Dems, You Gotta Have Heart

[illinoisprogressive]

I have been hearing of this guy alot recently. He focuses on the democrats and why they keep losing the white house.
what he says is what I have thought for awhile. I have not understood why we keep shooting ourselves in the foot over and over by making the same fatal error in picking the same kind of nominees over and over.
Well, here is a opinion piece in the Washington Post by Wesson. Please link to the full article and read it and think about it.



So do Democrats, but their candidates too often hide their values in the fine print of their policies. Democratic pundits, strategists and primary voters require their candidates to do precisely the things that lose general elections: to offer their 16-point energy plans rather than to offer their life stories, their values, their visions and a couple of well-chosen "signature issues."

Data from thousands of voters surveyed since the late 1940s suggest that voters tend to ask four questions (in this order) that determine how they vote:

· How do I feel about the candidates' parties and their principles?

· How does this candidate make me feel?

· How do I feel about this candidate's personal characteristics, such as integrity, leadership and empathy?

· How do I feel about this candidate's stands on issues that matter to me?

Candidates who focus toward the top of this hierarchy and work their way down generally win. They drink from the wellsprings of partisan sentiments, which account for more than 80 percent of votes. They tell emotionally compelling stories about who they are and what they believe in. They don't say, "Karl Rove needs to testify under oath about the CIA leak case because we must have a transcript." Rather, when the president invokes executive privilege, they ask, with righteous indignation: "Mr. Bush, just what is it about 'So help me God' that you find so offensive?" If you don't make people feel the health care crisis -- either as a disaster that could one day hit them or as something that just isn't right -- you won't win on health care, regardless of how sound your plan is.

In the Democratic debates thus far, the most memorable lines have all come from moments when a candidate created a feeling: Edwards's suggestion that you can't "split the difference" between economic fairness and unfairness; Obama's principled stand on immigration ("We are a nation of laws, but we are also a nation of immigrants"); Clinton's recognition, when vowing that she would respond aggressively if al-Qaeda again struck in the United States, that the first task of government is to protect its citizens' security.

For some reason, I can't remember the candidates' plans on biofuels. But perhaps they'll come back to me.

[e-mail]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072701674.html

[DS1]

1. Quote "I can't remember the candidates' plans on biofuels"

That's because nobody asked Dennis.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. lol. but it was a joke. we keep chosing dry unappealing candidates.

[WCGreen]

3. The Wonkacrats...

So we can stand on the sidelines and laugh at how stupid the guy in the White House is while they fleece the country and destroy everything we stand for as a nation...

[frogcycle]

4. Oh I know, I know! Ask me, ask me!

pick the guy you'd like to have a beer with!