a scratch pad for half-formed thoughts by a liberal political junkie who's nobody special. ''Hard Heads, Soft Hearts'' is the title of a book by Princeton economist Alan Blinder, and tends to be a favorite motto of neoliberals, especially liberal economists.
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I like to think of myself as more interested in substance than style. So why is it that, on political issues, at least, my mind keeps turning toward the type of political rhetoric the Dems should be using to be more effective? I dunno.

Anyway, A forgotten idea from Bill Bradley's 2000 campaign was the line "[Under my administration] We will do fewer things, but we will do them more thoroughly" That could be a very effective rhetorical approach: Argue that Instead of of 60 different health care programs trying to slightly expand health coverage, each with its own overhead and inefficiency, replace it with one federal program that achieves universal coverage, or something very close to it. "We will do fewer things, but we will do them more thoroughly. . ."

Also, via MyDD, this interesting quote from Gen. Wes Clark:

http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.01.31/news6.html

While Clark does not describe himself as a Democrat, he leans liberal on domestic policy. "I grew up in an armed forces that treated everyone as a valued member of the team," he said. "Everyone got healthcare, and the army cared about the education of everyone's family members. It wasn't the attitude that you find in some places, where people are fending for themselves and the safety net doesn't work."

Imagine that line in the Democratic nominee's acceptance speech: "I grew up in an armed forces that treated everyone as a valued member of the team. Everyone got healthcare, and the army cared about the education of everyone's family members. It wasn't the attitude that you find in some places, where people are fending for themselves and the safety net doesn't work. . .". Imagine those words being spoken, and then tell me how the Democrats could lose.
posted by Anonymous at 7:00 PM