An incumbent president is facing a tough challenge from a Massachusetts politician who is even richer than he is, just as in 2004. For most of the year, pollsters have found that less than half the country approves of the incumbent’s job performance, also as in 2004. The challenger is again said to have trouble connecting with voters. Add another parallel to the list: Mark Halperin is convinced that the Republican candidate is stretching the truth more than the Democrat.
In October 2004, the high-profile journalist, who then worked for ABC, cited three other journalistic eminences to make the point that “the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done. Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and [makes] mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win. We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn’t mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides ‘equally’ accountable when the facts don’t warrant that.”
Comments