential first lady and show her “softer side.”

During the 1 PM hour of Monday's MSNBC News Live, host Andrea Mitchell interviewed Susan Page, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief, about the newspaper’s interview with Michelle Obama. During their discussion of Obama, Mitchell gushed: “She’s Princeton, she’s Harvard, she’s so smart and so beautiful and, you know, a mom and a wife and a partner and yet people get caricatured.”

Page followed up with even more gushing:

'Dangerous Not to Be Aware How It Sounds on Television'
By Mark Finkelstein | February 25, 2008 | 8:34 PM EST

The airwaves have been filled today with the clip of an angry Hillary saying "shame on you, Barack Obama," and another of Clinton mocking the notion that, to believe Barack, "celestial choirs will be singing."

But on this evening's Hardball, Chris Matthews unearthed yet another clip of Hillary at her harshest. And after playing it, a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth Matthews ripped the Clinton campaign strategy. Words won't do justice to Clinton's fingernails-on-blackboard tone, but here's what a raspy-voiced Hillary said in the video Matthews played.

HILLARY CLINTON: Quit misleading people about what I do. [Ed.: shades of Bob Dole's unsuccessful line to George H.W in 1988: "stop lying about my record.'] Quit telling people what is not true about my plan. You know, come on: enough is enough! Let's get real here, and compare exactly what both of us stand for!
View video here.