I think Hillary really had the upper leg

Posted: November 8, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This one was spotted in a New York Times article about how undecided voters are making up their minds.  The one lady named Morgan said about the comparison between Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris:

“I think it’s unfair. I think Hillary was much more versed going into her campaign. I feel that Harris is not nearly as prepared as Hillary was. I do see some similarities, in terms of the name-calling and belittling. I think Hillary really had the upper leg, if you had to compare the two.”

This is a nice congruent conflation of “have a leg up” and “have the upper hand” (have an advantage over someone or something). This is another example of a body part mix up. A big thank you to Linda Bernstein for spotting this one!

Hillary Clinton is in the process of refudiating everything that Mr. Trump says

Posted: September 19, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: WORD BLENDS | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

This nice word blend malaphor was uttered by Sean Jackson, chairman of the Florida Black Republican Caucus and Trump supporter, on MSNBC’s Hardball.  Mr. Jackson stated, “Hillary Clinton is in the process of refudiating everything that Mr. Trump says by trying to make him out to be the bigot.” See http://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/hardball/2016-08-26

This is a mash up of “repudiating” (rejecting the validity or authority) and “refuting” (proving or saying that something is not true).   Word blend malaphors are an interesting subset of idiom blend malaphors.  There are quite a few posted on this website.  A shout out to Sam Edelmann who heard this one and passed it on!

If you liked this malaphor from the political world, you will want to get the book “He Smokes Like a Fish and other Malaphors”, available on Amazon!  There is a whole chapter devoted to mash ups from politics.

sean-jackson

That’s the crème de le résistance

Posted: May 27, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

At CNN’s Democrat Town Hall last February, Anderson Cooper asked Hillary Clinton about her relationship with her grandchild, and she replied with this wonderful malaphor.  This is a congruent conflation of “crème de la crème” and “pièce de rèsistance”, both meaning the very best or most important.  This mash up was retweeted a lot, and some of the more clever ones were:

“Creme de resistance” is halfway between a latte macchiato and a flat white – Jon Lovett

The Creme de Resistance was DeGaulle’s favorite baked good – Ronald Seyb

I think we just found Hillary’s @benandjerrys flavor: “Creme de Resistance” – Caroline Haubold

For more on this, you can check this link:  http://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2016/02/03/hillary-clintons-grandchild-is-the-creme-de-le-resistance/

A big merci to Steve Grieme for hearing this one and passing it on.

hillary clinton

She’s going to kick some dust off the tires

Posted: October 22, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: ACTION, brush, dirt, dust, kick | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

CNN studio

CNN studio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hillary Clinton that is.   This malaphor was spoken by CNN political reporter Peter Hamby when discussing the Hillary campaign speech in the Virginia governor‘s race.  It is a mash up of “kick the tires” (to test something) and I think “when the dust settles” (waiting for things to calm down), although “bite the dust” (to die) might be in the mix as well.   Certainly tires cause lots of dust so hence the confusion.  A big thanks to Steve Grieme for hearing this one and sending it in.