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.
