As Barack Obama and John McCain assessed the nation’s many problems in last night’s debate, they committed many linguistic mistakes. Perhaps a delayed debate would’ve been beneficial, had it afforded them time to brush up on The Elements of Style. Then they would’ve been armed with solid grammar, along with twin bracelets from the mothers [...]

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who vs. that

After winning best actress in a TV movie, Laura Linney relayed a political message. She said HBO’s John Adams was a tribute to “the great community organizers that helped form our country,” a reference to Sen. Barack Obama, whose work as a community organizer was disparaged by Gov. Sarah Palin.
Linney would’ve conveyed a [...]

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historic vs. historical
This morning in Minneapolis, Fox 9 traffic reporter Juli Jay called the opening of the new Interstate 35W bridge a “historical” day. This is a linguistic mistake we hear often as people describe the nature of the presidential campaign underway. So let’s set the record straight.

Historical is about or related to history, [...]

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In his first speech as Sen. Barack Obama’s VP pick, Sen. Joe Biden wanted to be taken literally. Very literally. He had used the word six times before reaching the seven-minute mark.
“Folks, again, it’s not, it’s not political sloganeering when I say we literally can’t afford four more years of this non-energy policy, written by [...]

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In his first speech as Sen. Barack Obama’s VP pick, Sen. Joe Biden wanted to be taken literally. Very literally. He had used the word six times before reaching the seven-minute mark.
“Folks, again, it’s not, it’s not political sloganeering when I say we literally can’t afford four more years of this non-energy policy, written by [...]

Click here to read more from Barack Obama