The majority of questions asked here were very good, just the sort of questions that should be asked a lot more often. And they've provided some very useful data. But the first two struck me as poorly framed, and reflective of a static mentality that doesn't reflect your own best analytic work, Chris.
In both cases, the question, for me, is not either/or, but how to do both synergistically. And the answers folks gave a more reflective of what we like, than of what necessarily works. Fortunately, I think that what we like can work, if we just get a little more creative with it.
In the first instance, policy vs. personal background, what better way to frame issues than in terms of one's own personal story? Biography gets the ball rolling, framing then draws out the core lessons, and policy is where you do the real educating, so that when they swift-boat you--as they surely will--people will say, "But wait a second, he didn't just have an interesting personal history that they're now trashing. He drew some lessons from it, and made some proposals that made a lot of sense. Those lessons and those proposals had to come from somewhere. It makes sense how they fit together. These accusations don't."
And they'll say that, because that's what our push-back ads will be telling them, as soon as the swift-boating starts.
In short, all three work together, not just to communicatge effectively, but also as the best preventative defense against the usual rightwing slime machine, and the perfect setup for a powerful comeback when they slime us anyway.
As for the second question, there's an old saying, "Yes begins with a no." If we take the results above--about 3-to-1 positive over negative, I think that's a very good measure of how we ought to divide our time. But without serious, merciless hard-core criticism to (a) show we have spine, (b) draw a sharp line, and (c) motivate the need for folks to care about and listen to our positive vision, then all the good ideas in the world just won't be that compelling to most folks who aren't political junkies like us.
That's my $.02.
