Words Words Words

The Democratic presidential primary campaign has taken a turn towards sniping over words. Parsing words is a specialty of lawyers and politicians. (Remember "That depends on what your definition of 'is' is"?). But it does not serve us voters still trying to make up our minds.

I think that all the candidates need to stop worrying about -- and borrowing -- each other's words, and get some better ones. First of all, the word "change" has got to go. Change is automatically going to happen next January. A new person will inhabit the White House. New problems will come up and a new person will deal with them.

I would like to start hearing the candidates actually distinguish themselves from one another through the distinctions that language offers.

What I hear Barack Obama talking about is "transformation." What I hear Hillary Clinton talking about is "competence." Both good words that would give me a little more to wrap my mind around.

If that would happen, the campaign would not only change, but transform for me. I could clearly compare each candidate against what I think the country needs, and make an intelligent decision.