New York Times blogger Judith Warner tried to write a nice essay about Obama's victory today, and how it cured her of the cynicism that went with being a beaten-down, overeducated liberal.
The glory of Barack Obama is that there are so many different kinds of us who can claim a piece of that "our." African-Americans, Democrats, post-boomers, progressives, people who rose from essentially nowhere and through hard work and determination succeeded beyond their parents' wildest dreams are the most obvious.
But there are also people who respect intelligence and good grammar. People who see their spouse as their "best friend," as Barack called Michelle on Tuesday night. People whose children have the same knowing look as Sasha and Malia, who are probably more excited about their puppy than about their father's presidency.
That's all swell. Too bad a little bit earlier in the piece, Warner felt compelled to hold forth on the
groundbreaking enormity of the election of our country's first African-American president[.]
Naturally enough, of all the fancy and profound-sounding educated-person words in the piece, the Times picked out "enormity" to repeat in the online headline. So much for the triumph of grammar.
UPDATE:
1. I had forgotten that Mister President-Elect Eloquence used the word himself in his address. I knew that guy was going to disappoint me someday.
2. The Times has now purged "enormity" in favor of "significance" in the link subhead and "immensity" in the piece. Twenty-four-hour news, eight-hour copy desk.
