Reality bites
Faced with almost daily reports of sectarian carnage in Iraq, congressional Republicans are shifting their message on the war from speaking optimistically of progress to acknowledging the difficulty of the mission and pointing up mistakes in planning and execution.-Washington Post - July 20, 2006
In short, the liberal media has been reporting the half-empty glass as it sees it, more or less, and there is no time before November to turn it around. Classic Rove.