Reply #44: Part of the problem is that you are being a results merchent

[karynnj]

The campaign by and large had to struggle with being on an unprecedented uneven playing field.
- Bush could and did use national security to his advantage Many of the "orange Level" scares were based only on the intelligence that Kerry's numbers were improving
- In 2 key states (FL and Ohio, there were blatant problems that may it harder to vote in Democratic areas)
- A company that "helped" with voter registration in several states, threw out Democratic returns
- The system for overseas voting by ex-pats (extremely pro-Kerry) had major problems up to election day
- The Republican echo chamber was transformed into a far more effective system by including almost all the cable show. The affect was to give credibility. A "lie or spin" would start on the internet, go to Drudge, then to hate radio, then to the cable shows, which were still seen as unbiased (not Fox) and then the phenonmena was talked about on the networks.
- The networks pulled back on coverage. There were only 3 hours of convention coverage instead of 9 hours.
-Additionally, in past years there was always a lot of "soft" news coverage leading up to the conventions. Kerry was hurt as the coverage was on Reagan's death and Bill Clinton's book, which he selfishly refused to delay until after the election.

I seriously doubted anyone switched to Bush, because Kerry went hunting or windsurfing. It was the media who deemed that clearly brush that likely has to be planted so Bush has it to clear was themost manly activity known to man. Consider the even handedness of how they handled the candidates' bike tiding. Kerry has ridden (with excellent speed) 100+ mile charity bike rides. Bush fell off his bike. When covering it they also covered that Kerry blew a tire and fell - without any injury as equivilent. These things were trivial - but covered to ignore the fact (in a sports obsessed culture) that Kerry was 10 times the athlete Bush was.