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God save the candidate who uses a three syllable word. Reporters will careen satellite trucks through crowded schoolyards to get the scoop on a politician “out of touch” with the voters. Instead office-seekers use a folksier, kitchen table, I’m-one-of-you-vote-for-me kind of speech that appeals to everyone. But as boring as politician speeches can get, they are an incredibly rich source of imagery: cut-n-run, glass pockets, big stick diplomacy, lock boxes, welfare queens, spin-rooms…
As new political terms constantly rain down we turn to linguists to examine them. A Way with Words does just that. In this excerpt, the hosts, author Martha Barnette and dictionary editor Grant Barrett discuss some of these new additions to our political vocabulary.
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