I GOT A BUM EDUCATION, DOUBLE-DIGIT INFLATION

I don't eant to keep picking on NewsBusters, but this is just silly:

NBC Commiserates with 'Hard Realities' Obama 'Up Against'

Prompted by the CBO's forecast of a $1.2 trillion annual federal budget deficit, the NBC Nightly News on Wednesday commiserated with the challenge ahead for the incoming President. "On our broadcast tonight, facing facts," Brian Williams teased, "President-elect Obama confronts the hard realities he's up against, deficits as far as the eye can see." A dire Williams proceeded to lead with how Obama will take over "during one of the most challenging times in the modern history of the United States."

... Do you think Ronald Reagan got such empathetic treatment in January of 1981 when he was about to assume office at a time of soaring interest rates, raging inflation (12%), high unemployment (7.5%) and a declining GDP? ...

OK, let's go to into the deepest recesses of the festering liberal media pit -- the New York Times archives. I can't give you full articles (well, I could, but I'm too cheap to pay for them) so we'll just look at some opening passages.

January 11, 1981:

NEW TEAM TACKLES WORSENING INFLATION

WASHINGTON THE most immediate challenge facing the new administration is how to arrest and reverse a deeply entrenched peacetime inflation that has exceeded 10 percent annually for two years in a row. Not since World War I, more than 60 years ago, has the Government's Consumer Price Index increased ...

January 11, 1981:

The first year of the Reagan era dawns bleakly, as the economic problems that helped Mr. Reagan gain the Presidency become his to solve. The list is a formidable one, including double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates, lagging savings and investment, sluggish productivity growth, chronic unemployment and a loss by ...

January 9, 1981:

Courage, Caution and the Economy

An understandable nervousness has appeared in the economic planning of the Reagan administration. The economy that it promised to set aright looks even weaker than it did on Election Day, with budget deficits and interest rates running higher and Wall Street running scared. The Reagan strategists well remember last ...

January 11, 1981:

A SENSE OF ECONOMIC EMERGENCY

As President-elect Ronald Reagan nears office, there is a rising sense among his advisers that the nation's economy is deteriorating at a rate that will not permit the patient, long-term doctoring he advocated during the campaign. "The whole plan for cutting the budget is becoming more difficult by the ...

Was there a reluctance to acknowledge hard times? Well, yes -- but not on the part of the Times. January 2, 1981:

The new Reagan Administration won't issue a stirring declaration of economic emergency, and in a way it's a shame. We like the idea, put forth by Congressmen Jack Kemp and David Stockman, the budget director-designate. Loud, certain trumpets would be a sure way to attract the nation's attention and ...

So it was the incoming Reagan administration that didn't want to issue a declaration of an emergency -- a declaration the Times would have applauded.

Try again, Buster Boys.