'96: "It's about..."
Bob Dole's speeches were riddled with the phrase "It's about...."
For example, he'd say "This election is serious business. It's about, integrity. It's about, trust. It's about, doing the right thing."
From then on up to this day (but less so now, thank god) you couldn't watch a string of advertisements without hearing some voice-over saying "It's about the ride. It's about, never having to say you're sorry." Car companies, insurance companies, you name it. It was everywhere.
Oh man did that ever drive me nuts. Made no sense to me. Lasted forever.
'2000: "Look."
I'm pretty sure I heard it earlier, but the first time it really registered happened during an exchange between an anchorwoman and Candy Crawley.
The anchorwoman asked a question and Candy preceded her remarks with "Look,...."
And that was it. And it happenes to this day. You will get one television journalist asking another television journalist a question, and quite likely you will hear the questionee respond with "Look, the situation in...."
It's kind of powerful in a way that I don't know why... so I see why it stuck. But I'm sick of it already.
'2004: "Red meat".
An example:
The person introducing, say, Dick Cheney would be known as... I don't know. But Cheney is now known as "red meat".
"Red meat" means substantive. It's not limited to a person, or rather, it's usually about an issue.
"Finally at this convention we're going to hear some red meat".
"Red meat" and the 2004 election have become inextricably entwined.
The only thing now is to see how thoroughly this thing gets incorporated into everyday usuage.
"Now for some red meat", you may hear one day while watching the TV. Just as those words fade, you'll be presented with a Honda driving through the mountains.
Who knows.
Anyways...
Anyone got any others? There's more, I'm sure.
