It's all about the narrative

Every once in while, I surf various liberal sites to challenge them on how it is that every institution run by liberals is, at best, a cesspool of inefficiency and at worst counter productive.

None ever respond, nor will you ever read a post on a liberal blog making the economic case for liberal policies. What you normally get is this........

ON HIS FIRST DAY back from summer vacation, President Obama appeared in a sweltering Rose Garden to talk about the economy. The latest numbers were disheartening—growth slow, consumer spending weak, housing sales down, unemployment near 10 percent. Obama reported that he'd just met with his economic team. He pointed out that his administration had already taken "a series of measures" to boost the economy, and that his aides were "hard at work" looking for more. He offered no specific proposals, and after five minutes he went back inside, taking no questions from the sweating reporters.

One natural query would have been: Mr. President, how did you lose control of the economic message?

How did he lose control of his economic message? Let me count the ways.

First, spending time demonizing Sarah Palin, Fox News, Christine O'Donnell, The Chamber of Commerce, Fox News, Tea Partiers, George Bush, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Fox News instead of actually making the economic case for your policies has a way of creating a distraction from"your message".

Second, exactly how much control can you have on your economic message when it's not consistent with reality. Cover more people for more stuff and insurance premiums come down? Even your average teenage paper carrier gets that economic reality. It's the equivalent of convincing the American people that Santa Claus really exists.

Third, people are living in reality, not Fantasia. Voters actually talk to friends, families, employers, etc. They also have bills to pay..... with or without jobs. They know the reality of our economy. They also see a president more than willing to bash business rather than clearing the way for businesses to create wealth.

But for the David Corn's of the world it's all about how you sell it; not what merit it has. He'd be the kind of guy who would spend all his energy selling you a Prius when you want an SUV and then blame you when you walk off the lot.