Wrichard writes:

“Focus groups are a fancy name for ‘consultation’, which is the favorite managerial mode of NGOs who want to do something but don’t know what to do.”

But Obama knows what he wants to do, and as organizer of the focus group knows in general what kind of assent or cover he wants out of the focus group. Obama comes out of a community organizing background wherein stakeholders must have input and, in effect, rubber stamp the purpose of the meeting organizer. If there are dissenting voices, the organizer usually anticipates these, arranging for the supporters to outnumber or out-talk the dissenters. For the most part the focus group is one of many meetings and not consequential. The real importance resides in providing grist for the writer of the meeting minutes, who massages the meeting events in the way that is needed by the organizer. In the case of Obama’s focus groups, the media serves as the willing secretary, recording the statements of the pre-cleared guests whom the organizer can count on to say the required words. It’s all very tedious and predictable to folks who have done this innumerable times, but to newbies it seems like a brave new world of community empowerment.