Plant The Seed

The other day, I wrote about the wisdom of the Liberals clearly defining a Us vs Them frame early on, in the pre-writ period, to get everyone thinking about the stakes, prior to the unpredictable flow of a campaign. Other partisans obviously scoff, but really the diehards are irrelevant to this equation, the thrust is all about soft supporters, the non engaged, the easily swayed, the fence sitting, non committed, undecideds, you get the drift... Why not? Why not try to narrow the debate, wherein you try and position yourself as the only legitimate alternative to the "status quo".

There are two options, more of the same or a different outcome. One wonders, if voters are faced with this choice, if they won't see the merit in "change", particularly when it's fair to say nobody is particularly enamoured with the status quo. Early evidence that the OLO is spot on to set the early frame comes from fellow blogger Impolitical:

This is notable, from the influential Andre Pratte, a column stating that Quebecers should think twice about the logic of voting for the Bloc in the next election if they truly want to ensure the Conservatives are defeated.

Here we see how the Liberals have planted the seed, others digest and see merit in the argument. Pratte lays out a sensible support for the Liberal rational, primarily because Ignatieff's position is rooted in cold, hard realities.

In Quebec, support for the government is simply abysmal. However, as Pratte acknowledges, voting Bloc only serves to entrench a government that very few Quebecers support. There is a a simple logic to the Liberal argument, which Pratte adopts. One column, one view, but also quite true this particular column is never penned, if not for the Liberals floating the frame. I suspect this column solicits further discussion. At the very least, it would appear there is some merit in taking a pro-active position, planting the seed hardly arrrogant or assumptive, but more rightly politically shrewd.