MSM & Democrat Strategy Takes Shape

With summer over, we're starting to see the MSM strategy take shape with regard to helping the donks win.

First, they are hinting that gas prices are going down to help the GOP. The piece tries to be fair but the headline--Is pump price drop tied to Nov. elections?--is the clue. Here's a good debunking of that line of thought via Andrew Cassel.

Next up in the playbook would be downplaying the economy. Exhibit A is this piece by Liz Sidoti:

GOP talk of vibrant economy rings hollow

FALMOUTH, Ky. - Used boots fetch $3 and old salt-and-pepper shakers bring in a buck at a makeshift flea market along Highway 27, presumably not what President Bush and Republicans have in mind when they herald a vibrant economy.

Times are "very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor" who "can't afford to live," laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is "having a hard time."

In the Ohio River Valley, where people decry high gas prices, stagnant wages, lost jobs and factory closures, many don't buy the claim that the economy is humming along.

Typical liberal spin. The rising tide does not raise all boats, especially if you go looking for boats with holes with a magnifying glass.

The good Cap'n whacks you with facts that totally destroys Sidoti's reasoning.

I also expect to see more negative stores about Afghanistan and Iraq (as if that were possible) and polls being spun like crazy as the GOP is making some good strides by all accounts (when even Zogby has to admit it, it's a fact.)

Lastly, this meme will be steady as a drumbeat: the polls are rigged:

An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said.

In the Nov. 7 election, more than 80 percent of voters will use electronic voting machines, and a third of all precincts this year are using the technology for the first time. The changes are part of a national wave, prompted by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 and numerous revisions of state laws, that led to the replacement of outdated voting machines with computer-based electronic machines, along with centralized databases of registered voters and other steps to refine the administration of elections.

This will give the donks an out when they get beat again. They're starting it before the election this time around.

Buckle up and settle in, it's going to be bumpy for the next six or seven weeks.