On the front page of the New York Times an article about Obama’s economic policy states: “Barack Obama is drawing on techniques from his campaign and lessons from predecessors as he seeks to shape public attitudes about the economic downturn.”

Economic downturn? What we are facing is not a “downturn.” Such a term might be appropriate for a decline in sales of, say, one video game console following the highly anticipated release of a competing system. The current state of the economy is in more than a downturn; it had been stagnating for years (approximately 8, arguably many more,) and has recently been in precipitous decline.

Let’s move away from this milquetoast and disingenuous language. While I don’t doubt that Obama is fully aware of the gravity of the current crisis, I’m frightened about the extent to which our public discourse has become debased; when our paper of record defaults to such delusional and dulcified disquisition, one can only wonder if this is done in fear of frightening we the consumer. I guess that in an era of “premium” everything, we have become so inured to the bastardization of language that we accept such euphemisms with barely a second thought.