[USANick7]

"I remain doubtful that the president is actually as left wing as some think. I think he's a self-serving opportunist who lets his supporters and opponents, his friends and his enemies think he is what ever they want so he can exploit the ensuing confusion to his benefit."

I think that is actually a much better definition of Bill Clinton than Obama...the one thing I will say for Obama is that I think he genuinely believes in his leftist ideology and is willing to fight for it, even to his own political detriment. I would have never said that about Clinton.

"I think he manipulates his opponents into mud slinging so he could use it to tell his supporters "See this mud? It proves I'm one of you" without delivering on his core campaign promises in a timely manner."

I think you are giving him way to much credit...saying "You didn't build that to business owners in this country is on par with saying that the private sector is "doing fine". He will be explaining this away for weeks.

"MOO, the president is leading Romney into a trap when he says that this election is a debate over narratives. This debate has been ongoing since the 1770s and it isn't going to get settled one way or another between now and November 2022, much less November 2012."

I agree that Obama would like this to be a battle of political showmanship, but completely disagree that this is simply a question of who has the "better plan" going into 2013. The larger narrative is important, especially this time around. People are getting far more involved in discussions of overall governing philosophy this time around. Its not a question of "settling" the debate between the different philosophies, I don't believe that is possible in this life, but tying your economic polices to a larger narrative that people can associate with. If Romney makes the mistake of going "policy wonk" on the general public without providing a general Reagan/Thatcher esqe vision of not only where we are going but the moral and practical reasons for why we are going there it wont play well. Obama did so well in part because he linked his message to something bigger than himself (although not by much).

"At present, Americans are more interested in here and now solutions than in the big picture questions. Ultimately, those questions should be answered, but that task will be much easier if there are solutions in place that can serve as examples of those answers."

I think that is certainly true for some people, probably especially the unemployed. But there are already plenty of solutions which serve as examples of the supremacy of free markets, etc. I think the key, like in COIN, is to find a way to make the principles and solutions relevant to the target audience, and I don't think that can be done without a larger narrative.

V/R