Over at his wonderfully named ("A Ku Indeed!" – which refers to a great and cryptic passage in the Analects: "a ku [sacred ritual vessel], not a ku, a ku indeed, a ku indeed," 6.25), Chris Panza (a fellow graduate of my alma mater, Purchase College) has a great post illustrating how Confucius would pretty much reject John McCain’s notion of "straight talk."  I especially like this part of his analysis:

(A) Life is particular, people are particular, and so must  pedagogy be particular.

This point is the simple one. What Confucius is pointing out here is
that different people need different things. In some cases, a straight
answer might do the trick. In another, a more obscure answer might be
what is called for. Perhaps, in the latter case, the student is lazy,
and must learn to take an active role in his/her own
education. If he/she is “looking for answers” only, then straight talk
might not be the way to go. Essentially, the Confucian picture here is
that we ought not to treat people in the same ways. Respecting a person
and teaching them means respecting that they are individuals and so
their differences must be taken into consideration when you are dealing
with them. Using a “one size fits all” approach is not helpful.

 To appreciate fully how Chris gets to this point, and where he goes with it, you will have to, as they say in the blog business, read the whole thing…