How do we tell voters what Obama stands for, but do it in a way that isn't burdensome?
The answer: 1 page flyers.
The problem is that the campaign has not provided us with any such flyers. Most policy documents are really long, and while they're complete, they're hard to hand out. Also, the "Blueprint for Change" document has a great amount of detail. But people don't want to read something that huge on first glance. And heading into the remaining states, we're going to be dealing less and less with "high information voters".
So, continuing what I started on for Iowa, I present to you in this diary 2 new flyers, each of which help us tell voters where Obama stood on Iraq in the past and what he plans on doing about it in the future.
Also, for those who are interested, you can also check out my "2nd choice" flyer that I made for Iowa.
The first is a nicely formatted version of Obama's 2002 speech on Iraq. This flyer lets Obama's own words make clear his judgment on Iraq, which proved superior to almost every "experienced" candidate in this race. He didn't oppose the war because of strict pacifism, nor did he because of luck. This speech makes it clear to anyone who reads it that Obama deeply understands Middle East foreign policy.
The second is a single-sheet version (if printed double-sided) of Obama's plan to get out of Iraq. The policy to get out is necessarily more complex - after all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But that itself is something we can tell voters when we hand out these two flyers as a pair.
So, what do you all think? Would you use this yourself? Will you pass these PDFs or links on to others who might find them useful?
Also, for those who didn't see it before, here's my "2nd choice" flyer - arguments to help win over 2nd choice voters during the Iowa caucuses. I think these arguments could still prove valuable in the days and weeks to come.