[WestPoint90]

You are right in your analysis, but the big variable I think that is left out is how the media will spin this from now to '06. As they are saying now, this is proof of a referendum against Bush. All that will be repeated. Sheeple will eat it up.

We may hate the msm, but there is now mistaking their ability to get across the points they want. Everyone see Iraq as a failure, because that is what the msm wants it to be. All great stories of thriving businesses and iraqi's thankful to the us will never be seen.

[counterpunch]

The media has always spun things the way they spin it.
1994 was "the year of the angry white man" and a "temper tantrum" and surely a passing "fluke"... and yet Republicans have held on to power ever since.

The way the media portrays events, how other people supposedly think about it, its significance, etc, doesn't actually affect the way people view it beyond either reinforcing their own view or pissing them off.