Fwd: On the nose

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

a puzzling usage sent on by john lawler.  anyone have any insight
into it?

please reply to john (address below) as well as to the list.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Lawler, John" <jlawler at umich.edu>
> Date: November 3, 2006 6:34:38 PM PST
> To: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu>
> Subject: On the nose
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>> From 'The Australian', November 04, 2006
> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/
> 0,20867,20695919-28737,00.html
>
> Eight lying in wait
>
> Tuesday's vote has implications for the 2008 US presidential
> election, writes New York correspondent David Nason
> -----
>
> THREE weeks ago, Bill Clinton's former political svengali James
> "Ragin' Cajun" Carville said the smartest thing the Democrats
> could do in the run-up to the mid-term elections was to go out and
> borrow $US10 million.
>
> Carville's theory was that the Democrats already had the 20 most
> vulnerable Republican seats in the bag, so they should borrow up
> big and shovel cash into the next 30, the so-called second and
> third-tier contests.
>
> The mood on Main Street, Carville said, was unmistakable. George
> W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war was so on the nose that 50 or
> more House of Representative seats could go blue. With the
> Democrats needing just 15 Republican scalps for a majority, it was
> the opportunity of a lifetime.
>
> ...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  "George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war was so [on the nose]
>   that 50 or more House of Representative seats could go blue."
>
> "ON THE NOSE?"
>
> This must mean something COMPLETELY different
> in Australia than it does in the U.S.  But I've
> never heard or seen it used this way before.
>
> This clearly isn't the racing metaphor used in
> the U.S.  What metaphor is it, then?

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