Malcolm (Gladwell), yes. Democrats, hmmm...

Best-selling scribe Malcolm Gladwell, he of Tipping Point and Blink fame, is a proponent of market research. Not to be confused with focus groups. Which is too bad, because FGs are a useful tool in the research kit. But, to make his point, he beats up on focus groups which he says have been beaten into unrecognizable pulp by anal, risk-intolerant exec types who have lost all concept of the risk-reward equation. Undeniably true. But does the misuse or abuse of this tool diminish its usefulness? Gladwell's point, which is consistent with The Marketing Gene theory of trusting the numbers but verifying with your instincts, is this: you can't remove the researcher from the research. Which is another way of saying that the art of marketing is as much in the investigative as it is in the aesthetic. "Market research,..." he told a recent 4A meeting in Chicago, "require(s) the intervention of the person conducting the research. (It) requires (that) findings...are considered and thought about and processed and interpreted." Couldn't have said better. Even though I tried here, August 23. As for Democrat travails in trying to get their elusive "message" across, the whole braintrust, from James Carville on down, should heed The Phenomenon called Ferg. To him, it's all about the idea, not the way it's delivered. Guys, it's about your dearth of ideas, not the way you frame them. BTW, just for the record, I am a registered Independent. And I, along most other voters, vote for candidates, not against them. Give us something to vote for and we will. Every time. But first, you have to see the world through the eyes of people whose votes you want. Until you do you're not in a position to give them a reason to buy. It's a lot like marketing.