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'Under the Bus' and Other Offenses
One of the many negative aspects of an especially long campaign season is the endless repetition of phrases and clichés that spring forth from the mouths of candidates and the pundits who cover them. After an entire year of political sparring, during which our prospective leaders winnow complex policy questions down into catchy sound-bite phrases, it sometimes feels like the whole country has contracted the virus that reduces language into bumper-sticker mantras. Here, then, is a top five list of the most annoying turns of phrase of our current campaign season:
1. "Under the bus." This, of course, is the place where you throw those people or ideas or whole countries whose use you have outgrown. Reverend Wright threw Barack Obama under the bus, so Obama had to crawl back out and throw Reverend Wright under his own bus.
2. "Wake up, America!" This frequent taunt is most often found in the comment section of blogs. Those righteous few who have woken up from their nap in the Matrix are quite fond of letting you know that you, America, are still sleeping.
3. "The American people want change!" Maddeningly vague, this sentiment can be expressed, and has, by the supporters of any of the candidates currently running. In a year in which an incumbent is not seeking re-election everybody's blabbing on and on about change.
4. "It's 3 a.m." Ever since Hillary Clinton released her famous 3 a.m. ad, it feels like this campaign has been one long, sleepless night. McCain and Obama quickly fired up their own versions of sugar plumb ferries dancing in dreams of cute white kids while insomniac presidents fielded phone calls about imminent terrorist attacks. But the 3 a.m madness didn't end there. No, then came the endless YouTube parodies. Everybody, please, back to bed.
5. "Time for a little straight talk." This catch-phrase has been around for almost ten years. Maybe it even meant something once. Now, whenever you hear it, you have to brace yourself for just the opposite. It's also an odd construction that implies that whenever the user does not presage remarks with that qualifier, he or she is probably lying.
Think of any other overused phrases? Drop them in the comments below...
Recent Comments
(Page 2 of 4)Mary Parker11:37AMApr 30th 2008
To stoop to name calling on the principle another human being does not share your point of view, is very low
class!
-------------------------------
I was speaking to catty group in here. What is wrong with the word bitch??? Why don't you go pick a fight with someone else. You don't know what you are talking about
tfitz101711:44AMApr 30th 2008
Yaaay! A 'Kat Fight'! Smokin' in the girls room!
Peni11:56AMApr 30th 2008
Shirley, not as low as what Barbara Reynolds did. I would like to hear more of the "white chief" one. Since Hillary is the white chief. Queen superior to gracefully scatter blows to her own parties opponent. Now what class was that statement made under?
MichelleG12:15PMApr 30th 2008
"BITTER" Definitly annoying me, making the hair stand on end now when I read it or hear it. "I am bitter" or "we're bitter". The one that's really getting me is when other people say/write "They are bitter" when referring to Obama's speech as true; because it means the person saying it thinks he/she is an authority on how the rest of us feel. It also implies that the person saying it is not bitter, (which does make me bitter)
Katherine12:28PMApr 30th 2008
nightmares:
Oh for sure. Here it is, Obama and Wright had a conversation a long time ago. Rev Wright said to Obama, "You know, you may have to disassociate from me before the primaries are over." Obama: "Yeah, we gotta keep it on the down low--you can get a little rough."
Then Wright says over and over this past week that Obama is a politician and he'll say what he has to say because he's a politician and he needs to say what he says for the votes.
So, people have this information...and they still think that nothing is up! LOL.
It's like when I used to watch that $@%$$$#%^ Oprah: "Believe people when they tell you who they are."...and here we have it; they are lyign straight to people's faces. OR, better, they already told the TRUTH to people's faces and people still don't believe anything bad about Obama.
It's like hiding something in PLAIN SIGHT! Now, the real funnny thing is that it's supposedly Hillary's fault for...entrapping Wright since her supporter was the go-to person for the press conference. LOL.
SO, not only do they now believe that Obama and Wright's relationship is over, they also feel sorry for Obama, AND blame Hillary. HA!
(They're like moths to a flame.)
Shirley12:30PMApr 30th 2008
Mary, I would like to apoligize. I mistook you calling all Hillary
supporters Bitch. My Bad!
Hillary '08
MichelleG12:41PMApr 30th 2008
Ok, everyone can call me skeptical but these recent remarks of Rev wright about Obama, and Obama's response have me wondering if it was all staged. Like they got together and planned the whole thing, to give Obama reason totally disown him and hopefully get rid of the Wright contraversies that's been dogging him for a few months and hasn't gone away on it's own. Am I crazy? Have I been watching studio wrestling with my son too much?
tzada12:48PMApr 30th 2008
The Wright Side of the Brain
Mr. Wright's speeches have shown how quickly academic insanity becomes incorporated into practice. And now we may be on the verge of seeing such madness spread into the White House. The mainstream media have had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into questioning Mr. Obama's affiliation with Mr. Wright. By now, Mr. Wright's 9/11 and AIDS diatribes are well-worn — and Mr. Obama's repudiation of them a no-brainer. It is imperative that someone ask Mr. Obama whether he, too, believes that the way to "fix the schools" is through Afrocentric curricula and double standards in student discipline, and whether he, too, believes that blacks only think with the "right side" of their brains.
