becoming cynical is one of the worst parts of adulthood.  that said - the americans love them some 'straight talk.'  how else do you blame 8 years of bush?

Wonderful diary. It is hard to believe we have had eight years of George W. I also think CG is on to something when she says people are attracted to "straight talk"  They don't want any nuance or sophistication. Easy answers to hard questions. REC

The problem with Kerry was that he allowed Bush to define himself that way. The Daily Show put together scathing clips of Bush saying things during his first election cycle that were direct contradictions of his actual governance and were actually far more likable. Kerry didn't do anything with that sort of stuff.

If Obama makes the same mistake, I'm going to be pissed, but I don't think he will. Defining oneself as a simple man only works if one has a simple philosophy. If, as in the case with John McCain, that simple philosophy is constantly changing, suddenly it's not such a good thing. There's a reason the flip-flop charges worked. Nobody wants to vote for someone if they don't quite know how they will rule.

I can't disagree more.

You say:

"We need to take every opportunity provided to us to bring voters in to the complexity of reality."

We lose time and time again and end up shaking our heads, and calling voters stupid, etc.  The fact is that you can't educate millions of voters, who are not all that interested in politics, who don't consume all that much info, in a few months time.

We would be much better off learning how to talk to these voters in the quick, concise soundites that they crave.  Lets not repeat the mistakes of past and end up shaking our heads on the first Wednesday of November.

You hit the nail on the head when you said, "In fact Kerry's intelligence got him called effeminate, French, and elitist."  That is where Bill Clinton got it right.  He embraced "Bubba" and actually got voters to believe that he really enjoyed eating at McDonalds (yeah right!).  

Maybe Obama could a start stopping at B.K. everyday and telling people how much he loves Whoppers.

It's the reason I think Bill Clinton could have been a great president, although what in him that kept that from happening is a whole other story.

I think the only way you are going to get the country to embrace a thinking progressive on a large scale is to have a tremendously charismatic and approachable candidate mouthing those ideas, and in difficult times (Roosevelt comes to mind).  Minus that level of personal charm (and none of our current candidates this cycle possessed it) it is a struggle.  Winnable maybe, but it will always be close as many Americans gravitate to the guy who looks classically American leadership (white and a guy)and speaks simple.

I think we can win this election but I think if we do, what will play the biggest part is the registration of new voters, which the Obama campaign has shown amazing skill with.  I never thought McCain was a weak candidate (war hero and enough of a rep as a maverick to brush off much of the Bush stigma) as many seem to, and have no idea who is actually going to win this thing or what it will take at this point.

Everything is going to just fine.

""The problem with America's economy is that 100% of our imports come from other countries.""

If Will Rodgers had said that you would have thought it clever.

Bush is an idiot, true.

But don't think that elite erudite speech is the only kind that takes any smarts to use.

Adding layers of meaning to common everyday speech takes skill.  Will Rodgers is remembered even today because he was a very SMART man.

Bush may have stumbled on that or had a smart speech writer put it in for him but its not a bad line.

Too many of Obama supporters believe that because they personally have an IQ slightly above 100 (average) that they are better judges of what is effective, and what is effective is what they think is elegant.

But the problem is you are very unlikely to be the smartest citizen of the world.  And when you normalize IQ for top level politics to say 125-140 all of a sudden you find very smart people who spend their CAREERS evaluating what speech patterns win elections opting to use the speech patterns you view as country bumpkin.

Don't let being slightly above average fool you into foolish choices.