The always "objective" Bob Schieffer rushes to Romney's defence and blames Obama for going negative

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Appearing on CBS's Face the Nation yesterday, David Axelrod said that while Romney is qualified to be president, he isn't qualified to be called a "job creator":

Obama campaign senior strategist David Axelrod continued the campaign's assault on Mitt Romney's record on Sunday's "Face the Nation," defending attacks on Bain Capital and challenging whether the president's Republican challenger is qualified to be called a "job creator."

"No one's arguing whether Mitt Romney is qualified to be president," Axelrod said of the former governor and private equity firm founder. "What we're arguing is whether he's qualified to call himself a job creator. That's not what he did in his business. That's not the purpose of his business, and it's certainly not what he did in Massachusetts where they had one of the worst economic records in the country." 

I'm not sure Romney's qualified to be president, actually, but whatever. Let's leave that aside. What's abundantly clear is that Romney is not now and has never been a job creator (as the Republicans like to call the super-wealthy). An avid vulture capitalist, his record, particularly at Bain Capital, has been all about destroying jobs and ruining lives while making off with massive profits for himself.

Host Bob Schieffer, an establishment journalist with a long record of leaning Republican (particularly when his pal Dubya was in the White House), predictably rushed to Romney's defence, accusing the Obama campaign of going negative (see clip below).

Apparently, according to Schieffer, it's okay for Romney to smear Obama at every turn, even for his campaign to spew blatant lies, but it's not okay for Obama to suggest that Romney's time at Bain was something other than glorious capitalism at work.

As C&L's Nicole Belle writes:

Why is it that President Obama has to be positive and we see no pearl clutching over Romney outright lying about Obama's record, grading his presidency an "F" and doing cheap stunts like the Solyndra presser?

The truth, though Schieffer will not see it, is that the media has been far more negative in its coverage of Obama than it has been towards Romney.

Really, though, what else do you expect from Schieffer? (For a good critique, see Greenwald's post from last year.) Even Fox News's Chris Wallace was tougher yesterday, pressing (with numbers to back him up) Romney advisor Ed Gillespie about Romney's poor record on jobs while governor of Massachusetts.

Schieffer should be embarrassed -- again. But, then, he's just another "objective" journalist quick to regurgitate Republican spin and pin the partisan blame on Democrats.