'Obama Bear Market' myth makers turn to 'Trump Rally'

Rss@dailykos.com (jon Perr) · Tuesday, January 03, 2017, 9:58 pm

The Dow Jones has gained over 1,500 points (8.2 percent) since Election Day. That can mean only one thing: Republicans and their amen corner in the right-wing will proclaim the arrival of the "Trump Rally."

And so it is. By December 12, Fox News crowed that the "skyrocketing" Dow was a sure sign of the Trump Rally. Two weeks later, a giddy Investor's Business Daily compared the 20-day performance of other Presidents-elect and asked, "Can Trump revive Reagan's stock market magic?" On Christmas Day, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo agreed with Newt Gingrich that markets are counting on The Donald "to take the Trump rally on stock market and turn it into a Trump reality in the economy." Media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and more have cooperated in parroting the Trump Rally talking points. And looking ahead, supply side snake oil salesman, CNBC host and Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow declared "the Trump Rally may go on for years" because the market "likes what it sees from the President-elect."

But if you're skeptical about the media permeation of this predictable conservative cheerleading, you should be. After all, back in 2008, the same voices of the right began darkly warning Americans about the mythical "Obama Bear Market" months before the 44th president was sworn in. As it turned out, the Dow didn't just double in value during Obama's tenure, but once again confirmed that the stock market and the economy as a whole almost always do better under Democratic Presidents.

The conservative propaganda machine began perpetuating the "Obama bear market" myth long before the 44th president even took the oath of office. The first installment of the Republicans' "previsionist" history unsurprisingly came from the very same Larry Kudlow. That right-wing water carrier, who in April 2008 compared the deepening recession to an enema (calling it "an economic cleansing" and crowing that "recessions are therapeutic"), blamed a one-day 242-point drop on the Democratic Convention.

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