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I think we should start from the premise that anyone who seems sure of what is actually going on and who isn't also directly involved with what's going on is probably more certain than is justified.
There is never enough information to make completely informed decisions and so, to differing extents, we all have to make assumptions about salient details.
Problems arise when people fail to acknowledge that their assumptions might be misplaced. For instance, people with a superficial understanding of economics tend to misapply the notion of supply and demand. They understand this basic economic concept enough that they can intuitively apply it, but they often aren't aware of the underlying mechanisms.
I think that a lot of people evaluate every bit of political/economic news based on the underlying assumption that Obama/Democrats are socialist tyrants who are trying to ruin the country. These people are then easily exploited by opinion makers seeking to consolidate their own power (ahem, congressional republicans and large financial backers of the tea party movement). An identical process works on the left too.
As with all things, people have the tendency to see what they want to see unless they are explicitly aware of this dynamic and actively try to counteract it.
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