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Obama in his State of the Union address used this phrase a lot, "to win the future." Am I the only one who thinks this phrase sounds awkward? There's a je ne sais quoi about the verb "to win" with the noun "future." Myself I far prefer "to conquer the future." What are your thoughts?

Who are we trying to beat? So far the only ones I see is us.

In the New Spirit of Civility, we can't use violent words

Viktor77 wrote:Obama in his State of the Union address used this phrase a lot, "to win the future." Am I the only one who thinks this phrase sounds awkward? There's a je ne sais quoi about the verb "to win" with the noun "future." Myself I far prefer "to conquer the future." What are your thoughts?

Not An Awkward Post At All.

Viktor77 wrote:There's a je ne sais quoi about the verb "to win" with the noun "future."

Viktor, there's a tu ne sais quoi about everything.



yes, this is a bitten rhyme. You know who you are.

I don't have any problem with the phrase, syntactically-speaking.

Personally, I don't think either "win the future" or "conquer the future" has much meaning. You can't win or conquer something that was always going to happen anyway. It's just a couple of positive words thrown together to make people like him.

Kereb has won already.

I'm fine with it, I didn't hear it in context, so it sounds a little weirder, but I understand what he means.
That being said it means nothing, because (like every other politician) he isn't going to win shit or do anything he says.

I care less about the 'State of the Union' address than I do the super bowl. At least the super bowl has no pretense of importance or tedious 'reponses' from the opposition.

Fucking Woodrow Wilson.

(Why did I think that this was in ephemera? [Rhetorical question])

Astraios wrote:Personally, I don't think either "win the future" or "conquer the future" has much meaning. You can't win or conquer something that was always going to happen anyway. It's just a couple of positive words thrown together to make people like him.

pro tip: "future" is being used metonymically

Pthug wrote:

Astraios wrote:Personally, I don't think either "win the future" or "conquer the future" has much meaning. You can't win or conquer something that was always going to happen anyway. It's just a couple of positive words thrown together to make people like him.

pro tip: "future" is being used metonymically

I don't think Obama or his speech writers know what a metonym is... *askance*

Bristel wrote:I don't think Obama or his speech writers know what a metonym is... *askance*

no they probably do. just because you know what it means doesn't mean you are clever.

This doesn't seem grammatical to me, actually; I would expect "win" to mean "obtain as a reward for victory" ("I won the prize money"), or possibly "succeed at a contest" ( He will win the game"). Neither of those seems to fit the phrase at hand, though.

Jetboy wrote:This doesn't seem grammatical to me, actually; I would expect "win" to mean "obtain as a reward for victory" ("I won the prize money"), or possibly "succeed at a contest" ( He will win the game"). Neither of those seems to fit the phrase at hand, though.

yes, both of these fit. because politics.

Pthug wrote:

Bristel wrote:I don't think Obama or his speech writers know what a metonym is... *askance*

no they probably do. just because you know what it means doesn't mean you are clever.

Nor does it mean that they are clever.

Bristel wrote:Nor does it mean that they are clever.

v. good, but you weren't even granting the premise before sooooooooo

That Obama and his state of the unions made me miss all my TV Shows. He should do them during the day when all the people watching TV are helpless old ladies.

Delthayre wrote:At least the super bowl has no pretense of importance

o.O

What planet are you on?

Pthug wrote:

Bristel wrote:Nor does it mean that they are clever.

v. good, but you weren't even granting the premise before sooooooooo

Damn, I always miss granting premises before.

mapking27 wrote:That Obama and his state of the unions made me miss all my TV Shows. He should do them during the day when all the people watching TV are helpless old ladies.

Palin should use that as her campaign slogan. I think it would consolidate her popularity with certain demographics key to her electoral victory.

I am holding out hope that mapking is joking, since I've encountered crass remarks like this before only for them to turn out to be jokes.

Vote for Sarah Palin because that Obama and his state of the unions made me miss all my TV Shows. He should do them during the day when all the people watching TV are helpless old ladies.

Nah, it doesn't work. It should be more like:

Vote for Sarah Palin because, I got something Obama doesn't, my own reality show on TLC. Yeah!

mapking27 wrote:

Vote for Sarah Palin because that Obama and his state of the unions made me miss all my TV Shows. He should do them during the day when all the people watching TV are helpless old ladies.

Nah, it doesn't work. It should be more like:

Vote for Sarah Palin because, I got something Obama doesn't, my own reality show on TLC. Yeah!

Yes, but Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco is in the works... so Obama would just look bad with Obamaland... if Chicago was as super cool as San Francisco, it might work...

But Bristel, Alaska is cooler than San Francisco and Chicago combined-- literally!