Obama's New Catchphrase: 'Change Is'

Barack Obama has a new pet rhetorical device designed to highlight his accomplishments and kindle memories of his 2008 campaign. The magic words: “Change is…” Obama trotted out the phrase a dozen times in a speech in New York Wednesday, the Huffington Post reports, with lines like, "Change is the first bill I signed into law—a law that says … somebody who put in an equal day’s work should get an equal day’s pay," or "Change is health care reform that we passed after a century of trying."

Obama actually debuted the device weeks ago, using it 10 times in a Nov. 14 speech in Hawaii. But using it again indicates that he’s trying it out as a recurring theme. "It’s an effort to take back the mantel of change," a Democratic strategist says, "to circle back to the fundamental point of the '08 campaign and to illustrate how that change has been accomplished."