NYT - Nuance Is Fine Until It’s a Flip-Flop - Please read first and then comment. Thank you

Nuance Is Fine Until It’s a Flip-Flop - NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/weekinreview/24stolberg.html
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: May 23, 2009

“Now, some have suggested that this represents a reversal on my part,” President Obama declared last week in the soaring rotunda of the National Archives, a snippet of self-defense tucked into a far-reaching philosophical address on terrorism and the rule of law. “They should look at the record.”
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It sounds so familiar.

I get it today.

.... "Both were fatal mistakes because they dealt with core issues — taxes and war — that were central to the candidates’ political identity." and "By that standard, dialing back on matters like abortion legislation or gay rights is not really a threat to the president, no matter how much it might rile his supporters on the political left."

The majority of the American people weren't upset with Bush because we'd lost our standing in the world ... those of us on the LEFT felt that way ... but the right and the middle were mad at Bush because he screwed the pooch on the economy and did so on a war, sending men and women off to die for a cause not worthy of their sacrifice. The overwhelming majority of voters could care less about whether or not torture or preventive detention is ethically wrong. That's not to say they shouldn't .... but that's just how it is.

Case in point is Thursday's speech .... there was some talk that the speech on Thursday would be an attempt to quell the Left's discontent ... it turned out to be the opposite. Sure, there were remarks made about the photographs ... but the overwhelming explanation went to issues the middle and right are concerned about .... moving prisoners to domestic facilities, etc.

I wouldn't characterize it as a flip flop ... and anyone who does has either only the ability to think in hyperbole or to not understand complex issues.

And even if I DID think it was a flip flop, the comparison to Bush's "read my lips" or even Kerry's remark are weak. Again, if it doesn't affect their money or their kids (ie service men and women) the American people aren't losing any sleep over it.

that 'nuance' is a major aspect of wordsmanship, and we ALL must become skilled in understanding and using it. I think our failure to do so is a major cause of much of the grief we're hearing about, at DU and elsewhere, and the grief will likely go on into the future unless we change.

We're extremely fortunate to have a President who is skilled in the understanding and use of words, including their meanings and nuance, as today's world demands more and more communication skills for survival. I wish the crude and useless term 'flip-flop' would disappear from common usage, as its merely another way of saying/admitting we just didn't understand his/her original meaning.


:hi:

... and we're only 11 minutes in to it!