In a classic marketing book, Al Ries explains “Positioning: the battle for your mind”.  In the first two pages of the book, I have more clearly understood than ever before the last six years of messages coming from Washington.  Do the following sound familiar:

“In our overcommunicated society, we oversimplify because that’s the only way to cope.”

“Since so little of your message is going to get through anyway, you concentrate on the perceptions of the prospect, not the reality of the product.”

An editor of The Economist in the 1950s once advised his journalists to “simplify, then exaggerate”. This formula is almost second nature for newspaper columnists and can make for excellent reading, but lousy guide for policy decisions.