WILL WE BE SAVED FROM AN ALL-GOP FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BY ... ER, RUPERT MURDOCH?

If the economy doesn't recovery by November 2012, Barack Obama is vulnerable -- unless he's running against a Republican who's seen by swing voters as unappealing and extreme. We know from polls that, despite a bin Laden blip for Obama, Mitt Romney has a serious shot against Obama. And it's likely that the other candidates and potential candidates described by mainstream Beltway pundits as "serious" -- Daniels, Huntsman, etc. -- could also have a shot, if (and this is a big if) they could win the nomination.

So you'd think the Murdoch media, hoping to see a Republican in the White House, would be trying to sell the not-so-crazy candidates to the crazy base right now. You'd think Murdoch's media properties would be trying to steer angry viewers toward Republicans who are right-wing but electable.

Instead, Fox has spent the past six weeks or so promoting first Donald Trump and, after the initial GOP presidential debate, Herman Cain. And now the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal sticks a shiv in Mitt Romney even as he's putting as much distance as possible between himself and his former health-care moderation:

Obama's Running Mate

... In reality, his ostensible liberal allies like the late Ted Kennedy saw an opening to advance their own priorities, and in Mr. Romney they took advantage of a politician who still doesn't seem to understand how government works. It's no accident that RomneyCare's most vociferous defenders now are in the White House and left-wing media and think tanks.

... If he does not change his message, he might as well try to knock off Joe Biden and get on the Obama ticket.

Ouch.

But what's going on here? We call it "the right-wing noise machine" because we see it as an efficient, mechanized generator of propaganda that predictably steers the country rightward and regularly puts government in the hands of Republicans. But the Murdoch part of the machine is operating in such a way that the GOP is much less likely to win in 2012. Why?

Either the folks in Murdoch Land are supremely confident that they can move the country not just to the right but that far right -- as far as Cain and Palin and even the birthers -- or they don't really care anymore about being the Republican Party's propaganda wing, because catering to the needs of drooling ultra-extremists, even at the GOP's expense, is such good business (and fits the personal predilections of rage junkies such as Roger Ailes).

Which means that Murdoch's media properties may be harming the GOP right now -- and may be helping to guarantee Obama's reelection.