TOM MAGUIRE: Metaphor madness:

My goodness – next these messaging geniuses will have Obama delivering a big speech at 7 PM and declaring “It’s sunset in America”.

Let’s note that their Arab counterparts were not hung up on silly literalism. Even though the Tahrir Square demonstrations took off on January 25, no one was so foolish as to dub this the “Arab Winter”. Spring is a season of hope and renewal (bear with me while I beat the obvious like a rented mule). Autumn is football and turning leaves and the Yankees going out in five, but it is not normally associated with a better tomorrow; quite the contrary, actually, since the cold and death of winter is around the corner, not to mention the NHL season and the return of the NY Knicks.

Now, plenty of Obama’s critics believe he and his many buds on the American left have been pining for an end to American exceptionalism since they donned their first Che t-shirt, so the notion of an “American Autumn” is probably quite dear to their hearts. That puts “American Autumn” in the category of a Kinsley gaffe. But this is not a message that will win the hearts and minds of the Great Unwashed.

It’s not even the winter of our discontent.