In my opinion, a president should do everything he can to encourage the country in tough times. That doesn't mean he should lie, but he should be positive and optimistic despite the challenges. He should seize on good news and trumpet it for all to hear so as to create an air of optimism and confidence. President Obama has been doing the exact opposite.

Obviously some--maybe most--of that was to make things look as grim as possible to justify the spending package he so dearly wanted. Now that he's got his spending bill, perhaps he'll start talking up the economy so that the economy will actually start improving and he can credit his spending bill--or the confidence he'll claim the spending package inspired if the economy turns around before any significant money is spent.

Yes, there's plenty of bad news out there. And the president has certainly been eager to make sure we know about it--and consumer confidence has cratered as a result.

But there has also been plenty of good news that the Obama administration should have been celebrating and talking up... but hasn't. I've been writing comments on these over the last few months but it's just gotten so repetitive that I don't feel there's a reason to write a new comment on every example of arguably good news that the administration ignores.

Update 2/20/2009: Bill Clinton has now suggested that Obama be more positive, too.

So I'm going to start putting examples on this page. As more examples of the Obama administration ignoring good news occur, I'll simply add those examples to this page. I'm going to keep documenting it.

Again, the purpose of this page isn't to suggest that the economy is ok. It's not. But considering that many people believe that the commander-in-chief should be the "cheerleader-in-chief" when it comes to the economy, these are things we should've heard the president highlight. And we didn't. And I think the value of him highlighting these types of things would do far more good to inspire confidence in the economy than the $787 billion spending bill.

5/5/2009	Bernanke: Economy to turn up
5/4/2009	Pending home sales jump 3.2%
5/4/2009	Surprise rise in construction spending
5/1/2009	Consumer Sentiment Rises in April
04/30/2009	New Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop
04/29/2009	Rebound In Consumer Spending Cheers Retail Stocks
03/27/2009	Consumer sentiment improved in February
03/27/2009	Consumer spending up in February
03/25/2009	New Home Sales up 4.7% in February
03/25/2009	Durable goods orders up 3.4%
03/24/2009	Home prices rise 1.7% in January
03/23/2009	Existing home sales increase 5.1%
03/17/2009	Housing starts jump unexpectedly
03/12/2009	January and February retail sales better than expected
03/10/2009	AT&T to hire 3000 this year
03/05/2009	Unexpected drop in new jobless claims
03/02/2009	ISM Manufacturing index rises 2nd month in a row
03/02/2009	Consumer spending increases in January
02/19/2009	Leading economic indicators jump 0.4%, second monthly increase in a row
02/17/2009	Bank lending remains resilient
02/17/2009	Homebuilder sentiment up in February
02/12/2009	Retail sales jump 1% in January, first increase in 6 months
02/11/2009	Federal Reserve expects economy to begin to recover later this year
02/04/2009	ISM non-manufacturing index increased from 40.1 to 42.9
02/04/2009	Buffet suggests it's time to invest in stock market
02/03/2009	Pending home sales up 6.3%
01/26/2009	Many economists believe recovery will begin after 2nd quarter of 2009
01/26/2009	Leading economic indicators defy expectations, increase 0.3%
01/08/2009	CBO predicts slow recovery in 2010
01/06/2009	ISM non-manufacturing index increased from 37.3 to 40.6
01/05/2009	Construction spending higher than expected