A valid concern, but overhyped.
The American public was BOMBARDED by news media lies such as:
1. Bush will bring back the draft (it was Democratic Congressman Rangel who submitted the bill to the House to re-instate the draft),
2. Bush will stop your Social Security checks (Bush's SS Privatization plan actually puts money into your personal trading account, thereby PROTECTING that money from an SS collapse),
3. Bush went AWOL (the documents touted by CBS were actually forged),
4. Bush is dividing our country (it is actually the Democrats who have gone out of their way to "fight" their fellow Americans at every step)...
...And the list goes on.
But it didn't work. Rigging the exit polls didn't work. Hyping fake "missing explosive" stories didn't work. Blaming Bush for rogue homosexual and bi-sexual prison guards at Abu Ghraib didn't work for them, either.
Not only did the news media's partisan attacks fail, but news media print circulation declined and news media viewership on non-Fox network and cable news channels fell as well.
The American public didn't buy it. The public didn't buy the nonsense about the "worst economy since Hoover." The public didn't buy their nonsense about "misleading us into war."
The left failed. They rolled out all of their dirty tricks. They played the race card at the polls (e.g. "disenfranchisement" for daring to require picture ID's). They ran front page lies (e.g. the infamous "17 words" from GWB's State of The Union address). They talked down our economy (since when is 5.5% unemployment "bad"?!).
They resorted to violence. Union goons tore up Bush/Cheney signs being held by a 3 year old girl. They tried to run over Katherine Harris. They broke into scores of Republican Party local headquarters buildings.
They hired on and activated more than 10,000 trial lawyers to contest ballots and voting requirements. They filed lawsuits in state after state.
...And still they failed.
More than just failed, though, was that we *gained* votes in 90% of all states compared to 2000. We won 4 or 5 additional Senate seats. We whipped them in governors' races. We took control of formerly Democratic state legislatures. We gained national House seats. We beat gay marriage in all 11 states where it was on the ballot, and beat it even in Massachusetts where it wasn't on the ballot (though their state Supreme Court stepped in anyway).
The Assault Weapons Ban expired with barely a whimper from the gun-banning Left. The Partial Birth Abortion ban passed over the ardent shreaks of the Left.
They lost on every issue in almost every state, save for funding human stem cell research in California.
It was a rout.
...And their old tricks will work even less well for them in 2006 and 2008 because we're wise to them. We're also wired, and we're even more powerful now.