Covering the coverage: New York media previews of Obama jobs speech

Hours ahead of President Barack Obama’s jobs speech, which he will deliver in front of Congress and the nation, the reporting from the New York press is already mostly negative.

The New York Times posted an analysis of the tax cuts included in Obama’s plan, calling the extension of the payroll tax cut “primarily defensive” since it is simply continuing the status quo.

The New York Daily News blared out on its front page that Obama’s jobs speech is “Do or die” for his presidency. The article

The New York Post published a short story saying that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are “dubious” and that the White House is on the defensive.

The Wall Street Journal’s preview focuses on the message Obama hopes to convey — urgency — but mentions that The White House doesn’t expect Congress to adopt all of the proposals in the speech.

Some were more positive, but still focused on the do-or-die angle of Obama’s speech. For instance, The New Yorker’s John Cassidy wrote, “Confronted with the deepest economic slump since the nineteen-thirties, any President would have struggled.” Yet, he immediately parsed that statement with “Still, to put it gently, Obama’s public utterances haven’t always helped him.”

The media is ready, and the people of the nation await. Unless, of course, they’d rather watch football.