Posted by
Rich from NW Indiana on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 2:07:34 PM
Well, that was disappointing! The Democrats can thank their friends at the "mainstream" media for the victory. The Republicans managed to hold the media off in 2004, but couldn't do it this time after two nasty years of griping by the talking heads. The liberal leftists will of course take all the credit for the win though. They think they have a mandate for change that nobody really wants.
Hopefully the Republicans will keep the Senate. It looks like they will. We will see how bad of a job the Democrats will do in the house, and the Republicans will get it back in 2008. On the plus side they don't have a "plan" that will get anywhere, so it will be only the time of two years wasted. On the downside, say goodbye to the tax cuts. Why didn't they make them permanent at the beginning?
It is bad for this country how the "mainstream" media influences elections. The "reporting" looks like the Democrats press releases. You could see the glee of the talking heads when their predictions were "right" for once. Of course they use the same predictions everytime, so they were bound to get lucky once.
It shows how little has changed in the wording of issues in public discourse. After more then a decade of Republican congressional control the media still steers the public opinion and direction of issues. The Democrats still have the upperhand on this one. They have done a great job of misleading voters with carefully worded press releases and wording said by politicians.
Republicans need to change the wording in public discourse. It will be difficult because the media will not go along with it. There has been some progress like calling the inheritance tax the death tax. Many times the Republican side of the issue is seen in the negative light. That needs to end. Even in abortion where few would disagree that the Republican have the moral upper hand, manages to be seen negatively at times. Though the term "partial birth abortion" has been slowly starting to work better, so it can be done. It puts the issues in a Republican light instead of Democratic one and that is key to stopping the media.