However, the fact remains that the finished product that the general public sees from the mainstream media slants middle-right. If you don't mind, I would like to see links to those other articles that say that the media is liberal because I've read several (the Chomsky-Herman study is just one) that says otherwise. JOIN XOMBA IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD!

Keep using those excuses, lmorovan. That's all you McCain supporters have left. JOIN XOMBA IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD!

I wrote an article in the past month addressing the fact that the media is NOT liberal, based on a documentary put together by the Media Education Foundation called Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News. In it, the filmmakers rebut and debunk the popular notion--most often used by conservatives to explain conservative failures--that the media is "liberal". The idea that many or most news reporters being registered as Democrats does not correlate to the finished product put out to the general population because a street reporter's ideology does not trump what the editorial board of a newspaper or the board of directors of a major news corporations have to say. Indeed, most if not all of those boards slant middle-right. To say that the media is liberal because of the party affiliation of reporters is to say that the workers on the factory floor at GM get to decide which cars to make or how the corporate budget is spent. Back to the polls, I don't doubt that they are slanted. We don't get to see the specific wording on the questions nor do we get to see the exact demographics polled. Therefore, any spin in either direction is possible and even permissible. I don't particularly follow any specific poll, but I will take an average of what is out there. Even the average numbers are pro-Obama. The Washington Post put out a poll, which I used for a Xombyte yesterday, that shows Obama winning the Electoral College 349-189. Right now, McCain cannot win on the issues, so he is putting the remainder of his campaign finances behind the most negative ads we've seen to date. Politicians who believe they are ahead in the polls or who stand a good chance of winning do not adhere to a "scorched earth" policy, such as what McCain has been running in the past month. I've already voted for Obama, as have many people who vote absentee. I acknowledge that it's not the vote that counts but the person counting the votes, which is why I hope and pray that those districts using non-paper trail electronic voting machines are paying attention. Those machines are not tamper-proof and the owners of those companies making electronic voting machines gave heavily to the Republicans this election cycle. JOIN XOMBA IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD!

While, yes, Dewey was projected to win and didn't, he didn't have many of the handicaps with which McCain now finds himself encumbered. Age, medical conditions (including cancer and 6/10 markers for Alzheimer's), a painfully unqualified running mate, and a country that is tired of eight years of Republican bungling. Truman had the benefit of being connected to the ending of World War II, while McCain has been firmly affixed to the ongoing failures in Afghanistan and Iraq, the latter of which he says he doesn't care if we are there for another 100 years. JOIN XOMBA IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD!