If all I had heard about Dean's ideas for message coordination was the quotes I'd heard from Sacramento, I'd be alarmed.  The last thing we need is a different message everywhere, disjointed, uncoordinated.

But Dean has expanded on his ideas for message coordination in other recent forums and interviews.  This week on a conference call, he talked at length about message coordination - - contrasting the GOP's stable of dozens and dozens of talking heads (both talk show guests AND right-wing media personalities) all on the same page, while the Democrats are all uncoordinated and contradicting each other.  He emphasized the importance of Democrats being much more organized in this way.

But having a consistent, coordinated national vision doesn't mean that local Democrats and states would have to be forced to read from an inside-the-Beltway script.  If the right frames are there, the states and local groups can tailor their own messages to fit inside a larger vision.  Dean's work with Lakoff seems to fit right in with this idea.

For instance, I'd like the Democratic party to develop a framework of addressing issues that positions us as the party of personal freedom - civil liberties, freedom from government interference in private medical decisions, etc.

When Dean was running, many of us in Virginia believed that the key to Dean winning the state was playing up his credentials as a governor of a rural state who had an A rating from the NRA and was endorsed by the NRA every year he ran for Governor.  This image of Dean was not what the national message coordinators wanted to emphasize, but it would have helped us tremendously in many areas of the state.  If there was a larger framework of Dean as the candidate who stands for personal freedom, we could customize our message within that framework and play up the aspects of his record that would resonate best in parts of the state.  I see this as one form of "local control, national vision" that could work well.