Both of the Bush Presidents were Republicans who had to fight the media the entire way. G.W. beat em, barely, Bush Sr. wasn’t able to.
Obama will have the media on his side, running his campaign commercials for him. It isn’t the same.
Yet the GOP has won 5 of the last 8 presidential elections. People are going to vote based on their pocketbooks, not some great news that happened 18 months before the election. The press can try to tilt things, but they always do that and, as often as not, they fail.