Exactly, right on. That was hyper suspicious and caught me in my tracks. And so I did the same

And praised by the Democrat establishment and their entire media. What he's doing today is what he'd been talking about for decades, and no resistance was given. In the 2000'nds Hillary even said she'd love for him to run for President, and Trump said he'd love Oprah to run.
BUT, when he unveiled his intent to clean the system, which Dems had promised before, everything changed. That's how their resistance reflect his sincerity: The more successful he is, the more the slander and lies intensify.
The revolution that especially Lib voters wanted, is happening, and that's why they need to report as if they live in Opposite World. Only losers in this, is Democrat Establishment and their Republican affiliates, also called Rhinos.

If by praised, you mean "mocked", sure.

Political cartoons that mock has always been the standard. He was mostly treated with upmost respect in interviews - the way you'd expect with anyone. Back then U.S media was relatively free, so they'd mock you and then praise you - share bad news, then good news. Only in 2024 did the U.S officially fall to real Totalitarianism on the media front too:

imgflip.com/i/8yqn09

He was mostly too irrelevant to get media notice: Here's an article on birtherism from 2009 which didn't even mention him, despite his involvement in this smear. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/28/birther-movement-obama-citizenship

Here's CBS' 2011 coverage of him: not using value-laden words, but clearly dismissive of him:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-takes-credit-for-obama-birth-certificate-release-but-wonders-is-it-real/

Back before that, he mostly gained news coverage through his embarrassing adultery and divorces, and garish displays of wealth.

He wasn't mostly praised; he was a punchline.

The routine did start when he criticized the most holy man the Dems have produced. No one was allowed to do that - it was meant to be an untouchable black president success story. Also why my examples go back to the 2000's, where things slowly changed at the end, and became dynamite in 2015

Barack Obama isn't holy or sacred in any way: he's just a native-born US citizen who went on to be president (and, yes, very successfully, when you consider the terrible economic mess he inherited from W).

He isn't, but he was. My God he was. That was back when I could be considered a Democrat and watched The Daily Show, plus downloaded all the very old that I hadn't seen.
Guy couldn't do anything wrong, ever. And ofc every attack on his policy was Thy Racism. I totally understand why they went Progressive in the end - it seemed like the perfect strategy