Andy’s right, of course: no sentence in the subjunctive mood is politically potent. The same is true of any quantitative analysis using a statistic more complicated than an average or a percentage change.
And that’s why “policy wonk” is a term of abuse among political journalists (including bloggers) and political consultants. We’re committed to acknowledging the complexity of the world, while most activists and most voters have a strong preference for simplicity.
George Bernard Shaw was right (unless it was Bentham who said it): democracy won’t really be a workable form of government until the average person resents a fallacy as much as he does an insult. In the meantime, it will retain the rank Churchill assigned it: the worst possible form of government, except for its alternatives.