Make no mistake: America's love of decisiveness

Since the 2004 presidential election, I have expounded from time to time on what the collective American conscience truly desires.

This article from The Associated Press, as part of their Measure of a Nation series, reiterates many of those sentiments I've shared from time to time ("When things go wrong, is the fear of having a "flip-flopper" in the Oval Office so great that we maintain the status quo? ") in far greater fashion than I ever could.

An excerpt:

"In a president, people are looking for strength — strength of character, strength of purpose, strength of belief — and I value that," the Massachusetts senator says. "But unfortunately, it's been trivialized by the system, by the process in regrettable ways that don't do justice to the complexity of some of the choices we face or ... the complexity of the world we live in."

When it comes to decisiveness, Kerry says, "You can be strong and nuanced."

Fair point. Trouble is, as a society we value strength. But nuance? Not so much.

UPDATE: I must note that at the time I was saying much of what is mentioned in this AP story, I also (like many other people who think of themselves highly enough to spout off about politics) wondered when the death knell of the McCain 2008 campaign would sound. I think of myself big enough to admit that I underestimated the Republican fear of putting up someone without a military record up against the likes of Barack Obama in the general election this November.