THE MEDIA has been telling you that Republicans were going to win big for the past 13 months!

[FrenchieCat]

So I guess, they knew even back then exactly how the electorate would react
due to their insightful "political crystal ball"? :shrug:

OR did they, the media, steer voters exactly where they wanted voters to be by Nov 2010?

See here the running polls from month to month (press prior month or next month to compare the stats)
http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/polls/archive/2009/10


Ever since the Health Care Debate, Obama and Democrats have been getting
super lousy press from our media, and it has gotten progressively worse
as time has worn on.

Whomever the Media could get on both sides to show their disdain for this
administration was welcomed in for interviews, party affiliation not a qualifying factor,
but being "mad" at the President was.

The three main "explanations" for how Democrats were going to "Lose" came early....
like not more than 9 months after the President had sworn the oath.

The first was that 2010 would be the year of the Anti-Incumbents,
which was talked about widely starting in October/November of 2009,

The second was that Independent voters were switching to the Republican party,
and these media discussions started also in October/November of 2009,

and the third was that Democrats lacked enthusiasm,
again, those political discussions also started in October/November of 2009....

meanwhile the Tea Party folks and Sarah Palin were shown all over the media
just about every day; day after day, in an attempt to grow this movement,
something our media (not just Fox) brazenly worked on for long extended periods of time.

The Republicans anti-health care rallies were reported on and were well covered...
while ours (like Dean's health care rally) were not.


see the time-lines here:
Anti-incumbent wave pounds city halls - Alexander Burns - POLITICO.com
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28688.html


AP Analysis: Off-Year Election Lessons Will Shape 2010 Campaign
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/56658

Poll: Anti-incumbent sentiment surges
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29458.html

Poll: Anti-incumbent sentiment strong
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/11/poll-anti-incumbent-sentiment-strong/


Those articles are all dated October and November 2009, an entire year prior to the election,
less than 9 months into Obama's presidency, and before the health care bill was finalized.

-----

The meme that Independents were trending toward Republicans.....
started being "reported" on around the same time as the "Anti-Incumbent" media predictions....

see here: RealClearPolitics - Irate and Independent
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/10/25/irate_and_independent_98867.html


Independent voters big for GOP; Democrats maintain black vote ...
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/66431-independents-big-for-gop-democrats-keep-black-vote


An independent move to GOP
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/hall-of-fame/an-independent-movement-to-gop.html


The Buzz: Independent Voters Shift to Republicans in November Election
http://fciruli.blogspot.com/2009/11/independent-voters-shift-to-republicans.html

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ea7nv2GedlU/Sv26tXVhCNI/AAAAAAAAAFY/sVIwehHzONI/s400/Generic+Congressional+ballot.jpg


Exit polls: Independents voting for Republicans in gov races – CNN ...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/04/exit-polls-independents-voting-for-republicans-in-gov-races/


The third meme of Democratic voters lacking of enthusiasm also started around the same time....

Nov 28th, 2009

But a bigger indicator of peril comes from a new survey question added the DK tracking poll for the first time this week. The poll now includes a rather simple indicator of baseline voter enthusiasm for the year 2010. The question offered to respondents is a simple question about their intentions for 2010:

QUESTION: In the 2010 Congressional elections will you definitely vote, probably vote, not likely vote, or definitely will not vote?


The results were, to put it mildly, shocking:

Voter Intensity: Definitely + Probably Voting/Not Likely + Not Voting

Republican Voters: 81/14
Independent Voters: 65/23
DEMOCRATIC VOTERS: 56/40



http://themoderatevoice.com/54455/poll-2010-promises-democratic-losses-due-to-enthusiasm-gap/

New poll paints ugly 2010 picture - Allison Kilkenny -
November 29, 2009
http://trueslant.com/allisonkilkenny/2009/11/29/new-poll-paints-ugly-2010-picture/


The repetition of these 3 memes constantly,
and the promotion of the Tea Party to be seen as an Alternative
have been crowed by the media for over a year.....

and when Nate Silver of NTY does polling analysis (not polling)
that points to Democratic losses, we don't question much if
his numbers, since they are based on corporate for-profit polling outfits,
could possibly be as faulty as our media has allowed them to be, could be off base....
NO, of course not! Instead we hang our head down and get sad and shit......

And then come November of 2010, we sheepishly wonder...."Could they be wrong?"....

Problem is Democratic voters never questioned them before now,
and did little but pile-on to the memes, no matter what our government
did in the ensuing year.

Health Care was passed amids great difficulty and terrible press,
and we were only pissed that we didn't get better reform.
Scores of other legislation have passed since the memes began in November of 2009,
but rank & file Democrats responded by letting it be known that it was never gonna be enough.

