For some time I have said that there is a simple difference between Republicans and Democrats (referring, mind you, to party "leaders" and the political consultants): Republicans assume voters are stupid; Democrats fear this is true. There it is. Ten words, evenly divided (talk about fair and balanced). That statement seems to me to inform everything the parties do. Then along comes Barack Obama. He insists that voters are actually smart. He treats voters as intelligent people, who can understand nuance, who can (and want to) dig below the surface, the buzz words, the same old garbage that campaigns have spewed out for decades. Take his "flip-flop" on offshore drilling. He never switched positions; he's always been against it, and still is. All he said recently was that if it took allowing a little offshore drilling in order to get the real changes that will actually help make us independent of foreign oil, he'll be willing to compromise. What's the effect? And it's working. Despite the fact that John McCain has been in the country all through July, and outspent Obama by an enormous margin on TV ads, Obama still leads in all the polls -- and has actually increased his advantage in the electoral math (according to MSBNC and the Cook Political Report). We can take a lesson from the Obama campaign in our local campaigns. We can begin to treat voters as if they not only care, but are smart enough to "get it," whatever the issue is. We not only can, we should.