jejune

A totally foreign word to me

Definition of jejune:

adj.

1. “Not interesting; dull: ‘and there pour forth jejune words and useless empty phrases’ (Anthony Trollope). Synonym: insipid. 2. Lacking maturity; childish: surprised by their jejune responses to our problems. Synonyms: adolescent, juvenile, puerile. 3. Lacking in nutrition: a jejune diet. Synonym: insubstantial” (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/31/08 NYT online op-ed piece, “Seeing Red Over Hillary” by Maureen Dowd.

“…Why had it taken so long for Obama to push back against Hillary? ‘He respected her as a senator,’ the adviser replied. ‘He even defended her privately when she cried, saying that no one knows how hard these campaigns are.’ But Obama’s outrage makes him seem a little jejune. He is surely the only person in the country who was surprised when the Clintons teamed up to dissemble and smear when confronted with an impediment to their ambitions…”

My two cents:
Moon, spoon– jejune??? Wow. I had no idea…

As for the subject matter of Dowd’s op-ed piece, I’m pleading no comment. Almost. I am already tiring of the political slicing and dicing in this election year and it’s only January. Lying ahead are 9 more months of campaign rhetoric, impossible promises and endless media yakking. Make no mistake: this is an historic election. It marks the first time the Democratic party will be choosing either a woman or an African American male as their presidential candidate. This should be an exciting time, and yet I’m feeling more and more dispirited and cynical about politics and the state of our country and the world these days. I wonder if the popular vote really matters anyway, since it’s the Electoral College that got George W. Bush elected when all was said and done. Somebody help me with that one, will ya? And as for those politicians hoping to seduce us for our vote: promising the moon is, if you ask me, pretty jejune. Gag me with a spoon.