“To make a sentimental or untimely exhibition of affection; to display enthusiasm in a silly, demonstrative manner.” — Webster, 1913.
For example, this snippet from today’s New York Times editorial.
Americans are going to feel good about [his] victory, which is a story of youth, possibility and unity through diversity ? the primordial themes of the American experience….[He] has achieved something remarkable. At first blush, his speeches are abstract, secular sermons of personal uplift ? filled with disquisitions on the nature of hope and the contours of change.
Can you guess of whom the writer wrote?
Would that be today?s Monty Hall? “Let’s make a deal, how would you like to trade that old politician with a platform for one that promises not-to-offend until elected?”
If he were a character in a movie the audience would immediately recognize him as the shallow con man. In charismatic flesh and blood, ?not so much?.