Wow, Taki,

They stole the election by using electronic voting machines. Actually there were a few court cases brought with these charges. They were all thrown out due to lack of evidence. Certainly there are those who still believe the charges, just as there are those who believe that Dick Cheney piloted cruise missiles into the World Trade Center buildings and that WTC7 was dropped by demolition charges. There isn't any evidence to support those claims either, but nonetheless, that is where some people put their faith.

Just consider that the Republican party, in order to do so, and to do so without leaving any evidence, would have to had a nationwide conspiracy that included literally hundreds of thousands of people who ran voting booths, who ran election departments, etc. in every city in the United States. Such a conspiracy would have to have included many people who were not Republicans because many of the election departments are run by non-Republicans. Yet with all of these hundreds of thousands of people involved in such a conspiracy, there has yet to emerge any credible evidence that the conspiracy took place even though many of the people that must have been involved are opposed to the current administration. It just doesn't seem likely.

As to the media impact. I will say that there are two problems with your assumption. First, until recently, all media slanted the same way (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc.). When the viewing public has limited options, they will watch whatever is on, even if they disagree with it. As such, advertisers had a safe bet that their ads would be watched even though the public might disagree with the opinions presented on the shows. Once some alternative viewpoints (most notably Fox News which is still slanted left although not to the extreme of the others) came onto the scene, there was a huge shift towards those alternative stations which is why Fox News has the highest ratings of all television news channels. Secondly, there is the nature of advertising in general. Businesses are going to place advertisements wherever they can get viewed by enough people. Very few products have a political slant (both liberals and conservatives drive cars, drink coffee, use computers, etc.). Businesses are apolitical and with good reason. They exist to make money and thus cannot afford to alienate half of their potential consumers. They will advertise wherever they believe they can get a return on their advertising money, regardless of the political leanings of the medium. A viewer, regardless of whether or not they agree with a network's leanings, may still purchase an advertised product on that network (if they are watching it at all). Note that today Fox News, having the highest ratings, commands higher prices for advertisements and businesses are paying it because they reach a larger audience with that investment. So it doesn't necessarily follow that people are largely going to be influenced by the media, they are simply going to seek out media that they can agree with and filter out what they don't.
It is also generally acknowledged that in any given election, 80-90% of the nation will vote along party lines (about half Democrat and half Republican), and the election is decided by the remaining 10-20%. That suggests that the media cannot sway 80-90% of the population with their leanings. Doesn't sound like the majority of the United States is swayed by the media then. Only a small majority (generally less than 20%) are swayed by the combination of the leanings of the media, the candidates' own statements, their friends and relatives, etc. As such, my statement that there is a large segment of the United States public that simply ignores the media slant is true.

Your use of the term 'neocon' as a derogative term really states my position well. By using that term, you identify yourself as one of those 80-90% of the nation that cannot be swayed by the media. You have made up your mind and even if the media suddenly gave 100% of its attention to Mr. McCain, you would still support Mr. Obama. That is fine, but it also proves my point that the media doesn't really have much impact on people's thinking.

-- Jeff

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"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan