The biggest issue is never discussed.

[gulliver]

The biggest issue is that they don't trust us and we don't trust them. The spoken issues matter, but the unspoken ones also matter. Bush didn't make an issue of going into war in Iraq, gutting federal regulation enforcement, politicizing the Justice Department, etc. He just did them.

It is the same way with McCain and with us Dems. Voters consider all of the issues that are spoken, plus the ones that are unspoken. The Dem's biggest problem is our unspoken issues, mainly the ones made up for us by the right.

Frankly, many of our natural allies currently voting GOP would be on our side except that they don't trust us. It's not that GOP middle class and working class voters don't like what the Dems say; it's that they don't think we can do what we say, and they think we will try to do things we aren't saying.

All the plans and words in the world don't mean anything if the planners and speakers are not trusted. So Dems should not just be trying to fish for voters with plans and words. Dems need to reassure voters about Dems. We'll do what we say we'll do. We won't do what we don't say.