Incumbency and money are just two of three advantages the Republicans hold -- if not four.

It should now be painfully clear to everyone that the mass media -- print and television -- are a wholly owned subsidiary of the RNC. (Literally: NBC is owned by GE; Disney owns ABC; Viacom owns CBS. These corporations are NOT on our side.) Fox, CNN, and MSNBC; Rush, Imus, and their ilk; as blatant and damaging as they all are, are secondary. It's the networks and major national papers -- the New York Times and the Washington Post -- that are the issue here, in that they still determine the agenda of the news industry. Even a cursory analysis of the coverage of campaigns, and politics in general, demonstrates that the media are putting their collective thumbs heavily on the scale in every way that they can, from the portrayals of the candidates and parties; through decisions of what stories to cover and which to ignore -- which means, in effect, to suppress; to the furtherance of the underlying themes and memes favorable to Republican candidates at all levels.

Until the left invests in its own media outlets, we will be stymied at every step, even if we do, thru some miracle, manage to retake one or both houses of Congress.

And then, of course, there are the questions of whether the elections are at all "free and fair," or whether Republican efforts to disenfranchise Democratic voters, and/or possible hacking of voting machines, are significant enough to change electoral outcomes.

We should be so lucky as to have only Republican incumbency and money to worry about.

Interesting article. I think though that the Republicans have an advantage that was not mentioned. Republicans have been very clever about building the very strong impression in the minds of working people that they share their values, even though they do not. Many working people may not like this or that policy, this or that scandal, but they feel that Repbulicans love America, support common decency, have certain core transcendental values that they can relate to. Democrats, on the other hand, have not forged a similarly strong bond with voters outside of self-identified liberals (who are not numerous enough on the ground all by themselves to carry an election). This is a key Democratic weakness. They talk a lot about policy, about programs and rights, and they (quite rightly) attack the Republicans for their gross mismanagement of the country. But none of this makes a real connection. Democrats are too abstract on the one hand, and too concrete on the other. I've been very distressed to see that still, after all these years of Bush, the Democrats still don't have a strong clear identity devised by themselves. THey seem frightened of trying to do this, as if the language of core values made them nervous. Voters pick up on this and act accordingly. My one hope for November is that public disgust with the corruption at the heart of the Republican party will overcome this weakness. This may turn out to be the bit of luck the Democrats need to win.

Let's talk turkey. Without the kind of election fraud that Diebold delivered in Georgia 2004--the illegal patch called 'rob.georgia.zip" that allowed a GOP gubernatorial and Senate candidate to come from behind to defeat popular incumbent Democrats with double digit leads in the polls, and without the kind of election fraud that Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell perfected to a science in Ohio 2004--the systematic disenrollment of minority and poor voters, the rejection of (primarily Democratic) newly registered voters, the terrorist squads from out of state to intimidate minority voters, the carefully engineered day long lines at Democratic precincts and the Voting Rights Act violating refusal to count lawfully cast votes...

...without these illegal election fraud tactics, the GOP would not have the snowball's proverbial chance in hell. Their numbers are too low. It is an "off" year. The president, who is massively unpopular is also a GOPer. The price of oil is sky high, and every time voters fill up, they are reminded that the war in Iraq and the GOP's oil friendly policies have contributed to the high cost.

No bookie in Vegas would given anything but long odds to the GOP keeping control of Congress if not for the fact that since 2000, the Department of Justice has not enforced the Voting Rights Act. This means that election fraud has now reached epidemic proportions. All Republicans secretly know that this true, and they revel in the fact. In public, they claim that election fraud is all a Democratic delusion.

The two factors noted in the article, incumbancy and money may be important or they may not. This fall, incumbancy can be as much a liability as a plus with American mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore. And money, usually the GOP's best friend, may be a real problem for them. I have not seen the usual chorus of RNC puritans loudly proclaiming that "God must love us because we have already raised x gazillion dollars!" They usually boast about their prowess in the campaign donation bedchamber, as if to say "We are clearly going to win this one, so don't waste your money on the loser."

However, they are not bragging this cycle. I wonder if business donors from industries hurt hard by the cost of oil or by labor issues or by the high price of health insurance are looking across the aisle. Or maybe business donors realize that a party whose best asset is election fraud is sort of a risky investment. How many more RFK Jr.s will spring up between now and this fall?

Without election fraud, the GOP has no safety net to stop it as it circles the toilet. All it would take is one big SCOTUS ruling or a pesky state district attorney or a rogue federak attorney or even the bankruptcy of an E-voting company.

The Republicans really represent only one constituency: the wealthy. They use the religious fundamentalists and ignorant bigoted rubes to get votes, but by and large they do not care about them.

Even when they toss the fanatics and rubes a few anti-gay and anti-abortion bones, it's a transparent ploy. The wealthy will always be able to obtain safe abortions for their women, and they can enjoy all the gay lovers they want without fear.

Republicans have the power and money and they (not liberals) control the media, which is why they too often win, despite representing a tiny portion of the nation.

By the way, Democrats, you better find a simplistic slogan to counter "Cut and Run," since that is what the Republicans will repeat incessantly this fall -- and the rubes will eat it up.