It was the precisely the kind of gruff, plain speaking that appeals to Australians.

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Factual nuances matter in this kind of mud-wrestling, but so do legal maneuvering and just plain savvy.

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Mr. TOM CHAPLIN (Vocalist, Delmore Brothers): (Singing) We were just a plain old hillbilly band was the plain old country style, we'd never played the kind of songs that it drives anybody wild...

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His real aim is less plain: is he serious, bluffing or hoping to negotiate some kind of deal?

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It was a sedan, j'accuse, and it was kind of brutal to look at: lantern-jawed, heavy-browed, beetle-backed, and just plain big.

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"We're plain spoken, we're not bound by political correctness and we're talking about the kind of things that people are talking about around their dining room tables, " he told us later.

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