Free Republic

To determine what made Obama's campaign a success, we must look deeper to identify the basic psychological qualities that underlie these strategies. I perceive them to be: a finely developed skill in strategy, worthy of a great general [4], a tremendous audacity, enabling him to succeed in risky or controversial tactics that his opponents would not dare to attempt [5], a stage magician's skill in misdirection, compelling the public to perceive only what he wishes them to see and ignore what he wishes them to overlook, a penchant for evasion and concealment---the very opposite of his much-vaunted desire for "transparency"---often...

Why, you ask, are the politicians in Washington so out of touch with their constituency on the issue of Comprehensive Immigration Reform? I might be able to shed some light on this very puzzling phenomenon. To understand this you must first read about Astroturfing: Astroturfing (via wikipedia): In politics and advertising, the term astroturfing describes formal public relations (PR) campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the "AstroTurf" (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate "fake grassroots" support. The goal of such campaign is to disguise the agenda of a political client as...