From Hotline On Call's 06 List:
Best Good Question To Which I Don't Yet Have An Answer: IA Gov. Tom Vilsack, who asks in a Heartland PAC e-mail "What are your ten words that define the Democratic Party's message?
Can someone please explain to me why a major political party in the world's most powerful country should be able to define it's message in ten words? That last sentence took 27 words, and yet Democrats are supposed to condense their positions on an intractable conflict in the Middle East, global warming, the disintegration of the corporate welfare state, the globalized economy, health care, the deficit, and everything else into ten?
That both Democrats and the media seem to have judged this a crucial skill is, to me, by far the most bizarre and inexplicable obsession in contemporary politics. Any political party that can sum themselves up in fewer words than have elapsed since my last punctuation mark simply hasn't thought about the issues enough to warrant my support. It's a good thing to communicate clearly, but the median voter isn't a seven-year-old who forgot to take his ritalin. No one ever accused Bill Clinton of brevity, yet voters understood him just fine.
Update: Since it seems we're going to have a conversation about what the ten words should be, remember, they can't just be ten awesome words. They have to be ten words Republicans don't agree with. If your opponent could stand on a stage and agree with your agenda, it's not a definition, it's a platitude. I had a post on this problem awhile back, and I guess it's relevant again now.
