What nuance
By now everyone has heard about the design to creat a liberal alternative to talk radio demagogues. One of the main reasons cited for the lack of a current alternative, and for the failures of Mario Cuomo, Jim Hightower et al., was that liberal politics has more nuance and therefore does not translate well to radio. I am not entirely sold on that point, but I will concede that the listeners of people like Rush Limbaugh are more followers than discerning listeners.
What seems to undermine that point, though, is the campaign being run by former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. In his speeches he uses the mantras of being from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party (an obvious jibe to those of us who identify with the moderate politics of the DLC and former President Clinton) and also that the current administration's Iraq policy is unilateralism. Either the Governor is extremely uninformed or he is milking a perception that the President is acting unilaterally, despite the fact that over 20 countries support our position. Sounds like he is every bit the demagogue as the right wing radio hosts and it seems to be playing well with the liberal wing of the Party.
So maybe that sort of short cut to actually thinking, one absent of nuance, will translate to radio as it has on the campaign trail. And, if liberal radio fails what will the Left blame for its demise after realizing that demagoguery exists on both sides of the dial? Will they finally accept that far left liberalism just does not appeal to the vast majority of Americans? One cannot hope for such an awakening from such a cocooned and self righteous group.