Who is "the" press? I think who hates and loves whom is pretty predictable.

Easy to think that looking from 2009 backwards, but at this point in his administration he was just as fawned over from the media as Obama is today.

but evidence doesn't always cut it with emotional debates now does it...

Well, not so much right after his first election, but there was a time right after 9/11 where he was extremely popular.

I found it very easy to come to hate George W. Bush even without the help of the press.