Day: December 29, 2010
Gallup Economic Confidence Index Up Slightly
-26
The Gallup Economic Confidence Index average during the week ending Dec. 26. That marked an improvement from -29 earlier in the month, but not enough to bring the month’s average up to the -24 recorded in November 2010.
Americans Use Phone for Politics
26%
Of American adults used their cell phone to learn about or participate in the 2010 mid-term election campaign, according to Pew Research. The mobile political user group is more male than female, young than old, better off financially than less well-off, and better educated than less well-educated. African-Americans also are more likely than whites or Hispanics to be in this group.
Time to Lose the Time-Worn Political Cliches
In preparing for the coming elections of 2012, Politics Daily‘s Walter Shapiro says we should clean house on worn-out and meaningless political terms that crop up with lamentable regularity in speeches, columns and news stories:
Already, I am braced for the linguistic assault from 2011 trench warfare in Washington and the verbal pyrotechnics from the 2012 presidential campaign, even if Sarah Palin — the Elocution Queen of Alaska — does not run. That is why I have compiled a personal list of political words and phrases that have outlived their usefulness. In the quest for original political rhetoric, these cliché-ridden expressions should be sent to the glue factory, consigned to the dustbin of history, and shoved down the booby hatch.
It’s a well-written, wry piece that should not be taken with a grain of salt.
