When Barack Obama intoned, “I do not underestimate the enormity of the task ahead,” some grammar sticklers recoiled. Pointing to the word’s roots, they insist that enormity means not “large,” but “out of the...
Hockey mom, mavericky, snow machines, and—how could we forget that other memorable phrase from the 2008 presidential campaign?—lipstick on a pig. Some new and not-so-new terms leapt onto the national stage during Gov. Sarah Palin‘s run for the...
The year 2008 produced a new acronym: PUMA. Grant explains how PUMAs began prowling the political landscape.
Here’s a bit of political slang now making the rounds: sleepover. No, we’re not talking about another pol caught with his pants down. We’re talking about spending the night with, well, a voting machine. In this week’s...
It’s Obamarama time! We discuss the growing number of plays on the name of the Democratic presidential candidate. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Obamarama” Earlier in the show, we talked about political slang...
horizontal politics n.— «“I have a great respect for Barack Obama,” Huckabee said. “I think he’s a person who is trying to do in many ways what I hope I’m trying to do, and that is to say, let’s quit what I call ‘horizontal...