Word Power

   Words carry power. When used too often, however, their strength is weakened. How often is too often? When the reader or listener notices that a particular word or phrase is being used repeatedly.
   Weather reporters become enamored of the phrase "Arctic blast." Recently, "iconic" has popped up as many as three times in a five-minute time frame.
   Maybe someone could invent an "iconograph" to count the number of times a word or phrase is used by TV or radio folk.
   Repetition for emphasis is one thing; it's a useful rhetorical device. When it becomes redundancy, however, it diminishes the power of the word.

   Word power can also be used to diminish one person's abilities while leaving out similar characteristics of another.
   Example: Some Republican political operatives have been warning that Hillary Clinton, if elected in 2016, would be the "second oldest President in history."
   This a true statement about the potential Democratic candidate. However, such a warning implies that age is a disabling factor.
   Moreover, the warning does not mention who the oldest President was. That would be Ronald Reagan, the GOP idol who took office Jan. 20, 1981, just two weeks shy of his 70th birthday. It also does not mention that Reagan was suffering from dementia toward the end of his second term.
   Hillary Clinton would indeed be the second oldest President, if elected. She was born Oct. 26, 1947, and on Election Day 2016, she will have just turned 69.

   Is any of this relevant? That's for voters to decide. However, as Reagan himself said during a pre-election debate, he had no intention of criticizing his opponent's "youth and inexperience."