Or at least they used to be according to this article about how Republicans appear to be good “framers” and Democrats are lousy ones.

Right now the Democratic Party is into marketing. They pick a number of issues like prescription drugs and Social Security and ask which ones sell best across the spectrum, and they run on those issues. They have no moral perspective, no general values, no identity. People vote their identity, they don’t just vote on the issues, and Democrats don’t understand that. Look at Schwarzenegger, who says nothing about the issues. The Democrats ask, How could anyone vote for this guy? They did because he put forth an identity. Voters knew who he is.

There’s lots of talk in the Republican blogosphere about who our candidate should be, with the two front runner being people conservative’s don’t like. This kind of sheds some light on why that is. Neither Gulliani nor McCain have an identity that we identify with.