>People don't understand wonky stuff. They don't connect policy to party or
>candidate in any detail. They need a one- or two-sentence story that
>excites them about politics. "America is in danger and Bush can save us!"
>Doesn't matter what the danger is - terrorism or lesbianism - it still
>works. Things like that
While I agree that people don't understand "wonky stuff" (largely, I suspect, because of the manner in which it's presented and their own disbelief in their own intelligence), hasn't there been a message going out for a little while about the invasion of Iraq? Something like, "Wrong, wrong, wrong; this is wrong!"?
Sloganeering's a great propaganda tool, but I think the technique bites when the Other Side has the money, manpower, and top-down organizations to push it their way. This isn't mentioning our own side's relative lack of organizational power, poverty of funds, and tendency towards spinning off in our own directions (among other things).
And how much you want to bet Carville's answer is to shift the Dems more to the right and act more like the Republicans? He's already battened onto their little morality plays, so what else could be in the offing?
Todd