Pressed about whether he wants an additional Democrat to run, Trumka said: "It could be helpful because it sharpens the messages of both candidates".
The failure to spot David Cameron's majority coming embarrassed players from across the field, and for those on the Labour side obscured an urgent need to sharpen the message.
And if the movie business is to keep making these smart little dramas in which ambitious actors and prize-hungry filmmakers take their annual shot at the gold, it will have to start doing what car makers and packaged-goods companies have always done: sharpen the message and narrow the targets.
Conway, who started with the Trump campaign in July as an adviser to Manafort, has promised to do what Manafort could not: to "sharpen the message" put forward by Trump, rather than try to rebuild his personality from scratch with a teleprompter – something she's previously described as being less about changing Trump than giving him choices.
Finely honed knowledge of the audience allows us to sharpen the message even further.
Crosby has been credited with sharpening the Tories' message and his interventions have been particularly welcomed by those on the right of the party.
With his party still trying to regain its footing after Republican gains in November, and with many fellow Democrats already worried about holding on to their seats in 2012, he has been given responsibility for sharpening the Democratic message from Capitol Hill and marrying it more effectively to the policies the party is trying to advance.
Hoping to sharpen the Republican message after the candidate's widely criticized response to the embassy attacks in the Middle East and a damaging Politico report of discord within the campaign, the Romney team instead found itself in damage-control mode, defending comments captured in a leaked video about Americans who feel they are "entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it".
Like Billy and Nick, these shiny, smiling aspirants have convened for a chance to work full time for the tech giant, which, as the narrative progresses and the message sharpens to a blunt point, increasingly comes across as a new form of religion — Google as God or maybe Disney.
But if sharpened and better focused, the message could have been at least a little more helpful to the Republican cause.
The message sharpened as it passed down from Kyle, 28, to Justin, 23, to Corey.
