She Can't Be Stopped

Quote:  “If he does not have the gumption to put me in my place, when superdelegates are deserting me, money is drying up, he’s outspending me 2-to-1 on TV ads, my husband’s going crackers and party leaders are sick of me, how can he be trusted to totally obliterate Iran and stop Osama?” Maureen Dowd in the New York Times

Figure of Speech: dialogismus (dial-o-GIS-mus), the quoting figure.

It’s overtime again. Obama just can’t “close the deal,” as Clinton triumphantly puts it. Maureen Dowd, the feline columnist for the Times, sums up Hillary’s argument in a hyperbolic dialogismus, a figure that puts words in another person’s mouth — often in a way that the “quotee” wouldn’t exactly put herself.

Good point about the husband and the party leaders, though, Hill.

Snappy Answer:  Do we have to totally obliterate Iran? Can’t we just, like, obliterate it?

Comments

[Justin]

Interesting use, too, of the very pre-feminist idea of putting a woman in her place: sex (or gender) and race don't seem to be far from the surface this year.

And that is a hilarious collage, by the way.

[Figaro]

Who's putting whom in place? I wouldn't think of doing that to 50-foot Hillary. Thanks for the kind words.

Fig.

[MarkFL]

Your snappy answer prompts a question: Is it even possible to partially obliterate something? Random House and I seem to agree that pseudo-Hillary's use of the phrase "totally obliterate" is redundant.

[Figaro]

Sure, dude. Totally. Figaro was using a device called a PARELCON, the "like" figure, which amplifies a statement with a meaningless word. Totally amplifies it.