Obama-Romney showdown starts with a harsh tone

[dipsydoodle]

MENDENHALL, Pa. (AP) -- The 2012 presidential general election has begun. It won't be pretty.

Tuesday marked Day One, in essence, of the contest between the two virtually certain nominees, Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. Rick Santorum's departure removed the last meaningful bump from Romney's path to the GOP nomination. Romney and Obama wasted no time in portraying the voters' choice in dire, sometimes starkly personal terms.

With Obama saddled with a still-ailing economy and a divisive health care law, and Romney riding a wave of blistering TV ads, the fall election is unlikely to dwell on "hope," "change" and other uplifting themes from four years ago. Much of the nation's ire then was aimed at departing President George W. Bush, and Obama had no extensive record to defend.

The landscape is much different now. Americans face nearly seven months of hard-hitting jabs and counterpunches between the two parties' standard-bearers.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PRESIDENTIAL_CAMPAIGN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-04-11-08-10-55

[zbdent]

1. and suddenly, the stores are experiencing a shortage of turd polish ...

[emulatorloo]

2. AP starts campaign coverage with planting False Equivalency

Every word out of Romney's mouth about Obama is pretty much an egregious lie.
Obama campaign's stuff can survive a fact check. Romney's can't.

Obama has already put out some positive ads. Romney's entire primary campaign was about dumping raw sewage on his opponents.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Is AP biased?

Asking because I don't know.

[emulatorloo]

4. Do a search on CHARLES BABINGTON at mediamatters.org if you get a chance

Babington typically uncritically passes on false Republican talking points and "some people say" smears as well as using words with negative connotations to describe Democrats.

AP became pretty politicized when Ron Fournier was head of Washington Bureau. He had applied to work for the Bush admin, and had written a gushing letter to Karl Rove. When he took over political reporting at AP, we started to see much more editorialing in straight news stories, especially in terms of using negative language to describe Democrats or Democratic Policies. Some of the worst stuff came from Fournier himself during th 2008 campaign.

Fournier has moved on from AP, but his style seems to still show up in AP articles.

[dipsydoodle]

5. I don't mind self deleting

if this is out of order. Let me know what you think.

[emulatorloo]

7. Oh no don't delete it!

Pretty mainstream source, well worth reading because lots of people will read it.

[bemildred]

6. It's going to be a mud-bath.

The Samson strategy is all they have left, tear everything down, and they are infantile and angry enough to use it.

[emulatorloo]

8. This will make Swiftboats for 'truth' look like a fun backyard cookout.