I agree. Calling Obama a socialist didn't mean much. People put more stock in a person's energy, youth, looks and demeanor than overall message. Obama’s message was “change” which only worked because they were able to define the Republican as inept, corrupt and failing. McCain didn't have a strong message if he didn't fight Obama. Had he fought tooth and nail people would thought “yes, country first.” So Obama was right in that McCain was like Bush -- in the ironic sense of both being collegiate and bipartisan. Collegiality comes across as a weakness, and is a weakness, especially when you can't size up the other team to know when it is time to fight.
If the Republicans want to win they have to have a fighter and deal with the media. This should have been figured this out in 06. They have 4 years to take themselves seriously. Sometimes I think a lot of the Rhinos were happy to get in, make some money and get out. Sad.
Hear hear! It's way past time for a Republican to directly challenge the MSM. As soon as he was sworn in, in 2000, Bush should have announced an address to the nation. In the wake of the recount nightmare he would have had a huge audience. He should have directly taken on the MSM, in front of the country, and challenged the MSM to end the bias. Release an already-prepared mountain of empirical yet easily understood evidence of the bias, which is most certainly out there in droves, to the press in attendance and make the same information available online for the public. Bring in top-notch journalism experts to establish elementary rules of unbiased REPORTING, then give the MSM one week to either start reporting, or kill their access to everything until they change their mind.
I would do the above on my first day as president, and IT WOULD WORK. Only ONE of the majors would have to blink and then the floodgates would be opened. IT WOULD WORK, and some Republican should have done it long, long ago.
MM (in TX)