When somebody is used to being a barracuda chewing right through anything and anybody who stands in their way, while being praised all their life that being a vicious pit bull is virtuous as long as it's in service of the Lord's work, what kind of person emerges after several decades of that? When that somebody has been enjoying the experience of lying with impunity, manipulating power for petty purposes, financing their holy crusade via state coffers, and fueling their ambition in cahoots with international oil majors.... with years of experience like that, what do they do for an encore?
Our opponents are the incumbent party, representing the status quo.
The incumbents made the mess, and people are upset with the status quo.
So people want change.
We represent change.
Whenever we frame any issue this way, it plays to our strength.
There is no accident that CHANGE is Obama's core theme. (Obama doesn't just "get" this, he is this. He's brilliant; he's our most potent individual change agent; to help him win, it is up to each of us to...
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...vigilantly (re)frame each piece of news, each shred of communication, to synergize with our shared message of change.)
Now, the opposite framing from "change" is...
..."experience".
Our opponents would like to frame everything through the lens of "experience" -- not only because McCain is old and "experienced", and not only because they are the incumbents, but also deeply because at its very heart conservatism is about conserving the past, and distrusting and fearing what would change the status quo.
Of course, at times when they are out of power, they have to contort their approach (think Newt Gingrich) -- to change the changers, so to speak, but it is always with a goal of bringing back the past.
But when they are in power, and they've made their mess, they have to lie harder than usual.
This week, they had to contort their approach again. Their goal is to pull us off our change frame, and onto their experience frame. Every time we say someone is "inexperienced" it helps their frame --- because then they are using us to validate the importance of "experience".
The key insight here is to realize as quickly as possible when we have been pulled onto our opponents frame, and just stop, and go back to our own frame. And then get back to work pulling them onto our frame.
Our frame is change. Overall, we have been extremely successful framing 2008 as a change election -- and as the most important election of a generation.
In fact, we have been so successful this cycle that we have largely forced our opponents off their frame and onto ours.
We have forced the conservatives into the (for them) very uncomfortable situation of having to validate the value of change. We have forced them to celebrate terms that do not sit well with their frame, like "Maverick" and "Reformer". We have even forced them to nominate not only a woman, but a woman who undercuts McCain's central experience argument against Obama.
... well, undercuts it in every way but one... and that one way is only if we take their bait...
By nominating someone who is so "obviously inexperienced", "outrageously unqualified", "totally unprepared", etc... they are hoping to manipulate us into taking the bait and validating their frame. They want us to talk about Palin's inexperience. They want us to make any and all arguments that validate experience, and then use their Rovian akido to turn those arguments against us, against Obama, and to the benefit of McCain for his experience, trustworthiness, etc, etc.
For those of us who want to advance the national conversation in Barack's favor, a good approach IMHO is to (re)frame our talking points so they reinforce our change framing, and eliminate weak talking points that would reinforce their experience framing.
If we keep coming back to our frame, and keep yanking them off their frame, they cannot win, and we cannot lose.
For example... how about associating "bad" and "experience"?
Dang, those past 8 years with Bush and Cheney have sure been a bad experience for all of us, haven't they?
Anybody who goes through a prison camp experience like McCain did sure gonna be scarred for life; ya know it can't be good for their mental health.
When somebody is used to being a barracuda chewing right through anything and anybody who stands in their way, while being praised all their life that being a vicious pit bull is virtuous as long as it's in service of the Lord's work, what kind of person emerges after several decades of that? When that somebody has been enjoying the experience of lying with impunity, manipulating power for petty purposes, financing their holy crusade via state coffers, and fueling their ambition in cahoots with international oil majors.... with years of experience like that, what do they do for an encore?
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Akido time... pivot from negative on their frame to positive on our frame... and you're back home again.
Who would you choose to lead us in bringing about the changes our country needs?
Who do you believe will do a better job bringing you a better life, a better country, a better world, a better future?
(and notice what naturally and clearly bubbles up from your subconscious when you read questions framed this way :)