By now, the media bias in favor of Obama is so glaringly obvious that it’s clear - MSNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, The New York Times – are nothing but shills for the Democratic Party. 

I saw this years ago.  During the 1994 congressional elections, I was living in London, and the contrast between the American media coverage and that of the European media shocked me.   Whatever their personal sentiments, it was clear to the Europeans that American voters were in a “throw the bums out” mood, and that’s what they reported.  The American press, on the other hand, was in complete denial, like Kevin Bacon’s character in Animal House, screaming, “All is well!” as he is trampled by a stampeding mob.

And it has gotten worse.  With each successive election, the American media has tried harder not only to influence the outcome, but to dictate it; to control it.  You know their tactics; there’s no reason to recount them all here.  Old media has lost every shred of credibility it once had.

But somehow, the “poll results” have remained sacrosanct. 

So for weeks we’ve been hearing how Obama is “pulling ahead” in almost every “major poll.”  I hear some conservatives worrying that the election is already lost.  This is nonsense.  After months of hearing the media spout lie after lie, they report skewed, self-serving poll results, and you believe them? 

Despite the media’s love affair with Obama, and despite the fact that McCain has not run anything like a brilliant campaign, Obama is still (allegedly) only 5 or 6 points ahead.  I think even this alleged point spread is exaggerated.  My suspicion is that Obama and McCain are neck-and-neck.  The media wouldn’t believe that, because they spend all their time talking to people who think like they do, as well as believing that they, like God, can make something happen just by announcing that it’s so.  But as Sarah Palin and Joe Wurzelbacher have shown, Americans roar their approval when someone has the guts to tell them the TRUTH. And, like Joe, many Americans don’t reveal who they’re voting for, even when asked.

WAKE UP!  The whole purpose of the media spin is to persuade conservatives that the election is over:  stay home, don’t vote, don’t bother.   One sure way for conservatives to hand Obama the election is to do precisely that.

The second fatal error conservatives can make (and I know I’m inviting the onslaught here) is to throw away your vote on a third-party candidate who cannot win, on the assumption that a couple of years with a super-liberal government will turn people’s heads around.

I am just as disgusted with the spend-happy Republicrats in power as the next person.  And, as a Libertarian, I believe in third parties.  But it is one thing to support a candidate with a legitimate shot at victory, and another thing to throw your vote away, essentially casting another vote for Barack Obama.

We saw the same arguments being made in 2006: “I’m voting my conscience;” “I’m voting for someone who actually espouses conservative principles;” “I’m sending Republicans a message” (my personal favorite);  and “After two years of a Democrat Congress/President, the public will be so fed up that we’ll get real conservatives elected in the next election.”

I get it.  But I’m sorry, those rules don’t work, for what should be obvious reasons.

Those of you who “sent Republicans a message” by staying home or voting for third party candidates in 2006 helped create a Democrat-controlled Congress.  It’s been two years – see any outrage yet?  Are the same Democrats who helped create the financial crisis being shown the door? 

This year’s election poses the threat of a filibuster-proof Senate.   If Obama wins the Presidency, you’ll have helped hand all three branches of government to the Democrats.  Yes, three.  A President Obama and a Democrat-controlled Senate will nominate and confirm, respectively, the most liberal Supreme Court justices this country has ever known.  John Paul Stevens is 88.  He will retire.  More may follow.  Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life; there’s no “getting rid of them” in the next election.  You can kiss your rights and your traditional values goodbye, as that new liberal Supreme Court finds all kinds of new ways to shut you up and shut you out.

Further, you’re assuming that you’ll get another chance at an election.   But what if you don’t?  Last week, I said to a family member that what really worried me about an Obama presidency is the risk that we’d get hit again by terrorists, or face some other catastrophe.  “And on the heels of that,” I said, “what’s to stop Obama from ‘suspending’ elections?  I can hear his sonorous voice now, proclaiming in the most presidential tones, that ‘we cannot afford the divisiveness and partisan bickering of national elections, when the current crisis demands that we be unified as a nation!’  And to those who’d challenge (legitimately) the constitutionality of such a move, our President Obama would simply quote the Great Liberator, Abraham Lincoln, who asked what would be gained if he ‘los[t] the nation, and yet preserve[d] the Constitution?’” And then what would you do?

Think this is all beyond the pale?  What, then, do you make of Joe Biden’s comments that “… within the -- first six months of this administration ... we're going to face a major international challenge, 'cause they're going to want to test him…” and “I promise you, you all are going to be sitting here a year from now saying, 'Oh, my God, why are they down there in the polls, why is the polling on Obama so low, why is this thing so tough?'  We're going to have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years, so I'm asking you now … be prepared to stick with us.  Remember the faith you had at this point, because you're going to have to reinforce it." ?

Just what kind of crisis, precisely, does Biden think a President Obama will face?  What “incredibly tough” and unpopular decisions would the pragmatic President Obama be willing to make to ensure that he – and his cohorts in the Congress - stayed in power?  Would he exploit a nationwide sense of fear, panic, and helplessness for his own political benefit?  What, precisely, is Biden insisting we would have to tolerate?

And we haven’t even touched on Obama’s love of gun control.  Hmmm.  Let’s see – no votes, no guns, no … chance?

Obama may be a relative unknown, but far too many of those supporting him, funding him, inspiring him, and otherwise propping him up have made no bones about their disdain for this country and their desire to bring down the entire American system.  I put nothing past them, and I think we ignore them at our peril.   At best, we will find ourselves saddled with a bloated, egotistical, economically ignorant, redistributionist government that treats American workers like pack mules, to be flogged until we collapse under the weight of an unsustainable system.  And at worst, we could be facing a form of entrenched despotism the likes of which we never imagined possible.

There was a time when Democrats in power meant a slight shift to the left, and Republicans in power meant a slight shift to the right.  Elections were relatively minor “course corrections.”  Politicians on both sides of the aisle loved this country, believed in it, wanted the best for it.  The disagreements were about the best way to accomplish what were reasonably mutual goals. 

Not anymore.

If we stay home, if we vote Democrat or third party to “send the Republicans a message” or to “punish them,” WE are the ones who will be punished.  And quite likely for a long, long time.

Think about it as you head to the polls.  The ones that matter.