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“Romnesia”–Obama uses a term from the far-left

You’ve probably heard “Romnesia” so much today that you’re no doubt sick of this term. Obama didn’t coin it, but borrows a term from the far-left.

From Mother Jones:

A Case of Romnesia
Mitt Romney’s long history of misremembering his past.

—By David Corn | Wed Jun. 20, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

If David Corn rings a bell, it may be because he’s often on MSNBC, a network that runs his Romney “47%” video on a non-stop loop.

Slightly earlier is the Daily Kos:

FRI MAY 18, 2012 AT 12:32 PM PDT
Another dazzling display of Romnesia: Mitch Daniels says we’re in ‘peacetime’
by Jed Lewison

Slightly earlier is Partisan Dawn:

I Invent A New Word: “Romnesia
Posted by: Rick | May 16, 2012
rom·ne·sia [rom-nee-zhuh] noun. an apparent memory disorder exhibited by a person who apologizes for an egregious act of antisocial behavior while simultaneously claiming not to remember the act itself. [after Willard Mitt Romney (born 1947), American politician]

Slightly earlier still, from the Daily Kos:

FRI MAY 11, 2012 AT 11:06 AM PDT
The bully’s bully: Mitt Romney’s consigliere Eric Fehrnstrom
by Meteor Blades
Eric Fehrnstrom (The Shawmut Group) Mitt Romney’s credentials as a bully made a big splash Thursday. In a typical display of what Kossack AlyoshaKaramazov calls “Romnesia,” the all-but-official presidential nominee conveniently couldn’t remember the incident in which, aided by some of his pals, he attacked a gay student at his prep school and, while others held the boy to ground, whacked off his non-conformist long hair because “he can’t look like that.”

Ultimately, the origin for the term comes from exactly where you’d expect it to–The New York Times and its star columnist, Paul Krugman:

OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Amnesia Candidate
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 22, 2012
Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are? If you’ve been following his campaign from the beginning, that’s a question you have probably asked many times.
(…)
This is especially true if you focus on private-sector jobs. Overall employment in the Obama years has been held back by mass layoffs of schoolteachers and other state and local government employees. But private-sector employment has recovered almost all the ground lost in the administration’s early months.

Oh yes, private sector employment is doing just fine. Paul Krugman has declared that this is so, and President Obama recently said the same thing (only to say later that this wasn’t what he’d said).

SUMMARY
Romnesia? Obama thinks this is a winning term?

When you get your ideas from Mother Jones, Daily Kos and The New York Times, why should any conservative or independent voter trust you?

COMMENTS

  • http://www.barrypopik.com barrypopik

    FYI, Ben Zimmer posted this to the American Dialect Society listserv:

    The earliest I’ve found for this is from April 4, 2011:

    http://blog.hcfama.org/2011/04/04/romnesia/

    The Politico cite below notes its use on Daily Kos — I believe it was
    popularized there by AlyoshaKaramazov in a May 10, 2012 comment:

    http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1090543/46039144#c24

    –bgz

  • ohiohistorian

    Last one I heard this used on was Romney’s switch from pro-choice to pro-life. Let’s try to remember the Presidential candidate who campaigned before and now.

    2008

    Barack Obama

    Opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposes a constitutional ban. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.samesexmarriage.html

    2012
    President Obama says “I do” to same-sex marriage.

    After saying for his views on gay marriage were “evolving,” Obama’s
    evolution reached a conclusion after finally saying that same-sex
    marriage should be legalized. http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/05/09/obama-says-i-do-to-gay-marriage/

    This is actually Obamanesia, but he doesn’t have to worry about ObamaCare. He has his “super-duper” health care as having been POTUS.

    I consider the whole Obama term an OBAMANATION. Tweet that, Mother Jones!

  • commonsenseobserver

    I’d take Romneysia any day over Obamaloney.

  • tngal

    Pay no attention to them as they are batty liberals living in dark battycaves driving around aimlessly in tiny battymobiles. They toss out pitiful noises like romnesia, binder, Bigbird, hoping it will bounce off a kindred spirit nearby so they can find each other in the dark and snuggle up together.

  • http://www.justintribble.com Justin Tribble

    Obama’s never been behind until now, and we see them making tactical errors.

    The issue is how the Romney campaign handles it — and they’re doing it brilliantly, branding the Obama campaign as small-minded, small ideas.

    He needs to bring this up in the debate — “You have no ideas, no plan, all you’ve done the past few weeks is lob petty, small-minded insults at me, all you talk about is Big Bird and binders.”

    If Romney can frame it like that, what’s Obama’s response? Romney’s actually run a fairly non-personal campaign, mostly attacking the president’s record, while Obama has run a very personal campaign against Romney. Undecideds don’t like personally negative attacks!

    It’s good to see Romney’s campaign hitting on this the past few days — the campaign perceived as petty and small-minded is always behind.