Obama pretty excited about this whole "car" metaphor for the midterms

I thought he’d only been at it for two weeks but apparently it’s a longstanding thing. See, “D” stands for “Democrats” but it also stands for “drive,” and that’s what you want to be doing when you’re in a car. Whereas “R” stands for both “Republican” and “reverse,” and no one wants to be doing that. So there you go. You’re now set for the midterms.

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Remember: Crushing deficits and near-double-digit unemployment = drive. Wingnut = reverse.

It has since become the Mr. Potato Head of campaign stump speech metaphors.

The president keeps expanding on it. This week, as he repeated it at fundraisers across the country, it continued to balloon into several paragraphs and with bells and whistles tacked on in all directions.

Obama changes features around. He introduces new characters. He adds new props. The other day he decided Republicans were sipping Slurpees as they watched Democrats dig out the car. (Incidentally, Obama is the only president to ever use the word “Slurpee” in a speech, according to the archives of The American Presidency Project)…

For a moment during another fundraiser in Chicago that same day, the metaphor even seemed to become too much for Obama.

“I also want to make a simple point — not to belabor this analogy,” he said, “but when you want to go forward, what do you put the car in?

And this time the audience got involved. “D!” the crowd shouted. “D,” Obama replied.

Lots, lots, lots more at the link, I’m sorry to say. Semi-serious question: Shouldn’t our modern-day Pericles be expected to do a little better than this to jazz his base for November? The die is already cast vis-a-vis the basic result, but if he hits the right notes he should at least be able to mobilize turnout among his base to mitigate losses. They seem to respond well to mindless, koan-ish slogans. How about borrowing a page from Nike with “Just do it”? Or “Think positive,” maybe? What about “Pull. That. Lever!” with a long pause between each word to encourage unison chanting? I know he can do better. I have faith. I’ll leave you with this from the great Michael Ramirez:

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