Tuesday, September 22, 2009

President Obama's Thesaurus

I've been pretty confined by the laptop bag that Madame has safely stored me in on our flight to Hong Kong. We are now just hours away from her speech. I can't wait; I just know it is going to be good!

I did a lot of thinking on the flight over to Hong Kong. I've noticed with all of the articles that Madame has read since the Great Opologizer became President, it seems as if he and his administration have created their very own dictionary and thesaurus as a means of defining their policies and political strategy. For one, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs doesn't seem to quite know how to define Madame:




In this clip, Robert Gibbs says, " I'll let Webster define what one calls her". Well, Mr.Gibbs why don't you let LOTUS define what one calls her? You can call her Governor Palin, Madame 45, Goddess of Energy, Sarah Barracuda, the Iron Lady of the North, etc. Hmm, I guess that is more of a thesaurus listing, but you get my point.

When Madame and I were writing the "nail in Obamacare's coffin" Facebook post, Madame used the forever-to-be remembered phrase "death panels". We first wrote that post in Microsoft Word before transferring it to Facebook. As you may know, Word allows you to highlight a word and find a synonym if you so desire. Madame could have used the phrase "fatality board" or "casualty jury", but she knew that "death panels" would speak to the heart of the matter--bureaucratization of health care.

Madame called it like she saw it, rather than try to sugar-coat it like President Obama when he called health care reform that includes a pubic option, "health insurance reform". A spoonful of sugar does not make socialized medicine go down!

"Health insurance reform" instead of "socialized medicine" is not the first entry in the Obama thesaurus, nor is the Robert Gibbs needing a dictionary to define Madame the first time that the Obama administration has needed a dictionary to define something. In President Obama's media blitz on Sunday, during one of his interviews he did not seem to understand that fining people for not signing up for health insurance is, indeed, a tax. You can put lipstick (very badly) on a tax by calling it a fine, but it's still a tax, Mr. President.

There have been a few other occasions when the Obama administration has wanted to use other phrases to define political terms. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano now calls "terrorism" a "man-caused disaster". The Obama administration calls the "war on terror" " an "overseas contingency operation".

That's OK, though, Mr. President because another entry in your thesaurus is when you referred to Madame as a "prominent politician", as shown in the clip above. As Madame currently holds no political title, I'm thinking that President Obama is conceding that Madame is going to be his successor, if she chooses to run. Prominent politician is synonymous with Madame 45.

3 comments:

Nande said...

Dear LOTUS,

This is my first official visit to your personal site and I appreciate your insightful views! It is good to know that 'Madame' has someone...er something(?)...so faithfully by her side as she goes about keeping a watchful eye on TGO in DC.

Keep up the good work and thank you for your service!

PS: Do you need an adaptor in Hong Kong?

Anonymous said...

LOTUS-
On the plane ride back, please let Madame have you look out the window.
It's really pretty.
-Jane

Ruby said...

LOTUS,

Love your blog! Keep up the awesome work.

Ruby