Joshua Holland (AlterNet, 11/10/08) offers “more evidence that much of the traditional media’s analysis of American politics is utterly worthless, and should probably just be ignored out of hand”:
Only moments after the networks declared Barack Obama the winner of a dramatic realignment election, William Bennett, the conservative icon, declared on CNN that “America is still a center-right nation, no matter what anybody says.”
Implied was that it also didn’t matter what exit polls, mountains of public opinion data, shifts in partisan identification and changes in the country’s demographics say. That stuff’s apparently for the “reality-based” community to worry about.
Reality: An Election Day poll by the Center for American Progress and the Campaign for America’s Future asked whether Republicans had lost because they were too conservative or not conservative enough. By a 20-point margin, voters chose “too conservative,” including independents who agreed by a 21-point margin. Seven out of 10 said they wanted the Republicans to work with Obama and “help him achieve his plans,” while fewer than a quarter of respondents thought the GOP should try to keep him from implementing a progressive agenda.
See FAIR Blog: “Center-Right Country? Center-Right Media” (10/19/08) by Jim Naureckas
