Obama-Only Stories Outnumber McCain-Only Stories by Nearly 4 to 1

And now it is 160,199 Obama stories and 116,489 McCain stories. And I'm sure that number will continue to change over time.

But it doesn't mean there are surplus Obama stories. First, Google News isn't a good way to measure coverage, just the lazy journalist's (or in this case columnist's). There are lots of duplicate wire stories in Google News. Someone experienced with nexis could give a more accurate indication. But it is probably true there are more Obama stories.  But there are good reasons.

How many of those "surplus" yahoo news stories mention Clinton and Obama? News stories are news driven. Probably one of the reasons for 160,000 stories now versus the 138,0000 whenever Noonan wrote her column is all the attention on the Clinton Obama appearances (103,000 mention both Clinton and Obama now).

And there probably will be even more this afternoon (if you honestly watch the press conference McCain just gave and the rally which will start soon, which will be more news worthy? Reagan killed the Fairness doctrine, and it never applied to newspapers which still make up the bulk of google news anyway).

And I think you're wrong that free media drives search engine traffic. Actual news events and demographics drive search engine traffic. And there has been more reason to search for Obama as the primaries came to a close over the last month. And his support among young people who are more likely to get their news online might be pretty close to three to one (and when you take those two factors together).

Plus the Obama campaign and his supporters are using the internet much better. Which is the another reason he's winning online. You really can't blame the "liberal" media this time (particularly when that media has given fawning coverage to McCain for decades). And George Bush seemed to be able to overcome it last time (ok, he really mostly just overcame Kerry's horrible campaign).

And you can thank Rush Limbaugh in part for the disparity of coverage. Horse race coverage still sadly drives most media coverage.  There would be a lot more McCain stories if the Republican campaign had continued until the primaries ended.

We'll never know how many of his listeners voted for Clinto to try and keep the Democrat's campaign going, but it may have been the margin in a few states. And while Clinton's continued attacks on Obama certainly have hurt, in the long run, the organization and voter registration in those states may help him as well as other candidates in those states.

Yes, too bad that there isn't  a free market solution to this problem.

It is unfortunate that conservatives cannot possibly break into a market that is clearly open for competition providing views and opinions from their side of the campground.

For years I thought that there was a free market solution to the disparity in coverage, but after listening to twenty years of pissing and moaning from conservatives that their message isn't getting out, it seems clear to me that there must be something imbedded in this system preventing them from doing this.

Too bad.

Between the media bias, Democrat Party's longer primary election coverage, and Obama's charisma; is anyone really surprised?  If McCain is going to compete; he needs to do something to ignite the grassroots supporters. Choosing a charismatic VP [Huckabee] could sure help get a whole army of supporters ready for active duty.