Corporations are people too, blowing a softball question on one of your purported Olympian strengths, ducking the press, moonwalking back and forth on every issue under the sun while insisting you are steady and stationay as Plymouth Rock. These toastmaster adventures cry out for a term of their own. Matt Miller obliges:
WaPo— We’ve reached a rare moment. Sometimes a phenomenon is so unprecedented and altogether singular that existing language doesn’t suffice to capture it. This is how language evolves, as new realities inspire fresh coinages to do justice to human experience. …What’s the right new word? “Mitticism” might be a serviceable noun, but it feels quaint and obscure. “Mittgaffe” has a fun ring redolent of “McNugget,” but it still misses. After all, we’re talking about a state of mind, a way of thinking (or not thinking), that goes beyond any single misstep. No, sometimes only a punchier adjective will do.
I propose “Mitticulous.”
Brilliant! It encapsulates Romney’s odd predilection for speaking with precise strained, focused intent, where his android creases briefly mimic living flesh, and despite all that effort, when it comes our of his mouth, it still sounds utterly ridiculous.
You just know his supporters would take it and misuse it to describe him favourably, thinking that they’re both clever and witty in the process
Wonderful! I love the conflation of meticulous with ridiculous. I’m definitely adding this one to my vocabulary.
Personally, I like Mitticism: something that is meant to sound witty but ends up sounding like… well, like Mitt trying to sound witty. And there is the sound-alike to mysticism, so it can have the second meaning of the reaction of scratching your head and wondering if the universe shifted just a tiny bit.
How about mittconception or mittconstrue. Mittinformation may also be valid.
We have lots of votes around here for mittwit.
mitticulous is too many syllables for standard humor punchlines.
I like mitticulous, mitticism & mitwit.
But whichever ends up being adopted its only going tobe very termporary. In a few years time I reckon (& hope) hardly anyone will remember who Mittens RMoney was.
Mind you I guess some people still talk about “Swiftboating” or something don’t they?
Maybe such a word would be the 2012 republican POTUS nominee’s only lasting mark on US culture? His one “achievement” of cultural and historical note.
@#1 Aliasalpha-
I call that a win-win.