​According to NPR — and a lot of other places, I should add — “having policy proposals” is just one of many “brands” for a presidential candidate as opposed to an essential and basic requirement: 

It’s kind of nuts to think that having ideas aimed at addressing the pressing issues of the day is a just another type of branding like, say, being a “straight talker” or being “someone voters would like to have a beer with.” Nuts and, I might add, corrosive. For a politician to have a “brand” is consistent with a view of the voter as a consumer, not a citizen. I think we’ve already done quite enough to commercialize existence without doing do to democracy as well, but I’m probably a few decades too late in objecting.  

In other news, I am extremely impressed by Warren’s campaign thus far. Maybe that puts me in the minority but, again, I’m someone who actually wants to fix the problems in this country rather than simply feel better about the country in some vague, intangible sense the likes of which Don Draper types might appreciate when applied to laundry detergent or frozen entrees, which is what most of the other candidates seem to be offering.