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9/27/08

The Associated Press: Across Europe, it's becoming 'politics as USual'

For the complete report from The Associated Press click on this link

Across Europe, it's becoming 'politics as USual'

From this month's Social Democrat convention in northwestern Denmark to the slick imagery that has replaced the communist snoozefests of Cold War Eastern Europe, "Elements of the American way are seeping in," says Reginald Dale, a British expert. They're evident in televised debates of unprecedented feistiness; in candidates' obsession with polls, focus groups and image control; and in mass media, embracing a bold new role as definers — not just moderators — of key election themes. Experts say a watershed moment in the rise of image over substance came in 1997, when Britain's Conservative Party ran a poster that gave Tony Blair devil's eyes over the slogan "New Labour, New Danger."

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