OCTOBER 03, 2003 - He never answered reporters questions, never attended an unscripted debate, but he was dubbed the "front-runner" from the beginning, despite polls saying otherwise (see story), and given endless free air on Oprah, ABC, NBC, FOX, and of course all of talk radio.  And so now yet another completely unqualified, dishonest puppet has been put into office.

Davis was never mentioned without the words "unlikeable" or "uncharismatic" or "unpopular" and Arnold was never mentioned without "frontrunner."  Just as with Gore vs. Bush, Gore was always "unlikeable" while Bush was inevitable. 

Tell me, who called McClintock googly-eyed, a policy wonk, as uncharismatic as he obviously is?  No one, because Republicans are never described that way, Democrats always are.

Who described Bustamante as the "frontrunner" during all the time he was far in front, which was most of the election?  Nobody, because he is a Democrat and that doesn't happen.

The press had started into the final installation script, making Arnold seem inevitable.  Then the allegations came, but too little too late - where was the LA Time reporting months ago when we were reporting this stuff and sharing the info with them?

And then, as per the right-wing script, on election day, at 4 PM, 4 hours before polls closed, right before most Democrats would get off work and go to the polls, the press started circulating stories about how Arnold would win in a landslide. The entire media reported things based simply on the word on Daryl Issa, the man who funded the recall to begin with.

Equal time in the media was non-existent.  Fairness non-existent.  Most importantly, Democratic outrage over the way the media was installing Arnold was non-existent.  When Arnold made the rounds on AM talk shows whose hosts say things like "Democrats would love him if he slept with little boys," the outcry was non-existent.  Republicans, by their own admission, need only pass "the drool test," as both Arnold and Bush said was all that was asked of them.  Democrats must pass a multi-disciplinary PhD thesis exam, and still be an entertainer at the same time, and even so nothing they can do is good enough.

Arnold is now Governor because the Democrats are a fightless, impotent party.  All Gray Davis could think to do in the end was pander (see story), signing a horrible law he had vetoed before because it would buy him some votes.  It did the opposite.  He decided to give illegal aliens driver's licenses the same as if they were citizens.  Latinos still voted to recall him.  He let the car tax triple, and so he lost much of his base, who are too poor to pay such an increase.

And so, in comes Governor Groper, echoing the same right-wing cliches and flawed policies.

The Democrats have an expression they like to use:  "It's the economy, stupid."

I have to inform them of something:  "It's the right-wing domination of the media, stupid."

How can you ever win if every one of your candidates is dubbed unlikeable while the other side is dubbed inevitable?

How can you ever win if the other side has a network of endless free advertising and softball interviews, 24 hour a day, from the car to the house, armies who exist just to make their side sound great and yours horrible?

Since Rush Limbaugh began all this in 1992, it has been constant.  The 1994 Republican Revolution - they never lost hold on the Congress.  Now they have the Presidency and the Congress.  And now they have the Governorships of all the large states, even Democratic ones like New York and California.

And still the Democrats don't get it.

Back when the media leaned to the left, the Republicans hammered away at the "liberal media."  Now that it is solidly to the right, the Democrats take comments like, "You would like him if he slept with little boys," without response, while the Republicans still hammer the media.

Get it straight - this is a major battle, and it has truly yet to begin.  The battle is for America.  And the enemy is the media's right-wing bias.  Not a single Presidential candidate has made this a serious issue yet.  No Democrat, in fact, takes this seriously.  And so they are doomed to endless repeats of nights like tonight, of amazedly sitting by while charismatic but unqualified and amoral goons are installed.

The enemies are Democrats who pander to the left.  The enemies are Republicans who preach their standard "we'll cut taxes while still funding everything," lies.

But in the end, get this or learn to enjoy nights like tonight:  It's the right-wing domination of the media, stupid.