The trick is to approach every communication opportunity from the perspective of the audience—and always be armed with one really good sound bite. If labels are important in politics because they help us categorize and remember, sound bites are essential because they can actually change minds. Americans vote based on short bursts of political communication that are typically seven to ten seconds in length and squeezed in between a car chase and the latest panda birth on the local news—not from marathon viewing sessions of Road to the White House on C-SPAN.
