non-surrogate surrogate (n.): Political surrogates are those sanctioned to act on behalf of a candidate. According to Politico, non-surrogate surrogates are “consultants, public figures or quasi-celebrities who sometimes thrive on the fringes, throwing rhetorical bombs that ripple for days across the Twitterverse, blogs and cable networks.” These are often unwelcome or unruly actors. (See: Rush Limbaugh, Bill Maher, Donald “Look At Meeee!” Trump)
the app gap (n.): The “app gap,” as discussed in a recent Mother Jones article, is the social and/or economic distance between those who have a lot of smartphone/tablet applications and those who do not. As we know, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who have slung birds at evil pigs and those who have not.
twaggin’ (v.): according to D.C. Councilman Marion Barry, erstwhile shamed D.C. mayor, “twaggin'” is tweeting with confidence and style. After winning his recent Democratic primary, he tweeted: “Twitter officially BLOWN UP from SOUTHEAST Washington, DC! We tweet with swag over here. It’s called twaggin if you didn’t know.” Sounds like a general election slogan done and dusted. “Marion Barry: Tweeting With Swag 2012.”
(MORE: Top 10 Political Sequels—Including Marion Barry’s)
the two economies (n.): with the coming general election almost certain to be about the staggering U.S. recovery, we will likely hear more references to “the two economies”: the tradable and non-tradable. “Big industrial machines? We can put those in boxes and ship them to China — tradable,” Derek Thompson explains in a recent Atlantic article. “But nobody in China seeks a dentist in California.” The three pillars of the non-tradable economy (i.e. the slower, less sexy, less adaptable one): are education, government and health care.
dry-clean (v., slang): America isn’t the only country giving its Secret Service the stinkeye. In Britain, some suspect MI6 of “dry-cleaning” an apartment where the body of one of their agents was found curled up in a padlocked North Face duffel, what the Daily Mail is calling the “spy in a bag” murder. According to the Mail, dry-cleaning is Secret-Service slang for removing or destroying incriminating evidence such as fingerprints from the scene of a crime.