The media can’t make up its mind. Are the Democrats soaring to a massive electoral victory unheard of in the history of the world, ever? Or are they the lovable underdogs taking on the evil, devious and much more powerful Republicans? One would think these two views would be contradictory, but somehow we manage to get both. While most media cheerleading goes with the “wave” line, this Wapo piece dared to be different and went for the “underdog” meme.

Democrats continued to raise large amounts of campaign cash this month, but not enough to erase the Republicans’ multimillion-dollar lead.

Wo ho ho! Go Dems, catch those evil Republicans!

With the midterm elections so near, both parties are pouring huge sums into the House’s three dozen or so competitive races.

“During the endgame, the parties are spending as much as the candidates themselves,” said Michael J. Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute.

Even so, Malbin noted, so many GOP candidates are behind in recent polls that not even their well-funded party committees can afford to expend resources on all of them.

And by “recent polls” they mean “media propoganda stories”, like this Wapo poll oversampling Democrats by 8% compared to 2004.

Al-Reuters went with the more typical “Democrat tsunami is coming!”

Democrats enter the final week of the fight for Congress with a commanding edge over Republicans, who hope a major voter turnout effort and shift in focus away from Iraq can limit their losses.

Recent polls show that growing Democratic momentum, fed by dissatisfaction with President George W. Bush’s leadership and the war in Iraq, threatens Republican power in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Hysterical nonsense. Recent polls actually show, if anything, growing Republican momentum - which I highlighted earlier.

Apparantly, the media finds no dissonance in simultaneously portraying the Democrats as both huge favorites and “resurgent” underdogs.

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