Stupid MSM! He bought 'em all those snacks, barbecued 'em all those ribs, bought 'em all that booze, drove 'em around in his luxury bus, and they have the audacity to stop journalistically fellating him and turn to the more charming candidate outside the context of his association with Rev. Wright or some 60's radical? Not fair!!!

You will all be assimilated! Resistance is futile!

The enthusiasm gap becomes an abyss:

"In Manchester last night, there was just one reporter and one photographer waiting for McCain as his plane . . . "

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=McCain+returns+to+NH+with+visit+to+Rochester&articleId=248d6f19-aaa4-40a4-b95b-b365fcaff562

The McCain campaign had been beating up on Obama for not having been to the war zone recently.

So he went. And surprise, the press went with him to see what was going to happen.

Can anyone on the bus spell "petard"?

Rance, you're confusing going to Iraq for a late look-see with actually understanding foreign policy and the issues in context.

Obama has raised his portfolio to 'naif' level. Perhaps.

"It's not "cool" if you haven't seen Barack Obama in person." Uh huh.

I agree that one might argue that the media is treating Obama better, but certainly I've seen them be unfair to Obama (you do watch Fox News sometimes?) and I've seem them let McCain and his surrogates get away with some pretty bald faced dissembling.

For example, the surge! That's the centerpiece of his campaign now! But what are the facts? On Oct 27, 2006 he wanted 20K more troops. America had 144K troops in Iraq then. Our previous maximum had been 160K. McCain had essentially asked for 2.5% increase over the previous maximum. At _that_ time, the previous max, it should be noted, violence was increasing and increasing.

Does someone _really_ think McCain's proposed 2.5% troop increase made all the difference?

Don't Forget Poland! If you include Polish, British and other coalition troops, the maximum troop count during the surge was lower than it was in late 2005.

The truth is, the change in troop strengths had far less to do with it than: replacing Casey with the (in my opinion) far more competent and intelligent Petraeus, paying off the people trying to kill us (the Sunni Awakening), and Moqtada al-Sadr's ceasefire.

Now, these numbers are entirely public, but the entire press corps is on board with this fundamental claim from the McCain campaign. that the "surge" worked. You should have heard Joe Scarborough this morning. The chiron might as well have read "McCain Saves Iraq!"

The security situation is better in Iraq, but crediting McCain for it is like saying 2+2=5.

For now, this is the lynchpin of his campaign, and it took less than a whole morning for me to make these graphs that show the surge is a scam. It did not lead to the change in the situation in Iraq, and yet that is exactly what all the major news stations are saying.

The media is against McCain?

Tick, tick, tick, the Obama clock is running out. He is going to have to face the serious issues sooner or later. The press was not allowed to follow Obama around Iraq. Tightly controlled he is. ww

Josh

For now, this is the lynchpin of his campaign, and it took less than a whole morning for me to make these graphs that show the surge is a scam.

I'm glad you figured that out. Those graphs are hard for me to read. Could you restate that data in a bar chart that shows actual deployment by country of origin and date? Vertical axis is troops in theater by country of origin, horizontal axis is date in theater. And could you cite a single source for this graph?

Thanks, those of us who were C students in math need some clarification sometimes.

Wow. I always hated watching CNN/MSNBC for their über-liberal slant, but I thought those Chris Matthews quotes were exaggerations. I now see that he freaking REALLY means it! These people are grade A maroons. Oh, and Josh, those graphs are crap as well - maybe you should index them to the rate of a migrating swallows wings for clarity.

A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.

But maybe two could?

Ask Josh.

What's Josh's favorite colour? Yellow. No, blue! AAAARRGHHH!

Here's another example of the media showing their love for Obama.