THE LOW POST: In It to Spin It

As for "hope and optimism," well...I think I can say without reservation that if there was one phrase that turned my stomach with the most regularity during the '04 campaign season, it was that; not only Kerry but especially his perma-grinning makeup-addict running mate John Edwards humped hope and optimism so relentlessly throughout the latter stages of the '04 race that at times I worried that one of them might tear a hamstring. And I wasn't the only one to notice. Here's what Slate's Chris Suellentrop had to say about hope and optimism back in July of '04:

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.-- John Kerry and John Edwards still believe in a place called Hope. And its sister city, Optimism. They also swear by a town called Opportunity, a village called Values, a burgh called Responsibility, and a couple of lakes called Family and Faith. But really, it's mostly Hope and Optimism.

What kind of places are Hope and Optimism? Strong. Strong and American. Strong and American and middle-class...That was pretty much the message during the first few hours of the germinal Kerry-Edwards campaign...the emphasis on hope and optimism, or at least on using the words hope and optimism a lot, was noteworthy because Edwards, the new man on the ticket, made his name in the primaries as Mr. Optimism.

Suellentrop had better order an extra shipment of barf bags for the '08 season. If Hillary's opening speech is any indication of what we're facing, we're all destined for campaign cliche hell. Check out her speech's ending:

This campaign is our moment, our chance to stand up for the principles and values that we cherish; to bring new ideas, energy, and leadership to a uniquely challenging time. It's our chance to say "we can" and "we will."

Kerry used to be the master of the focus-word-list style of campaign speechifying ("My fellow citizens, elections are about choices. And choices are about values..."), but Hillary blows Kerry away. You seldom caught Kerry lumping more than four focus words into a sentence, but check out Hillary's penultimate line. It's a six-word list: Principles, values, new ideas, energy, leadership, challenge. In fact the only focus words that Hillary left out of her speech, as far as I can tell, were freedom, pride, and truth. The key words -- values, principles, change, heroes, future, etc. -- were mostly all double- or triple-represented.