This press trend has now become something of a stampede. Looking ahead to tomorrow's three off-year elections, the political press is interested in one storyline, and one storyline only: what if Democrats lose?

As we noted last week, that laser-like focus is a bit odd since according to available polling, Democrats stand a reasonable chances of winning two of the three races; the scrambled special Congressional election in NY-23, as well as retaining the NJ governorship. (The VA. gov. race looks like a lock for the GOP.) Yet rather than pondering the implications for Republicans if they lose (again) on Election Day, the media direction is focused in one direction only; towards the Dems.

The latest entry in this bad-news-for-Democrats movement came from The Wall Street Journal:

Virginia Race Tests Obama's Staying Power

That seems monumentally dumb. The Journal's news team actually suggests that a state-wide election in VA. will indicate whether Obama wins a second term three years from now?

But the meat of the article is worse than the headline, as the piece completely ignores indications that Democrats might do well this week [emphasis added]:

In Virginia, as in New Jersey, Republicans have pushed aggressively to tie the Democratic candidate to Mr. Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress, whose efforts on health care and the economy are unpopular with some voters. The Republican Governor's Association spent about $13 million on TV ads in the two states.

That's the Journal's only mention of the NJ race in the entire article about off-year elections and the possible implications for the Democratic White House. The Journal makes no reference to the fact that the GOP candidate in NJ blown his double-digit lead since this summer. Pondering the ramifications of Tuesday's election, the Journal chooses to ignore N.J.

UPDATED: On ABC's Good Morning America today, more GOP-friendly spin:

“You can tell how much the White House may be anticipating to have a bad day tomorrow by how much they're already saying the results won't say anything” about the president's political standing."

I have no idea who is going to win on Tuesday. But neither do reporters and pundits, who seem only interested in one storyline.

UPDATED: Am I the only one who thinks it's odd that the press often lumps in the N.Y.-23 special election into articles about what the Tuesday votes will say about Obama's political standing, when N.Y.-23 hasn't sent a Democrat to Congress since the 1800's?