Obama n.— «America’s 2008 presidential election loomed large over Ghana’s poll. Supporters of the two main parties talked of their dreams for an “Obama”—here meaning a first-round win—and analysts hoped that the loser would...
lid n.— «Eighteen minutes later, Samantha Tubman, the Obama staffer charged with corralling and shepherding the press pool, gave it “a lid.” That is, she conveyed the word from Mr. Obama, through his security detail, that he would not be...
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...
podium job n.— «Gibbs is about to start a job that, like the presidency, seems to age its occupants disproportionately to the years they spend in the job. And it happens live and on C-Span. Known in Washington shorthand as “the podium...
continuitous adj.— «“We talked a lot about the Bush model, which is that there are a few people who really know everything,” Plouffe told me in early December. That helps ensure an airtight bubble of knowledge. “If there was leaking, we...
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...