Obama under fire: Major media outlets assail president

As Republican challenger Mitt Romney steadily ascends in the polls, multiple media outlets are placing President Barack Obama under a microscope — and pinpointing previously undetected cracks in his candidacy.

The main headline on Politico's website for much of Tuesday was "5 unmet Obama promises." Josh Gerstein's accompanying story reported, "Four years later, many pledges from (Obama's) campaign and early presidency remain unfulfilled — some stalled, others seemingly put off indefinitely. A few, Obama just doesn’t bother to mention anymore."

The five significant unmet promises of Obama's presidency that Politico highlighted are cutting the deficit in half, closing Guantanamo Bay, immigration reform, reining in home foreclosures and Israeli-Palestinian peace.

At The Atlantic's website, meanwhile, Molly Ball wrote an article late Monday headlined, "Why we shouldn't be surprised Obama is falling behind." While examining Obama's performances in late-September interviews with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision and the TV news magazine "60 Minutes," Ball concluded, "What happened (in the polls) may not be as simple as a good debate for Romney and a bad one for Obama. The president was showing signs of weakness before the two candidates met up in Denver — everyone was just too distracted by a run of terrible news for Romney to take notice."

The Washington Post's conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin riffed off the USA Today headline "Women push Romney into lead" to characterize the Obama-Biden ticket as increasingly unappealing to women.

"(Obama's) sullen mode — and Vice President Biden, in his manic debate appearance — don’t exactly ooze warmth and empathy, which many women voters like to see," Rubin wrote. "Moreover, Mitt Romney’s messaging of late (focused on middle-class income, rising health-care costs) has found resonance with women voters, who are often the budgeters and health-care managers for their families."

Jamshid Ghazi Askar is a graduate of BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School and member of the Utah State Bar. Contact him at jaskar@desnews.com or 801-236-6051.