2010 elections

Top Five Political Catch Phrases Of 2010

Brian Beutler | December 29, 2010, 12:45PM

Sarah Palin

A big part of politics is coming up with catchy slogans and phrases so that voters draw conclusions that help your party. They run the gamut from Barack Obama's "Yes we can!" to Sarah Palin's "death panels."

The flipside of that is that you have to avoid saddling yourself with unflattering slogans and catch phrases. A bad gaffe will stick to a politician like flypaper -- sometimes for years. These buzzwords and catchphrases bubble up into the political discourse all the time. Most of them dissipate harmlessly, but a few attach themselves to their subjects like stink on, well, chickencrap.

Here's our list of the top five political catch phrases of 2010 -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

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DE-SEN

Christine O'Donnell Ad: 'I'm Not A Witch ... I'm You.' (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | October 4, 2010, 7:37PM

Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell has a new ad up where she directly confronts the endless reel of video tape from her past.

"I am not a witch," O'Donnell says in the 30-second, staring straight at the camera. "I'm you."

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Christine O'Donnell

Mock All You Want, Republicans And Conservatives Take Witchcraft Seriously

Brian Beutler | September 22, 2010, 2:23PM

Not since we all learned that Rand Paul forced a blindfolded classmate to kneel in a stream and pray to the Aqua Buddha -- and possibly not since the revelation that Louisiana Governer Bobby Jindal had participated in an exorcism -- have political junkies been as overjoyed as they were when they saw footage of Christine O'Donnell admitting that she'd "dabbled into witchcraft" in her younger and more vulnerable years.

The admission made headlines precisely because, like exorcism and marijuana-worship, it's pretty far out there. But unlike marijuana-worship, it actually offered a glimpse into a real phenomenon in right wing politics and religion: fear of witchcraft and Satanic ritual.

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