CNN's Aaron Brown interviewed Aaron McGruder, author of Boondocks. The basic exchange (somewhat paraphrased) went like this:
McGruder says, "Bush is dumb."
Brown says, "Oh, well, he's not very articulate. And he has strong convictions. How dare you say that? You're insulting half the population who supports him!"
McGruder: "They've been horribly misled. Why can't the media talk about that?"
Brown: "You're too cynical. Bye."
View the transcript. Here's a brief snippet:
BROWN: Let me see -- let me see how cynical you are.
MCGRUDER: OK.
BROWN: Do you believe that a Kerry presidency would be there -- would be more honest, or is this a corruption, in your view, of the entire establishment?
MCGRUDER: I -- I don't blame it -- I mean, to say the establishment is oversimplified. I think that the institution of journalism has failed in its responsibility to hold the government accountable. The government's doing what it's supposed to do when left unchecked.
I do think Kerry would be better than Bush. I think he would be more honest. I think he would be more intelligent. But that's -- everybody knows that already. That's not really in anyone's debate. It's just people have picked a side.
It's -- you know, it's like, you know -- it's the kind of weird God people in the middle of America, the people that live on the coasts fly over. We don't talk to those people. We don't understand those people, and they don't understand us.
But nobody just says the obvious, that their president can't articulate himself and is dumb. And it drives me nuts.
BROWN: I got all that.