I'm fond of the chess analogy.
A good chess player knows when she has been outmaneuvered, and spares both players the indignity of playing through to her defeat by gracefully resigning.
And the analogy too.
Glad you like.
As an extension of the chess analogy, there is a good reason why you resign when it is clear your opponent can force checkmate.
If you are playing at any reasonable skill level, you can safely assume that your opponent sees the endgame just as clearly as you do. To continue playing is an insult to your opponent, signifying you think he is such an amateur that he either does not see the checkmate or will make a critical error and you can scrape by with a win or a draw.
It is also an insult to yourself, because if your opponent is such an amateur, and he's so thoroughly outplayed you, what does that make you?
Right now seems as good a time as any to share them.
You can take a lot of political analogies from chess. For one, it is important to seize the initiative, to make your opponent fight on the grounds of your choosing. Also, it is important to keep a sharp look at the landscape and figure out the imbalances that favor you and those that favor your opponent. Those that favor you, you try to exploit, and you try to manipulate the position to make your opponent's advantages less important. Finally, it is usually best to keep your opponent on the defensive, when they are defending, it is more difficult for them to attack you.
Those are mistakes that the Dems have made all too often in recent years. They kept allowing the GOP to define the debate and utilize their advantages to the fullest. Hopefully we've begun to move beyond that. I see positive signs.
It was so disheartening at the time though. I kept wishing that more Democrats would understand how chess works!
