Political Lexicon

I approve of William Safire and his NY Times Magazine column “On Language.”

This is slightly dated, but I especially enjoyed this one.

Money quote:

My name is William Safire, and I approve on this message. (Nah; sounds as if I’m dumping on it.) I approve of this message. (Sounds elitist, out of touch, like a blessing given by the Charles River Gang.) Ready? I approve this message. There; that government-approved, preposition-free usage has an executive tone, as if the speaker were running for chief executive. If you can cut earmarks out of the budget deficit, you can cut the needless word out of the sign off, and it saves a fraction of a second, which—multiplied by thousands of TV spots—adds up to real money.