Explain It To Me Like I'm A Four Year-Old

In the 1993 movie Philadelphia starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, the Attorney Joe Miller (Denzel) often asks his client, Andrew Becket (Tom Hanks) to explain things to him like he was a two year-old. That's what Obama's campaign is lacking. Obviously, the same nation that voted George W. Bush into office not once, but twice needs the simplicity and message management of a small child.

Here's a small clip of Denzel delivering his lines of explain it to me like I'm a two year-old. Keep it simple enough for a small child that still drinks from a sippy cup and wears pull-ups to understand.

http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=6010

From 20 Setember 2006 issue of Slate: "Obama's Message Deficit: Why he needs an economic slogan" by Jacob Weisberg:

Barack Obama has a range of sensible economic policies. He has a team of prudent advisers with a centrist, pro-trade cast. He may even have some grasp of why the American financial system collapsed last week.

What Obama doesn't have, so far, is an economic message. He's missing a story about what's gone wrong with the American economy and how to fix it. He hasn't managed to present his various proposals on taxes, health care, energy, housing foreclosures, and the rest in a way that resonates with voters. He hasn't emphasized a few signature policies to let us know what his top priorities are. He hasn't got a decent slogan. If you go to the economy section on Obama's Web site, the banner that greets you proclaims, "Responsible Tax Cuts for Ordinary Americans." It's accompanied by an image of two piggy banks, a small one labeled "Taxes" and a big one labeled "Savings." The fat piggie is overflowing with pennies. What, exactly, is the concept here? That we should save less to feed the tax piglet?

The ability to organize economic issues around a simple, lucid theme was a talent of our two most successful recent presidents. Ronald Reagan offered an overarching narrative about how government had come to play too large a role in the economy. His most famous slogans—"Get the government off our backs," "Morning again in America," "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"—all got at his notion of unshackling enterprise from its bureaucratic fetters to restore growth. Bill Clinton had a different tale about how ordinary Americans—people who work hard and play by the rules—were falling behind. His catchphrases—"Putting people first," "It's the economy, stupid," "Building a bridge to the 21st century"—similarly supported the policy changes he thought would help the struggling middle class.

Read the entire Slate column here.