I do know how to play chess. My husband won a few contests in Europe and taught both our daughters. They love the game. That is not my point. My point is most normal people don't know how to play chess. My point is, if your game is so damn complicated no one can see your moves, then are you really a good player? If we have to go through complicated maneuvers to understand and explain what President Obama's strategy is in these negotiations, debt and deficit, are all about then we have already lost the game.
We talk all the time about messaging and how we are losing the message battle. Keep it simple stupid. Whatever President Obama is doing with SS and medicare and medicaid is not the point. The point is how people perceive what he is doing. Ordinary, simple, working, everyday people. Not policy wonks. Not political junkies. People who do not vote because they pay attention to everyday politics, but because they believe they are voting on principles of a party.
Conservatives vote for conservative ideas. Democrats vote because they believe the party is standing up for them. If we lose the message, we lose it all. People do not pay attention to everyday nitty gritty little ways that we have gotten some important piece that helps them in some bill. They listen to words. And they have reacted badly over what they have heard. I've been around the web reading comments.
DK people are above average in intelligence and more involved in policy. But most people don't play chess. They play checkers