You didn’t think we were just going to pick on Democrats, did you?
Rudy Giuliani wants us to go for broke, literally: his answer to the economy’s short-run problems is a huge permanent tax cut, which he claims would pay for itself. It wouldn’t.
“Go for broke” is a gambling term that means “risk everything to reap substantial rewards”.
Let me hear your arguments in the comments - is this a correct usage of “literally”?
Continuing our series of political posts, reader Susanne caught the following serial abuse from Senator John Edwards:
John Edwards went crazy with the misuse of literally in his Iowa “victory” speech:
Here are the 4 misuses, all in a matter of minutes:
- And, as a result, they know that they can’t go to the emergency room and get chemotherapy. What are they supposed to do? What are they supposed to do? You can literally see the fear and terror in their eyes.
- Tomorrow morning, 37 million of our own people will wake up literally worried about feeding and clothing their own children.
- And I know that we’re going to get up tomorrow and keep pushing as hard as we can to get the message out about what is at stake in this election. Because we know that it is literally the future of our country.
- Our older son John Mark, our son David, his wife Lauren, our daughter Sarah, who’s literally lived in Iowa for the past 2 1/2 months.
Link (Thanks, Susanne)
We’re not sure which episode from yesterday to highlight first, but we’ll start with one that we haven’t posted yet on The Caucus. And that’s the outpouring of anger and insults by former President Bill Clinton in talking about his wife’s chief rival, Senator Barack Obama, while at Dartmouth in the late afternoon.
He literally shocked his audience, by criticizing Mr. Obama and his campaign, pointing his finger and raising his already hoarse voice.
Don’t tase me, Bill!
Link: The Caucus: The New York Times Political Blog (Thanks, Ken and Scott)
See also: literally stunned
It’s the groggy, nerve-sizzling season on the trail, and forget the attack ads and last-minute scrapping. Any candidate will attest that the epic fight now is against sleep deprivation, the gaffe-inducing monster that looms over every campaign in its final hours.
“We had 300 people outside, literally freezing to death,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton marveled on Tuesday before a crowd in Iowa City. (No deaths were reported, in fact.)
Link (Thanks, Hope!)
Update: based on Senator Clinton’s performance in the Iowa caucuses, maybe her supporters did freeze to death after all.
Britney had a hit with “Toxic,” but now a toxic diet is taking a hit on Britney.
She loves her fast food and keeps Starbucks in business, but are her eating habits creating the bizarre Britney we’ve been seeing? Access Hollywood examines Britney’s toxic diet.
“When you take a look at Britney Spears and her behavior, it’s very frightening,” Dr. Timothy Brantley, a PhD who educates patients on the power of food, told Access. “She’s a person who’s completely addicted to sugar. This is like heroin for a junkie. She’s literally on a roller coaster to hell.”
(Thanks Ruby, Bonni, Jack, and Fandango)
