As Democrats' message lags, GOP awaits huge wins

[pstokely]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Two weeks before Election Day, Democrats fear their grip on the House may be gone, and Republicans are poised to celebrate big gains in the Senate and governors' mansions as well.

Analysts in both parties say all major indicators tilt toward the Republicans. President Barack Obama's policies are widely unpopular. Congress, run by the Democrats, rates even lower. Fear and anger over unemployment and deep deficits are energizing conservative voters; liberals are demoralized.

Private groups are pouring huge sums of money into GOP campaigns. An almost dizzying series of Democratic messages has failed to gain traction, forcing Obama to zigzag in search of a winning formula.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101016/ap_on_el_ge/us_campaign_state_of_play

[hedgehog]

1. Does anyone else get the feeling we're occupying a parallel universe?

[movonne]

8. It's the corporations trying to demoralize us...

[emulatorloo]

2. Is this a news story or an Opinion Piece? All the pejorative language sounds like an Op-Ed

[EFerrari]

9. It's Authorized Propaganda. They're pretty obvious, aren't they? n/t

[emulatorloo]

17. Yes absolutely - I thought they would be better after Ron Fournier left, but they "doubled down"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Fournier

In May 2008, Fournier was named the acting Washington bureau chief, replacing his "mentor" Sandy Johnson. Since taking over the position, Fournier has led a dramatic shift in the AP's policy, moving it away from the neutral and objective tone it had become known for and toward a more opinionated style that would make judgments when conflicting opinions were presented in a story

[pstokely]

19. Anyone can put anything on Wikipedia

nt

[emulatorloo]

20. Try media matters, then

Try mediamatters.org for example

Start here:

AP
http://mediamatters.org/search/tag/associated_press

Founier
http://mediamatters.org/search/index?qstring=Ron+Fournier&x=0&y=0

[Zax2me]

27. +1

[activa8tr]

3. How does THIS fit into BREAKING NEWS? Yahoo news is a Right wing

schill operation.

Please stop treating Yahoo News as anything different than Fox News.

Don't you know this? News Corp probably owns part of Yahoo these days.

Un-recommending this thread as REPUBLICAN INSPIRED PROPAGANDA FOR THE STUPID!

[Taverner]

5. Sadly, its also running on the FP of HuffPo

[Cirque du So-What]

11. Yahoo! doesn't generate its own reporting

The source is AP, which is a full-fledged member of the corporate media - a particularly loud pipe on their mighty Wurlitzer organ.

[B Calm]

23. But Yahoo goes out of it's way to report the right-wing message.

[LAGC]

25. Have you ever seen the comments on those Yahoo news articles?

If you think the articles are the only thing that's right-wing on that site, boy I've gotta tell you...

[Taverner]

4. Why are we hearing "GOP will win big" when the polls say the opposite?

There will be a lot of Democratic 'clothespin voters' that these pundits don't seem to take into account.

[BzaDem]

16. Because the polls don't say the opposite. They point to a GOP victory that dwarfs that of 1994. n/t

[ProSense]

6. Perspective:

dancing in the end zone and the enthusiasm gap?

[polichick]

7. I think the media will be pretty surprised - and not in a good way...

Almost everything they write is meant to inspire non-thinking voters to jump onto the winning team, but the teabag idiots and loads of corporate cash will get Democrats to the polls in big numbers.

[creon]

10. Hype

This has all the earmarks of GOP tub thumping.

If people who vote Democrat get out and vote, there will not be a problem.

people do need get out and vote.

[aintitfunny]

12. What is up with the liberal press?

this is an opinion piece with the intellectual depth of a tea-bagger.

Jeez.

[compassion now]

13. People are so stupid!

Why would anybody ever vote GOP?? The conservatives are so mean! They don't care about anything but big business!

[rbilancia]

14. PISS on corporate AssociateGOPress. They are as bad as FOX News. RePUKE shills.

[pstokely]

15. What if they were predicting huge Dem wins?

?

[emulatorloo]

18. You need to read up on Ron Fournier and how he reshaped the AP's political reporting to RW opinion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Fournier

He isn't there any longer, but this kind of stuff has its roots in what he did.

++++

<SNIP>

Fournier returned to the AP in March 2007 as its Online Political Editor, after considering “a senior advisory role” with John McCain's presidential campaign.<2>

In May 2008, Fournier was named the acting Washington bureau chief, replacing his "mentor" Sandy Johnson. Since taking over the position, Fournier has led a dramatic shift in the AP's policy, moving it away from the neutral and objective tone it had become known for and toward a more opinionated style that would make judgments when conflicting opinions were presented in a story.<3>

On August 23, 2008, following U.S. Senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's announcement of his selection of Senator Joe Biden as a running mate, Fournier wrote a widely circulated piece titled "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence".<4> A Washington Monthly columnist described the piece as "mirror the Republican line with minimal variation".<5> Editor & Publisher noted that Fournier's article "gained wide linkage at the Drudge Report, Hot Air and numerous other conservative sites...."<6>

While investigators for the House Oversight Committee were looking into the death of Pat Tillman, they uncovered an email from Fournier to Karl Rove encouraging him to "keep up the fight." Critics such as Eric Boehlert have lambasted Fournier for his apparent bias.

[Bravo Zulu]

21. Maybe this head line will work in our favor,

if the gotp thinks they already won it, won't a lot of them not bother to travel to the polling place?

[old mark]

22. Who writes this bullshit? I KNOW who pays them.....nt

[USA_1]

24. Perhaps If The Dems Hadn't Killed HCR ...

... health care reform was listed as Priority One in the DNC Platform of August, 2008. But instead of pushing it through, Obama put it on the back burner and allowed the Republicans and Blue Dog DINO Dems to water it down into nothing. This is why so many liberal Democrats became disgusted with Obama. He did not create health care reform as he pledged - he killed it.

He allows the wealthy elites to enjoy their multitrillion dollar tax shelters to hold untaxed assets overseas. Meanwhile, the deficit increases and there is no money left to pay for the Republican created deficit, no money to finance much needed programs, no money for needed jobs, nothing, nothing, nothing. Obama can easily declare an economic emergency just as Roosevelt did in 1933 and confiscate all those sheltered assets but is too timid to do so. Meanwhile Republicans are making political hay out of it. True, they created the mess. But they are blaming Obama for it while he and the rest of the Dems are sitting by and saying nothing in return.

That's why the Repukeblicans are gaining seats next month. If the Dems would only stop their passivity and slave like submissiveness to the Pukes, they might keep the majority. But they won't fight back and that's why they lose.

[TexasObserver]

26. This election is a referendum on two years of Democratic control.

All Republicans have to do is not be Democrats.

Democrats have to answer for where we are, even though we are where we are because Republicans destroyed the economy, and blocked efforts to fix it the past 20 months. By allowing the GOP to slow the process, the president allowed some of this to occur. His constant need to achieve the unachievable detente with the GOP sabotaged his plans. Now Democrats have to pay the toll at the box office.

Whether one knows anything about politics or not, one look at the unemployment numbers now versus two years ago is all that is necessary to know we will take losses in both houses of congress. Our focus at this point is winning enough seats to retain control of both houses.