Election armageddon

Just a quick note about how deeply disappointing the coverage of the GOP's shameless efforts to suppress votes is. Not to say the papers haven't been doing a fine job of picking up the election stories in general, but ultimately, the stories are falling into a predictable he said/she said rhythm. I.e., Republicans are trying to suppress the vote but they say they are doing it simply because Democrats are engaging in fraud. Reporters need to attach at least one significant and verifiable incident of registration fraud to be allowed to print these rebuttals without serious skepticism. As others have noted, the GOP is making a calculated bid to pre-empt challenges to a stalemate or a close Bush loss, ensuring that the meme is primed for deployment on November 3rd. But buying into this means that the media is watering down a veritabe explosion in GOP affiliated voter suppression schemes, most of which are hardly hidden. If they are still playing this game when the recounts begin, it is going to be a very, very, long November.