As early as possible, Hispanics were told by the media that it was
this Administration's fault that Immigration legislation hadn't yet passed,
omitting that the Bush Administration in its 8 years hadn't done a damn thing about it.

Yes.....9 months after Obama was elected, during a terrible financial crisis,
and when rabid anti-health care rhetoric and disinformation was being spread
by the news media throughout the land, and just about everyone and their mama was jumping onto that
"Just holding his feet to the fire" bandwagon, the defeat of the Democratic party was
predicted....by those who control the overall political national message.

Even Black voters were assaulted with media messages that Obama didn't really "care" about them,
and hadn't done enough specifically for them (but this message failed big time, not only
because African-Americans are used to being lied to by the media, but also because
African-Americans never forget this as a provable fact, and whatever the media says,
the tendency is to react in an appropriate manner that sends the message "Screw you media...we ain't about
to fulfill any wish that you might have that will be bad for us.....but thank you just the same...
now kiss our collective Black asses!" ) They did this in reference to the Clinton Blow Job,
and in reference to the Iraq War. They never supported Bush, even after 9/11, in the large way that the rest of the American population did.

So in essence, Pres. Obama was given a full 9 Months to undo 30 years of conservative policies
by a press who, by large, supports conservative policies, before they hung the party out to dry,
and started working hard influencing voters, in truth, telling voters what they should do come
an entire year later.

So the question is, were all of these memes created due to the fault of the Obama administration?
An administration that has been called everything from Hitler-like Authoritarian Socialists
to callous political Corporate sell out cock-holders? By a President who has been depicted as a
Monkey, an enemy of the people, not a "real" American, pushing an "Unpopular" agenda, the cause of
all of our personal financial problems as well as oil spills through the media?

What we have seen is a media that decided not to stand up and state that the name calling
and the irrational blame-game was not only unpatriotic and unamerican.....
but was vile and didn't make any sense. Of course, for those who have forgotten,
the same media told us that Bush was elected, not selected by the SCOTUS in 2000.
The same media also allowed the Bush administration to link Saddam Hussein
to Bin Laden freely for as long as was required, or at least long enough to start a war.
Yes....this is the same media who consistently "forgets" to remind Americans that the deficit
wasn't important in the GOP rethoric of 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008,
and that many of the 8 million jobs lost were lost via the Bush Administration's policies,
and that Obama didn't cause the deficit to be where it is.

So no, personally, I don't place the major part of the blame on the Obama Administration,
although many have, would, and will, and not bat an eye.....
You see, I don't think this congress/administration could have passed much more than they did,
and even if they had, folks still would have rationalized why
it was still either not progressive enough, or too liberal still.

This Congress has passed some 400+ bills that are still laying around dying in the Senate
(the only thing that may allow them to see the light of day will
be an active senate lame duck session where everyone understands what's up)...

Personally, I believe that Americans (but those White Americans in particular)
will get what they in the majority deserve...what too many bought into and helped grow,
and yes, personally, I am afraid of the American media,
and how they decided an entire year prior to the election who was going to win, and why.....
and very few Democrats in any great number had boo to say about it loudly enough...
cause of course, that was Obama's job too....to demonize the media by himself,
so that he could get just that much more of their treatment.....

A media that will gleefully suggest in so many ways that you are better off staying at home
and not voting...while accepting Citizen United money for negative ads that further
polarizes our country, while calling themselves "Concerned" as to what is happening
to this country.

and no, I don't believe that it would have mattered what this administration
would or would not have done. I don't believe that the President has as much
power as the media that shapes his message does......and as long as enough Americans
allow the media to snooker them into agreeing with their take on what "what" is....
we will continue to be truly fucked, and it won't matter who the President is,
because if that President isn't doing corporate bidding, he will have as little power
as the media, as a whole, generally decides.


I didn't ever suggest that any folk should STFU about what the President wasn't doing
(as that was their right), although I did many times urge for folks to stop (for a nano second),
look and listen to how their united cries of disatisfaction would come back to bite all of us in the ass.....

I know that some have judged me to be overly "protective" of this President all along,
a real cheerleader of giant proportion, and an apologist going way back....
but I'll tell you now that I saw the handwriting on the wall in March of 2009....
in the same way that I predicted that McCain would be the GOP nominee in November of 2007,
that Obama would win the Nomination after Super Tuesday (although I started supporting him
the previous year), that the Teahaddist were never a laughing matter, and that the media
has been corrupt and in collusion for a long, long time, and nothing could stop them
but millions of us.

I still think we can pull this off, but we must work hard at it.....
because articulated skepticism or hesitation about doing something ain't gonna do shit for us.

I'll be getting out the vote this upcoming weekend (both days),
and Tuesday is what I'm doing.....cause at this point, it is all that I can do.

**end of rant**