The advantage of the Delphi/Alinsky technique is to preserve the illusion that there is community participation and agreement in the decision making process. I was very curious when President Obama held a "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" less than a week after signing a budget-busting Stimulus Bill. Obama asked summit participants to break up into groups and to report back in a few hours with recommendations. The groups submitted their inputs but the results of the recommendations would come a few days later. Expecting serious responses within this short time period made the process suspicious. The very next day the House of...