It will, he says, be at least 18 months before there is visible improvement and three to five years before there is substantive change.

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But the time when substantive change becomes inevitable is fast approaching.

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It may seem daunting to enter into the fray of a heated issue, to shape public opinion and to push our elected officials to substantive change, but we've done it before.

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The rest of us watch as they shout past each other, realizing that at the end of the day, very little substantive change will be made one way or the other.

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"I'm not looking for any substantive agreement that will change policy, " said Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Belgium.

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It takes a concerted effort on the part of senior leadership to really change culture in a substantive way.

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On a substantive level, the new revelations change the case against Murdoch and his lieutenants somewhat, but not a great deal.

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That's part of every campaign, and it's often the result of one side trying to change the subject when they're losing the debate on the substantive policy issues that matter most to the American people.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

On climate change, the heavy negotiations for the United Nations and the EU have now become somewhat more publicly vocal in their criticism of the administration in their interpretation it's not working hard enough to bring climate change legislation and an agreement to Copenhagen, to have something that's substantive that can be a part of the overall negotiations.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing