On ABC this morning, they were babbling about President Obama's "full-court press" on health care reform, and I wondered how many others were using that figure of speech. Sure enough, it's everywhere, at Fox, at Politico, in an Associated Press account, at the National Review and lots of other places. In the grand scheme of things, considering the enormous implications of this bill passing or failing, I know this is a really minor whine, but it's one of my pet peeves, and I can't let it pass.
It is too true that the misuse of the expression has been so widespread and of such long standing that it has made it into the dictionaries. "A thorough, collaborative effort to overcome or constrain another person or group, especially a rival or opponent," one of them lists as an acceptable use. But the expression comes from basketball, and it's a defensive maneuver, not an offensive one. A team engaged in a full-court press applies intense pressure to the team with the ball the entire length of the court from the moment of the inbound pass, in order to slow down and frustrate the team.
To get technical about it, it's the congressional Republican opponents of health care reform in the full-court-press mode, or at least they would be if they had the numbers to do it.
Thanks, I feel much better now.
