Gillespie on "Staying on Message" ...

Rich Lowry of National Review is recommending Ed Gillespie's new book, "Winning Right: Campaign Politics and Conservative Policies." This quote (cited by Lowry) caught my attention because it is fundamentally about defining the issues and staying on message:

"Campaigns are shaped more by what you're debating than by how you're debating it. If Medicare is front and center in a campaign, it's not likely the Republican candidate is going to win. If tax cuts are the central issue of a campaign, the Democrat is probably in trouble. One of the challenges of any campaign is agenda setting, and at the end of the '04 presidential campaign, the Kerry team could not resist the temptation to fight on terms historically favorable to Republicans."