Legal Commentary

A World Where Nuance Matters

By TChris

Sally Quinn would like to live in a simple, binary world where the choices between good and evil or right and wrong are easy to make. That's John McCain's world. Unfortunately, she lives in the real world, where nuance matters. That's also Barack Obama's world.

That kind of nuance is hard to understand sometimes -- it's unclear, complicated. Obama's world can be scarier. It's multicultural. It's realistic (yes, there is evil on the streets of this country as well as in other places, and a lot of evil has been perpetrated in the name of good). It's honest.

McCain's message is easier to convey. Binary messages always are. Is there a lesson in that for Obama? [more ...]

If so, it's important that Obama not learn the wrong lesson.

Afterward, the commentators talked abut how Obama needs to have better stories, to be more accessible and less aloof, and to have sharper, shorter, simpler answers rather than be so cerebral. But Obama is authentic. He is who he is. To try to change would be a mistake. Al Gore's handlers decided he was too stiff and tried to loosen him up. What they did was rob him of his authenticity instead.

Maybe Obama could work on eliminating verbalized pauses, could memorize a few snappy sound bites, but trying to become John McCain, trying to convince voters that there are simplistic, pain-free solutions to the nation's problems, is the worst choice Obama could make. A president who understands nuance would be a welcome change after eight years of George Bush, and not one we'll see if McCain is elected.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 18, 2008 (boomark / email).