January 2009

Obama signs an executive order closing Gitmo within a year. He also signed another one saying we will interrogate pursuant to the Geneva Conventions and Army field manual

That’s the big wingnut talking point right now. They are going on how Reagan’s inauguration ratings beat out Obama’s 41.8 million to 37.8 million. Of course those numbers are just television views. How about other things like the internet? Well let’s look at the reported number of stream views for the event:

• CNN – 21.3 million
• MSNBC – 14 million
• FOX – 5 million

So internet views alone accounted for 40.3 million viewers. Add that to Obama’s television viewership and you got 78.1 million stream views. That also doesn’t take into account the number of local or international media outlets that streamed it. You can safely say Obama topped 100 million viewers.

Of course those numbers don’t matter to the right. They still live in the 80s, when people had to take off work to view the event, instead of watching it on their computer or setting their DVR and checking it out once they got home (although they could have recorded it on their shiny new BetaMax back in 81).

Got this in my inbox from ABC:

President Obama To Sign Executive Order Thursday to Close Gitmo Within a Year [4:20 p.m. ET]

He is working fast to erase the eight years of hell Bush put us through.

The wingnuts have found their ammo against Obama that could lead to his removal from office. On day 1 he is already violating rules!

The astute reporters at Clownhall Townhall, with cues from CNN, already notes this major violation:

Obama Breaks Reagan/Bush Oval Office Jacket Rule 

You can even see the seriouseness of this violation of rules in the comments on their site:

douglas writes:
Wednesday, January, 21, 2009 2:00 PM

lack of respect

first sign of whats ahead, he does not respect the tridition (sic) of the office and shows that on day one.

Yes because out of everything facing the nation today, the proper outer attire trumps it all.