The political "debate" on health-care reform is a lesson for advocates. Regardless of your views on the merits of the issue, I think the proponents did a dismal job in promoting it. This weekend I  read two different opinion columns that concluding this as well--that the proponents' lack of clarity dragged the bill down. Although I don't think every advocate should argue using a marketing theme similar to beer commercials, your story or argument must have a theme or synopsis that your reader or listener immediately grasps. Justice Scalia and Bryan A. Garner in Making Your Case (2009) also discuss the multiple benefits of clarity: "Clarity is amply justified on the  ground that it ensures you'll be understood. But in our adversary system it performs an additional function. The clearer your arguments, the harder it will be for your opponent to mischarcterize them." (emphasis added) Garrison Keillor's Sunday column entitled "Get real and consider the basic question." "The problem for Democrats right now is that nobody can explain health-care reform in plain English, 50 words or less. It's all too murky. . . . like all murky stuff, it is liable to strike people as dangerous or unreliable." Ever had a judge ask you what's this case all about--and you coudn't tell them in 30 seconds or less? Frank Rich's Sunday column: "Worse, the master communicator in the White House has still not delivered a coherent message on his signature policy. He not only refused to signal his health care imperatives early on but even now he, like Congressional Democrats, has failed to explain clearly why and how reform relates to economic recovery — or, for that matter, what he wants the final bill to contain..... Ask yourself this: All these months later, do you yet know what the health care plan means for your family’s bottom line, your taxes, your insurance? It’s this nebulousness, magnified by endless Senate versus House squabbling, that has allowed reform to be caricatured by its foes as an impenetrable Rube Goldberg monstrosity, a parody of deficit-ridden big government. Since most voters are understandably confused about what the bills contain, the opponents have been able to attribute any evil they want to Obamacare, from death panels to the death of Medicare, without fear of contradiction."