Go read Ernest Partridge's article on the DU front page!

[Plaid Adder]

If I could, I would round up every leader in the Democratic Party and tie them to their chairs until they were done memorizing it. And then maybe people would realize that this "electability" thing has as much to do with how you run the race as it does with which horse you back.

Grr,

The Plaid Adder

[rucky]

1. Clark's starting to do it...

Dean does it when he stumps - not so much so on TV.

Gephardt is actually really good at it - to the point where he turns many of us off by sounding like a broken record.

[Spazito]

2. Thank you for pointing this out!

Excellent article and right on point, imo! As someone who doesn't have a horse in this race, being Canadian, I am watching from the sidelines and totally agree with the writer of this article. The Republicans are masters at the art of defining their domestic "enemies" in simplistic terms that can stick for those who don't look any further which, sadly, is most of the public.

[chiburb]

3. Thanks, PA...

Excellent article. We KNOW most of what he wrote, but I think the "brains" running the party and candidates need to be reminded. I especially liked this part:

Just as lies can, with constant unrefuted repetition, be widely believed to be true, so too can significant truths come to be widely believed if they are constantly repeated. So the Democrats must abandon the “laundry lists” of issues, and instead repeatedly pound on the “hot button issues.” Bush is a liar. He is an international outlaw. He and his gang are robbing you of your wealth, your future, and the future of your children. He has brought our beloved country into disrepute the world over. And he is sending our kids abroad to fight and die for Cheney's Halliburton and his Daddy's Carlisle Group.

Say it, over and over and over again, simply and starkly – until it begins to get through.

[enough]

4. Right on

Great article.

We all need to be thinking this way in everything we do politically.

In a recent local election (about 1000 voters), I saw an example of one of these rules: "Employ tactical judo – use the enemy's strength to your advantage."

The opposition started blanketing the township with handouts filled with outrageous and very nasty lies -- no regard for reality. Since few people know what's going on locally, people thought these lies must be true. They figured nobody could make this stuff up.

After we caught our breath, we started to use the lies and negative campaign as our main campaign issue. Very slowly the tide began to turn, people started getting very pissed about these nasty flyers. After a while each new flyer they sent out was just generating more voters for our side. They were doing our work for us.

On election day, we WON. Everyone who worked at the poles that day heard from voters over and over that the lies and negativity were the number one reason why they voted for our guy.

An interesting detail is that it was overwhelmingly the women who were pissed off about it. Most men didn't seem to care.