Media tilt.

Live appearances by George W. Bush received 12 hours and 11 minutes of cable news coverage, compared to three hours and 47 minutes for Kerry between March 3 and April 16, reports The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz. Part of this, of course, was due to Kerry's absences from the campaign because of his bad shoulder. But even after making the most generous allowance for Kerry's days off, Bush clearly had an advantage of more than 2-to-l. Bush's coverage was also, in my view, unmistakably more respectful than Kerry received, especially on FOX and CNN's Headline News. It is perhaps no coincidence the same period this study covered, the presidential race according to Gallup has gone from a Kerry lead to a Bush lead, 51-46.

The historic ability of the White House to control the news tended to disappear during the Clinton years but returned full-blast on 9/11. Since then, Bush has gotten the full benefit of the commander-in-chief role. The only exception to the recent White House dominance was during this year's Democratic primaries, which may help explain why as Kerry clinched the nomination, he led Bush in the polls by a comfortable margin.