During the election season, so much attention is paid to polls predicting how we'll vote. Polls do serve their purpose. They're limited, however, in what they can reveal about the mindset of those being tabulated. So let's take a closer look. It's time to visit urbandictionary.com & check in with the urbanite vote.
UrbanDictionary's concept is simple, as exemplified by their motto: "Urban Dictionary is the dictionary you wrote. Define your world". Urbanites are invited to submit a word, define it & provide example to track real-time trends and changes within our language.
As an example, here's an entry submitted just yesterday:
Binders full of women
Definition: Where Mitt Romney gets his women from
Example (using it in a sentence):
Joe: "Bit of a sausagefest we've got going on here, we need to find some ladies!"
Mitt: "Not to worry, I've got binders full of women we can choose from!"
Heady stuff! But where does UrbanDictionary stand with the candidates?
Using a 5-Point Plan (that's really just too complicated to explain to you), I looked at the top four entries describing 'Romney' and 'Obama' which I'll now share.
We'll begin with Romney and trickle down.
1. Romney
(verb) to defecate in terror
"The door of the cab literally GRAZED my knee as it whizzed by. I nearly Romneyed!"
As most of us may recognize, this colloquialism started with Seamus, Mitt Romney's Irish setter. Seamus famously defecated his way to
Canada while strapped to the top of Mitt Romney's
Chevy Caprice. In Romney's defense, no knowing woman was present to explain car windows
CAN roll down. And poor Seamus enjoyed the fresh air (It gets quite stuffy in a car full of Romneys.)
2. Romney
Definition: The three and a half hours in which a grown man running for president can change his deeply held conviction to its opposite.
Example (using it in a sentence):
"Oh my god, we've been sitting in this car for two and a half Romneys now!"
Comedian
Jon Stewart noted it took 3.5 hours for Mitt Romney to change his opinion on a contraception bill [see
Flip-Flop. Or better yet, don't....
NSFW]
3. romney
Definition: A measurement of tax rate, equal to 13.9% of income.
Example (using it in a sentence):
"My tax rate is 36%, or about 2.6 romneys."
13.9% refers to the tax rate Mitt Romney overpaid to show he's just like us (Mitt only differs from us in that he's not a
victim and chooses to take
personal responsibility for his life.)
4. romney
verb: (1) to fire someone with glee
(2) to be fired
(3) outsourcing; to gut a company, send American jobs overseas, then claim to have created jobs (in India)
Examples:
(a)"He romneyed the whole department, I think he got an [deleted] doing it!"
(b) "I got romneyed last week after 23 years on the job; they even took my pension!"
(c) "He increased profits by romneying the IT department to India; but hey, he created all those jobs!"
I'm not sure the reason behind this last romney definition. Mitt Romney was a successful president &
CEO [NSFW] of Bain Capital who built companies & worked intimately with American businesses, helping them expand operations into China, Canada, Spain, France, Ireland & India. It was during these years as a business
mentor Mr Romney developed his vast skills as a
diplomat. No doubt those skills & international business experience will become topics of conversation in the upcoming Foreign
Policy debate. I'm confident Mr Romney will be able to use his vast brain to counter the
left-wing media conspiracy that's working to slander his good name.
Let's move on to UrbanDictionary's take on President Barack Obama:
1. Obama
Definition: The current President of the United States of America, originally a senator from Illinois
Example (using it in a sentence): "This is the only non-biased definition of Barack Obama on urbandictionary as of today."
Hmmm... okay.... Nothing to see here folks, moving on.
2. Obama
Definition: The fourth black president, the first openly black president. The four black presidents are Linclon [sic] , Johnson, Clinton, and Obama.
Example: "Why do Obama and Linclon [sic] resemble each other? They are both black."
Alright. Obama is black. Check. Author can't
spell. Check. This isn't
scientific. Check.
This next one is longer, so for brevity, I'll cut out some of the Examples:
3. Obama
Definition: Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th POTUS. Considered to be a devotee of Christian Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a Kenyan Muslim and a Godless Socialist, who spends all his time apologizing to terrorists. Obama's mother mysteriously flew from her home in Hawaii over to Africa to give birth, but presciently knew he would run for President, so she ran baby announcements in two Hawaii newspapers, then snuck a fake birth certificate into a hospital. Obviously.
"Obama socialism: ObamaCare causing Americans to use private health insurance."
"Obama Muslim-ness: supporting gay marriage."
"Obama kowtowing: killing more Al Qaeda members (via drone strikes) in 3 years than Bush did in 7."
A bit
smarmy, admittedly, but I like this guy.
4. Obama
Definition: The Messiah for brain-dead Democrats.
Example: No matter what he says, no matter what he does, they'll worship the great Obama.
Yeah,.. there's always
that guy.
And in closing, I'll include one final definition which speaks for all of us and represents well the voices & opinions of young urbanites:
7. Obama: One Bad Ass Motherfucking American
.
.