A good site to sample world media outlets, and to see what they have to
say about the USA, is
href="http://www.watchingamerica.com/index.shtml">Watching
America.
align="top" border="0" height="219" hspace="0"
vspace="0" width="279">
Die Welt, Germany
Right-Wing
Extremist Viciousness Punished
I actually don't agree with the anaylsis published in Die Welt
(The World).
They think that the fall of the Republican Party began with the Terri
Schaivo matter. That occurred in April 2005. My
impression is that the start was a bit later. It was May 2005
that the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_memo#News_coverage"
rel="tag">Downing Street Memo was published.
They also miss the importance of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sheehan" rel="tag">Cindy
Sheehan. Although one could argue that she has not
been very influential, she was important for at least one reason: she
was the first critic of the Administration who was given sustained
attention in the media. Prior to that, critics were given
only brief mention; criticism of the President never gained any
traction.
The shift in the bahavior of the media is something that had to happen
before there would be any substantial change in voter behavior.
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I don't know - I do know a couple of conservatives at work who were repelled by Frist and the way the President leapt into action over Schiavo. Maybe it wasn't enough by itself to change their minds about the GOP as a whole but it was the first crack.
I heard a conservative pollster on C-Span say that the "bridge to nowhere" story convinced him they were headed for trouble in the next election.
The �Bridge to Nowhere,�
The bridge in Alaska would connect the town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) with its airport on the Island of Gravina (population 50) at a cost to federal taxpayers of $320 million, by way of three separate earmarks in the recent highway bill. At present, a ferry service runs to the island, but some in the town complain about its wait (15 to 30 minutes) and fee ($6 per car).
A lot of libertarian leaning R's were very upset with the handling of Schivo -- and I think this was the final straw with a lot of them and their support for the R party.
I would also add that the Katrina response also had a profound impact on a number of people.
I'd say it was a chain of events, each of which ticked off a portion of the populace because it struck a nerve with that portion.
Schiavo was one. Katrina was another. The 'bridge to nowhere' was a third. The nomination of Harriet Miers was a fourth.