Ms. Mac Donald is a contributing editor of City Journal and the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120952079425155103.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
No Obama12:51PMApr 30th 2008
I heard that it was the PR firm that was hired by the Obama campaign doing its job, the entire Obama/Wright flap! It gave Obama a "reason" to disassociate with Wright on a public stage so that he would seem less of a hypocrite....
TJ12:57PMApr 30th 2008
WRIGHT VERSUS OBAMA --- THE WAR OF THE MESSIAHS.
"AMERICA'S CHICKEN IS COMING HOME TO ROOST.."
THE ONLY WINNER HERE IS THE ONLY CHICK STANDING.
hillary clinton.
FORGET THE SHARADE BY OBAMA AND HIS PASTOR
IM NOT BUYUNG IT!!!!
Too little , Too late.
NO MORE FREE RIDE FOR OBAMA
CONTRIBUTE TO HILLARY. tripling our donation before midnight today.
http://hillaryclinton.com
John1:16PMApr 30th 2008
I'm assuming TJ is staying on post and listing annoying phrases like "America's chicken. . ." Oh, wait, No. That would be too clever for TJ.
Everything s/he just said, please add to the list of annoying phrases.
John in Philadelphia
OBAMA '08
vlg1:20PMApr 30th 2008
In response to your article, I would like to say: Time for a little straight talk about education. Wake up, America! Your educational system has been thrown under the school bus. American educators want change!
As an public school educator for 35 years, I am ready for a good education President.
Hillary realizes that No Child Left Behind is leaving children behind! She has promised that as President, she will end the unfunded, unsuccessful mandate we know as NCLB.
Education has not taken center stage in this election, perhaps understandably so. What is more important, however, than the future of our children and grandchildren? And what is going to impact their future more than the quality of the education they receive.
I’m convinced Hillary’s experience, her knowledge, and her heart will lead the nation’s educational system in the right direction.
Hillary 2008....the right choice for educators at 3:00 a.m. or anytime!
Mary Parker1:23PMApr 30th 2008
if you can't stand the heat......that is starting to get painful.
Mary Parker1:25PMApr 30th 2008
shirley np
Shirley2:04PMApr 30th 2008
thx Mary
tzada2:09PMApr 30th 2008
Obama's new pastor's sermon
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/30/the-wonderful-young-pastor-otis-moss/
Goldbraid3:46PMApr 30th 2008
IS OBAMA "SLOW" OR WHAT - he only "gets it" now?
Obama and his wife Michelle listened to Jeremiah for 20 years and are members of this Trinity church : A separatist, anti-American, anti-semitic church, with non-negotiable alliegence to Africa.
Well hello!!! this is the Unied States of America, ONE NATION UNDER GOD.
We do not tolerate racist bigotry and separation of our Union.
America is our beloved land, LAND OF THE FREE
and we want to keep it that way.
We know Hillary LOVES America and she is American to the bone. Hillary is strong, intelligent, resilient, and she can be Commander in Chief from the first day. Hillary knows what needs to be done, and how to do it.
Hillary is THE ONLY INTELLIGENT CHOICE for President.
rrj9144:44PMApr 30th 2008
new voter, Hillery is not the one Obammy Boy has to worry about, but if she was, Hillery has nothing worst than the black closet racist who has a black racist for a pastor and mentor who also has Muslim leanings with a muslim brother, muslim sister in law, and had a muslim daddy and a muslim step daddy and even a mother that did not even think there was a god.
So new voter please do waste your vote on a worthless
racist who couldn't be elected dog catcher even with you cult members behind him. McCain will kick his butt down the trail and he wont ever be seen again and if he does not feed the cult koolade they do wont be anything to worry about!
RRJ
rrj9144:44PMApr 30th 2008
the most over used and worthless phrase is Obamma 08,
cause McCain will see to it that wont happen and it wont in our life time either, black racists with racist mentors and pastors with Muslim leanings who for twenty years was to dumb to know it [or is lying about it] can't get elected even with a cult behind him!
RRJ
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nightmares11:29AMApr 30th 2008
right on, katherine......you covered most of them. i love it now how some of the press thinks that now obama has thrown the rev. under the bus, all will be forgotten. and he is now forgiven and blah, blah, blah.....he's lying, probably had dinner with his ole uncle jeremiah last night and is laughing about it all.