Choosing Nuance or Crisp Bluntness (Obama or McCain)

I recently heard a distinction made between Obama and McCain as that between nuance and crisp bluntness. McCain, who revels in uncomplicated bluntness, posits this as the most effective way to lead, and asserts that Obama’s nuances exhibit indecision and confusion. In defense, the other person in the conversation said nuance shows comprehension and discernment, qualities without which leadership becomes hollow and misguided . Nuance and bluntness are opposites; both are good in the right place. Neither is all wise for all times. In recent years we’ve had an abundance of decisiveness from the White House with nuance ridiculed . The threat of terrorism (though real) has distracted us from troubles of more serious, more comprehensive implications. The future of democracy, the morality of our culture, the health and economic future of each of us arguably is more at risk than our physical “safety.” I suggest we need to do more work and less “fight.” You “wield” fight as a weapon, but you “do” work as a solution. Fighting makes you a hero, working makes you a savior (often unsung). In my mind, if we pick only one of these traits to embrace and avoid the other as bad, we have a ship in trouble--all lean and no ballast. I don’t know yet whether McCain or Obama will be the man to lead us to calm waters, but I hope the one we choose proves to have both decisive lean and well-measured ballast. In their own imbalance, both crispness and nuance can be dangerously inadequate in a President when awakened alone at 3:00 a.m. (without a wife beside him in bed “gaining experience” by listening). I may consider jumping ship if we get only one (determined lean) and not the other (steady ballast) in November. In their own imbalance, crispness and nuance can each be crippling. Postscript: A humorous one-liner is going around: “Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor.” Some won’t find this funny, but it does capture the difference in approach between Obama and Palin (McCain by implication), and puts a key difference between the two Presidential candidates in sharp perspective.