'The embattled incumbent...'

[Drunken Irishman]

I've seen this mentioned in a lot of articles from supposed unbiased sources and it's really starting to piss me off. Tell me that's not an overtly negative tone for a supposed non-partisan article?

When a politician is embattled, it generally means they're on the brink of being done. It's accompanied by 'loses' or 'resigns' or 'won't seek reelection' - and it's rarely ever used in presidential politics.

Yet I consistently see it in AP articles when talking about Obama.

I did a Google search to see how many articles exist today that defined Bush as an embattled incumbent. There was only one that consistently appeared, and it was an opinion article that circulated the internet back in '04 with this line:

Will 2004 be a replay of Truman-Dewey in 1948 in which the embattled incumbent survives--will Bush get to play Harry Truman? Or will 2004 reprise Carter-Reagan in 1980 when the challenger won after all? Will John Kerry play Ronald Reagan? These are roles either man would love to fill. One of them will.

Every other article that referred to an embattled incumbent at the presidential level did so in retrospect - an article from '08 looking at Carter or an article from '04 looking at H.W. Bush.

But you Google 'embattled incumbent' and Obama and you get 35,600 results. A lot are opinion-based, but others are mainstream articles.

The embattled incumbent's remarks at the Cuyahoga Community College Metropolitan Campus in Cleveland will center on a plea for patience with the sputtering recovery — the top issue on voters' minds, and Obama's most glaring political vulnerability.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-defend-economic-record-hit-romney-high-stakes/story?id=16562248#.T-Jge7US2Ag

The embattled incumbent scooped up a hair over $39 million dollars but spent nearly $44.6 million, according to a formal filing with the Federal Election Commission. A more detailed breakdown can be found here.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-campaign-sees-red-money-totals/story?id=16615177#.T-Jgr7US2Ag

President Obama left no doubt Monday that his campaign's sharply negative advertising assaults on Mitt Romney's private equity business career, in which investors fared well at the expense of some workers who lost jobs, are wholeheartedly embraced by the embattled incumbent himself.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/22/obama_defends_ads_hitting_romneys_bain_record_114232.html

There are many more. Interestingly enough, the two I pulled by ABC News, and they're different articles from different weeks, are both written by Olivier Knox. In fact, a Google search of Olivier Knox, along with 'embattled incumbent' brings up a few other articles where he's called Obama the 'embattled incumbent'.

Clinton, speaking at a fundraiser for President Barack Obama at the Manhattan home of billionaire hedge fund founder Marc Lasry, said the embattled incumbent has "the right economic policy and the right political approach," while "the politics is wrong on the Republican side, the economics are crazy."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/clinton-romney-president-calamitous-republican-economics-crazy/story?id=16494726#.T-JhbbUS2Ag

Keeping President Barack Obama's promise to hammer Mitt Romney's record on the economy through to November, the embattled incumbent's reelection campaign unleashed a new 30-second television ad entitled "Number One" that implies the Republican's record in Massachusetts was a pile of Number Two.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-ad-hits-rommey-massachusetts-debt/story?id=16548517#.T-JhV7US2Ag

I think it's time to shoot off an e-mail to Mr. Knox about his wording. His articles get a lot of play nationally - on both Yahoo!'s front page and ABC News'. So, he does have some explaining to do. In four articles, during roughly the last month, and that's just the ones I found, he refers to Obama as the 'embattled incumbent', but I'm sure there was no ill intent there. Right?

[emulatorloo]

1. Propaganda. Repeat a lie often enough.

AP is notorious for using negative loaded language about Dems and Obama.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. I sent him a tweet, we'll see if he responds.

[politicasista]

3. Thank you

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. A lot of the "news" coverage recently sure makes it seem as though President Obama

is a goner in November. If people think that Romney and the Republicans are really the *answer* to our problems, well..................