< Hitting Barack Bottom: Too Many Obamaisms

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Heard on Day to Day

June 27, 2008 - ALEX COHEN, host:

If the presidential race were a contest to see whose name could be morphed into more new, and often ridiculous, words and phrases, one candidate would easily be declared the winner.

Mr. WOLF BLITZER (Host, "The Situation Room"): So-called Obama mania.

Ms. CAROL COSTELLO (Contributor, "The Situation Room"): Obamaphilia.

Ms. OPRAH WINFREY (Host, ""The Oprah Winfrey Show"): Barack-star.

Mr. JON STEWART (Host, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"): Barackford (ph) files.

COHEN: Our friends over at Slate.com have gotten caught up in the act. This week, they released "Obamamania!: The English Language, Barackafied." Chris Wilson is the book's editor and he joins us now. Welcome to the program.

Mr. CHRIS WILSON (Editor, "Obamamania!: The English Language, Barackafied"): Hi, thanks for having me.

COHEN: So, Chris, how did all these get started?

Mr. WILSON: Well, a bunch of editors and writers at Slate were noticing that a lot of these Obama words were cropping up in the course of, you know, reporting for the election. You know, we had the idea that maybe we should start, you know, looking out for them and collecting them for some kind of project. And you know, it sounded like a lot of work to me, so I figured we just make them up ourselves and that would be a lot faster.

COHEN: So, what are some of your favorite ones?

Mr. WILSON: You know, I've always liked Baractogenarian, which would be - you know, octogenarian actually means a person over 80, but we figured, given the age demographics of the Obama campaign, we said, oh, an Obama supporter over the age of 20.

COHEN: Nice.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. WILSON: That makes you old enough to understand.

COHEN: Nice.

Mr. WILSON: Let's see. We have Barack Ness Monster, a mythical seagoing creatures spotted approximately once every four years, may be a fabrication of the media. My personal favorite, Barackiavellian, describing a political strategy based on the recurring emphasis on unity and hope, as first laid out in Machiavelli's "The Obama."

(Soundbite of laughter)

COHEN: Groan! What do you think it is about Obama's name that has inspired this? Is it all those vowels?

WILSON: Yeah, you know, by having all those As and Os, you know, it just gives you a lot to work with in terms of finding vowel sounds. In other words, that you can then, you know, all you have to do is if you find that "ock" sound, you add a "Bar" in front of the it, or if you find an "om" sound, and then you add an "Oba" in front of it and, you know, there you go.

COHEN: Did you try any of this with Senator John McCain's name?

Mr. WILSON: We tried a little bit, and there just wasn't much there, with the exception of sort of putting "Mc" in front of words that have an "ain" sound in them.

COHEN: Senator got a big Mc-Gain at the polls? Something like that?

Mr. WILSON: Yeah, you know, it just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

COHEN: And your book includes both kind of the more positive associations, like Obamamania, and then there's, you know, some that have less positive connotations, Baracketeering.

Mr. WILSON: Yeah, you know, I mean, we didn't sort of want the book to be 100 percent glowing. Many people do, particularly as the primary season progressed, feel that as this Obamamania, if you will, reaches a kind of fever pitch, you know, they find it off-putting. They don't want a celebrity and a rock star. They want a serious candidate. And you know, so there's certainly an element of sarcasm or a cynicism to it.

COHEN: I'm sure you're at the point now where just about any word you come into contact with you try to Barackify as best as you can. Do you have any sense when you'll hit Barack bottom with this?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. WILSON: I must admit that, you know, we're currently coming up with new ones every day. You know, there's a certain amount of desperation that comes with that.

COHEN: Chris Wilson of Slate.com is editor of the new book, "Obamamania!: The English Language, Barackafied." Thanks for joining us.

Mr. WILSON: Thanks a lot.

(Soundbite of music)

COHEN: The latest news on the fires raging in Big Sur, California. That story ahead when NPR's Day to Day continues.

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