All excellent points on messaging.

Mr. Hunter is, of course, correct that communication is a major problem, and the chief problem in that genre is the manipulation of dialogue. There is, unfortunately, another key problem in the conservative movement, and that is that it lacks a core set of principles that all people who label themselves as conservatives can agree upon. How else can one explain the existence of "big government conservatives," "neo conservatives," "social conservatives," "paleo-conservatives," "constitutional conservatives," "libertarians who are socially conservative," "libertarians who are libertines," etc., etc., etc.

Uh, oh! Can't have Bernanke straying off the plantation. Better report him to Attack Watch (www.attackwatch.com).

C'mon! Everybody knows you can't quickly crush the world's economy without raising taxes or driving up government spending!

Only faithful Catholics have "too many babies." The population of unfaithful Catholics is imploding like everyone else's. The fertility rate in Italy, a supposedly Catholic country, is way below replacement level, for example. This is one of the reasons Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

You can't fool the voters of Snohomish Co., but you can fool the voters of Los Angeles Co.

Rumor has it that the annual operating budget for Spain's high-speed rail will be used next year to help maintain Spain's interest in Airbus. "The trains in Spain lose mainly to the planes." Just kidding.

Either that or a paleo-con.

Hey, I know. Let's take Pakistan's nukes. They don't have any good use for them.

Very simple. The neo-cons have appropriated the term "conservative" for their own purposes.