If you want your invites to succeed, Chudnovsky says, make sure the majority of them come from people who can explain the value of your product in clear, compelling, and credible terms.
But if the Democrats were going to make their case for it, their only hope was to rally behind one plan, show in concrete and credible terms that it was fully paid for and then spend months educating the public about the benefits of a public option and why it is essential to achieving the president's top goal of reducing costs.
Then, according to Blythe: "in scarcely credible terms, the little clergyman from Norfolk and the lion acted out the classical Christian martyrdom to the full".
Any credible long term plan to bring the deficit under control must entail significant changes in both Medicare and Social Security.
Only a credible medium term adjustment program with broader aims than those of the current one can ensure the revival of investment and consumption in Greece in order to drag the economy out of the seven-year recession and contribute to its sustained recovery.
I asked him recently, "If Obama had credible long term plans for dealing with our top issues that were validated by independent experts, would you vote for him in 2012?" His response was instant and emphatic, "Absolutely!" Some people say that Obama has written plans for our top issues posted on his website.
What is needed, and what the system appears unable to deliver, is short-term action on jobs and credible long-term deficit reduction.
But how does one deal with the problem that short-term austerity only seems to make matters worse?We might be asked whether a new fiscal compact would be enough to stabilise markets and how a credible longer-term vision can be helpful in the short term.
The right strategy remains the same as before: While some immediate adjustment is needed for credibility, the search should be for credible long-term commitments, by passing measures that decrease trend spending, and by putting in place fiscal rules that reduce deficits over time.
That may help avert near-term disaster, but it won't produce a credible long-term solution.
