Political Nuance is like Foot Fungus

[Protagoras]

Remember this classic exchange from Bull Durham?

CRASH
Your shower shoes have fungus on
'em. You'll never get to the
Bigs with fungus on your shower
shoes.
(beat)
Think classy and you'll be classy.
If you win 20 in the Show you can
let the fungus grow back on your
shower shoes and the press'll
think you're colorful.
(beat)
Until you win twenty in the Show,
however, it means you're a slob.


I'd say replace some key words and we have a fundamental truth about American politics. Absurd as it seems...sad as it sounds...

"Your politcs have Nuance on em. You'll never with the WH with Nuance on your politics...
Think Plainspoken and you'll be Plainspoken. If you win 51% of the vote you can let the nuance grow back on your politics and the press will think you're brilliant...
Until you win 51% of the vote however, it means you're an elitist loser."

Why do I write this? Because while I loath Joe Biden...ever time he get's on and throws haymakers, people cheer and say YEAH even as they cringe at who's saying it. And because, while I actually respect and admire John Kerry, his life, and his intellect...I sit flabberghasted when he can't muster the gumption to admit he's calling Cheney and Bush LIARS.

I don't think our top politicians can afford to pussyfoot around any longer. I don't think careful, or measured, or nuanced wins. I don't WISH it were that way...but I acknowledge it is that way. I don't love the American public more because of it...I respect them less because of it...BUT, I still see it as a fundamental truth of our politics. Our cultural myth is based on plainspoken frontiersmen who would spit in yer eye. We won't ever appeal to the hardest of the RW but we must inspire the rest of the masses...and what they respond to is down home, heartland, plain speaking, populism that calls it like it sees it. We need a candidate brave enough to cast themselves as a liberal with Harry Truman's personality.

Till we get that, I think we're going to keep running out tinactin.

[blm]

1. The world's leaders would prefer nuance over with us or against us.

You see, nuance works everywhere else in the world, but in the RW controlled broadcast media of the last ten years in this country.

[Protagoras]

2. Agree 100%

which is why we need a leader who is capable of talking one way at home and during an election (honestly) while assuming a different aspect internationally and once elected...still honest but then allowed nuance.

Again...once you win in the show...you can have the fungus. But you gotta win to get there.

[blm]

3. No. The GOP control of the media needs full exposure before the next

election.

Of course, since Katrina and Fitzgerald they are having a very difficult time covering up for the Bushboy right now.

So many Americans are now seeing past the usual spin.

People can handle real information if the media lets them have it.

And the GOP control of the voting machines needs exposure, too.

[Protagoras]

4. Re-balancing the media is A step

but understanding some basic truth's about the American appetite is another step. Candidates who were "nuanced" haven't done well for a lot longer than 10 years in this country. People respond to a populist presentation. I doubt we disagree over the content or aim of the speech. But I believe we may see very different requirements about the form required for political success.