Saturday, February 11, 2012

Mitt Romney Says He Was "Severely Conservative." Odd, Walkeresque Wording

Mitt Romney used an awkward but telling phrase before the national conservatives meeting in DC last week to bolster his credentials with the Right and bluster his way past the "Massachusetts moderate liberal" label Newt Gingrich tarred him wit.h.

Romney said he'd been "severely conservative" as Massachusetts' governor.

"Severely?"

Besides burying "compassionate conservatism," let's note two things:

1. Gingrich is the more severe wordsmith.

2.  The negative, even menacing implication of "severely" accurately describes Scott Walker's year of attack on middle-class Wisconsinites, collective bargaining, open government, public education, women's health, environmental protection, low-income workers' tax situation, voting rights, state tradition, and so forth.

Consider what the Macmillan dictionary folks have to say (sorry about the coding below) about the word "severely."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should have just said," I'm seriously conservative man."

Yeah, severely conservative is an odd word usage.

My ankle is severely sprained. Like swollen, black and blue, just plain ugly looking.

James Rowen said...

Romney had to have given serious/severe thought to his remarks. It's either a flub or deliberately chosen to sound tough.

Paul Trotter said...

What does a severely conservative look or talk like?

James Rowen said...

Scott K. Walker.