What is the Fix writer smoking? Her reporting about MA is incredibly misleading.

[Mass]

Nobody should say that the MA governor's race is a cakewalk for Deval Patrick. He is going to work hard for this.

However, the Fix makes is a much more closer race than it is, and for that insists in ignoring the reality. I guess this is what passes for proper reporting in DC.

The core of the article is that the mood is "Throw the bump out". So, they find one person (an 86 year old voter) to support their claim (not necessarily wrong, but this is only half of the picture)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/governors/enthusiasm-gap-at-issue-in-mas.html

WEST ROXBURY, Mass. -- For Barney Steverman, the 2010 election comes down to two words: No incumbents.

"There isn't a Democrat that I would vote for today," said Steverman, an 86-year-old registered Democrat and World War II veteran who is supporting Republican Charlie Baker in his bid to unseat incumbent Gov. Deval Patrick (D)
...

However, the rest of the article is amusingly weird.

First, to sustain the claim that this is a very close race when all polls but one show the race as a 5 to 7 points, the writer had to rely on a one month old Boston Globe poll and a Baker (R) poll and to ignore the Rasmussen poll showing Patrick at +5.

By all indications, the race will be a closely contested one. A Suffolk Poll last week showed Patrick taking 46 percent to Baker's 39 percent, with Cahill taking 10 percent and Green-Rainbow candidate Jill Stein taking 1 percent. Baker's camp released its own internal polling showing the Republican taking 42 percent to Patrick's 35 percent. And late last month, a Boston Globe poll showed the race in a statistical dead heat, with Patrick taking 35 percent, Baker taking 34 percent and Cahill trailing with 11 percent.

Even more amusing is the claim that Baker is a man of the people.

Later, the 6-foot-6 Baker, clad in a light blue button-down shirt and blue jeans, got behind the restaurant's bar and tried his hand at pouring a few drinks.

"That last round was on Charlie!" the bartender yelled as the patrons cheered.

"Don't tell my wife!" Baker responded, to laughs.
...
"I don't see Deval walking in here and having a pint with this crowd," Oag said.

Now, the same Boston Globe poll was actually showing Baker's likeability very low including for GOPers and the latest Rasmussen Poll and Suffolk Poll show him with lower Fav/unfav than Patrick,

This will come as a big surprise to people in MA. Even his consultants and the RW Boston Herald would not say that.

Here is a GOP NPR consultant, for example

http://electionwire.wbur.org/2010/10/18/baker-blunders
With two weeks to go, will the real Charlie Baker please stand?

Today's Boston Globe has his nth version of "could we have a better Baker article"

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2010/10/20/for_baker_relaxing_could_be_the_key/

...
But aides, and Baker himself, worry that he can seem inaccessible in his encounters with ordinary people. That he tries to answer all the questions, but sometimes talks too much. That he does not show his personable side enough, a concern borne out by a recent Globe poll that suggested Baker was named the most likable candidate by only 44 percent of his own supporters.

His inner circle is constantly reminding him to keep his message simple, to tap into public anger over the economy.
...

If your aides are ready to say that on record, how likeable are you?

Now, I cant say whether Patrick will win or not, but the narrative by the Post is highly distorted.

(Oops, I wanted to post that on GD, but it is a good example of how the media will insist on their narrative whatever the facts are).