Two caricatured extreme positions of political strategy, held by no - one, are these: a) that
voter preferences are entirely
fixed, and that the art of political campaigning is to choose where within the spectrum of
fixed voter opinions to place oneself to provide the best chance of victory whilst achieving the maximum of one's desired programme; b) that
voters can be persuaded of anything if one has truth on one's side and argues for it with sufficient conviction.