Pop Quiz: Election Vocabulary and Quotations

This election season seems more and more like a horrible family feud. For months (years) now it’s like our nation is at a contentious holiday dinner of arguing relatives, but played out messily in public.  Like any dysfunctional family, we yell at each other or sit in stunned silence and ask, “Did he really say that?” “Would he really do that?”  “He never used to talk that way.” 

It’s getting worse as Nov. 6 approaches.  Mitt Romney’s son Tagg said this week after the debate that he wanted to “take a swing” at Obama.  I’ve had my fantasies about doing bodily harm to someone – Tagg?   Like crazy cousins we citizens think it’s ok to lie, or exaggerate, or threaten.  Most of us just wish the whole thing were over with and we could go home to living most of the time with our own kind. 

If you want real election news and analysis, take a look at Ed Kilgore’s column Political Animal.  But even he’s getting pretty tired of it, and he’s a political junkie.

All I can do this week is offer this quiz of election vocabulary and quotations.  Which is the correct answer?

1. “Binders of Women”

a) What Romney says his staff put together after he was elected governor as a way to find qualified women candidates for his cabinet; apparently he didn’t already know any qualified women.
b) A collection of names of qualified women actually put together before the election by a bipartisan coalition of Massachusetts women’s groups and presented in a set of binders  to Governor-elect Romney.
c) Cultures and people such as historic China and the contemporary fashion industry who restrict women’s power and ability to move by forcefully imprisoning their feet.

2. “That’s Just Not True”

a) Obama’s way of saying “You’re lying again, Governor Romney.”
b) Obama’s version of Joe Biden’s “Malarky, Congressman Ryan.”
c) Missouri Senate candidate Todd Aiken’s description of date rape.  (He says it is “just” for men to be able to rape their dates, and it’s “not true” that this is rape.  He also says “that’s just not true” that pregnancies ever even occur after so-called “legitimate rape” so it’s unnecessary to permit abortion in those cases. He is leading in the polls against a fine smart woman candidate.)

3. “I apologize.”

a) What Obama told the world on his “Apology Tour,” according to Romney.
b) What Romney and Bush have never said.

4. Who said: "I'm concerned about the poor in this country. We have to make sure the safety net is strong and able to help those who can't help themselves. I'm not terrible worried about the very wealthiest in our society -  they're doing just fine."

a) Romney.
b) Obama - the very wealthiest are doing just fine at telling lies and paying for elections with Super PACs and sleazing tax breaks.

5. “Romnesia” is:

a) An ideal gated community for the 1% where it’s ok to bully, lie and take a swing at your opponent.
b) A medical condition suffered by Romney.  Obama identified this serious disease this week and kindly reminded his opponent that it is covered by Obamacare, because it is a longstanding preexisting condition.  He carefully outlined how to recognize the symptoms, in order to prevent the further spread of the disease. 

6. Nevada is called a "swing state" because:

a) It's a great place to swing: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Unless you are Prince Harry.
b) A close election is predicted there, since unemployment and home foreclosures are the highest in the nation.

7. The headline: "Cardinals Remind Team How to Win" refers to:

a) NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan prayed at the Republican Convention, "We ask your benediction O God on those yet to be born..." Then when he was reminded that clergy can't endorse candidates and keep their tax-exempt status, he offered a prayer for the Democratic Convention team as well, and said (perhaps about marriage?), "Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature's God. Empower us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community."
b) A St. Louis baseball player whose great hit got his team into the Major League playoffs. This headline and the coverage of the baseball playoffs in general are bigger and longer than political news these days.

8. Who said, "My pension isn't as big as yours?"

a) Obama to Romeny in the second debate after Romney alleged that Obama also has pension investments in China. Romney's pension is the income form his $30 million in investments. Obama's pension, which he followed the law to report publicly, unlike Romney, is between $50,000 and $100,000 and comes from his service as Illinois state senator.
b) The 50% of Americans lucky enough to have a pension, to the 1% whose pensions are like Romney's.

9. When Romney says "Marriage is between one man and one woman; it's been that way for 3000 years, and must stay that way," he is referring to:

a) his polygamist great grandparents who went to Mexico to escape US persecution,and where his grandfather was born.
b) his great-great grandfather who had twelve wives and was murdered by the husband of the twelfth.
c) biblical patriarch Abraham who had two wives, Sarah and Hagar.

10. "Wild Pitch" means:

a) A baseball thrown so hard and errantly the catcher can't hold it, sometimes resulting in extra bases for the other team.
b) "I will not cut taxes for the rich." Romney at the first debate.

Extra credit: 

The editorial “Too Many Mitts: The President Has Earned Another Term” appeared in the newspaper of the religious hometown of which candidate? 

Copyright © 2012 Deborah Streeter