Question: – Maybe President Obama is still feeling funny from last night: Stumping today in Fairfax, Virginia, he criticized Mitt Romney for "side-stepping" on women's issues like abortion and contraception—and of suffering from acute "Romnesia," CBS News reports. "Now that we are 18 days out ... Mr. 'Severely Conservative' wants you to believe he was kidding on all things he said last year," Obama said to about 9,000 people at a women's health event. "We've got a name this condition that he's going through. I think it's called Romnesia!" The dig is trending on Twitter, but bloggers left and right aren't too impressed: "'Romnesia'? Really?" asks Alexandra Petri at ComPost. "It helps to have jokes" to get voters to like you, she admits. "But surely there’s better material than this." At Red Alert Politics, Francesca Chambersis writes that "Romnesia" simply doesn't exist: "Romney has never said or suggested that he wants to stop women from having access to contraception." Comedy Central accuses Obama of breaking the first rule of "Winning the Millennial Vote," namely: "Avoid political hack. Save the joke writers for AARP night." Everyone from liberal bloggers to Twitterers to the actress Eliza Dushku has already used "Romnesia," writes Elspeth Reeve at The Atlantic Wire. "So Obama neither deserves credit for the neologism nor blame for the pun." "Conservatives responded with their own hashtag," writes Alicia M. Cohn at The Hill. It's called "#Obamnesia." But the audience loved the phrase, laughing and cheering "on first hearing it and as Obama riffed on it in the remainder of his speech," reports the Guardian.

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Answer: There are 80 million Americans in the Millennial generation, ranging in age from 16 to 32, and despite what you may have heard, some of them are going to show up to vote on November 6th and in subsequent elections. So, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both want to get their vote. But how do they get it? 
  
 Comedy Central, as it turns out, conducted an extensive research study — along with TRU Insights and Insight Research — to try to figure out the role that humor plays in the U.S. youths' political beliefs and behaviors. Here is what they learned… 
  
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 1. Avoid political hack. Save the joke writers for AARP night. You can’t force funny with young voters. Millennials want a candidate with a genuine sense of humor. Note: unintentional comedy doesn’t count. Two words: Clint Eastwood. 2. Keep foot out of mouth. Don't make light of serious issues, as fun as that is. As much as Millennials love a good laugh, they are fiercely compassionate. They want candidates with solutions, not wisecracks. 3. Take a joke. It's ok for a candidate to make fun of himself. Humor humanizes, and a well-timed joke at one’s own expense shows personality and self-awareness. Just don’t make fun of your opponent, that’s the job of professional comedians 4. Be sharp and smart. An intelligent sense of humor allows you to demonstrate cool confidence without arrogance. More than any other generation, Millennials like a little insight with their humor. 5. Stay up late. Do an interview with a respected late night comedian. They’re a great way to connect with the electorate. Not only will you have a professional host to keep things from stalling, but you'll be allowed to lighten up. No one is expecting you to be in Oval Office mode while you’re on the couch next to Jennifer Aniston and Justin Bieber. 
  
 Take a look at Comedy Central's "Millennials and the 2012 Election" research release, right here. 
  
 Tags: Barack Obama ||||| In a boisterous speech in Fairfax, Va., today, President Obama made a renewed push for support among female voters, reiterating his commitment to women's health care and introducing a new diagnosis for what he cast as Mitt Romney's "backtracking" and "sidestepping" on issues like contraception and abortion: "Romnesia." 
  
 Mr. Obama, speaking before a crowd of 9,000 at a "Women's Health Security" event, accused his rival of attempting to muddy his positions on issues like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and free access to contraceptive care in an effort to confuse voters. 
  
 "Now that we are 18 days out...Mr. 'severely conservative' wants you to believe he was kidding on all things he said last year," the president said. "He's forgetting what his own positions are and he's betting that you will too. We've got a name this condition that he's going through. I think it's called Romnesia!" 
  
  
  
 Ticking off a list of symptoms that suggest one "might have Romnesia," the president offered up a solution. 
  
 Obama warns of "Romnesia" symptoms 
  
 "I'm not a medical doctor, but I do want to go over some of those symptoms so no one else catches it," he quipped. "If you come down with a case of Romnesia and you can't seem to remember the policies that are still on your website, or the promises you made over the six years you've been running for president, here's the good news: Obamacare covers preexisting conditions! We can fix you up! We've got a cure!" 
  
 With polls showing Mr. Obama and Romney in a dead heat in Virginia, both candidates are making a hard sell to voters they think could make or break it for them in a state that could be a tipping point in the electoral race to 270. Women, particularly, are being targeted by both sides, and the Obama campaign is increasingly zeroing in on health care issues like contraception and reproductive rights, as well as the Ledbetter act, in an attempt to paint Romney as out of touch with women's issues. 
  
 "Governor Romney wants to take us to policies more suited to 1950," Mr. Obama said. "Even his own running mate said he's kind of a throwback to the '50s - that's one thing we agree on. But he may not have noticed we're in the 21st century and in the 21st century a woman deserves equal pay for equal work." 
  
 Romney has said he supports equal pay for equal work and would not repeal the Ledbetter act - which, as Mr. Obama pointed out, was the first bill he signed into law as president. But Romney will not say whether he would have signed it had it landed on his desk in 2009, and some of his advisers have suggested that he would not have. 
  
 Seizing on Romney's "binders full of women" comment from the last presidential debate, Mr. Obama reminded the crowd that the former Massachusetts governor, if elected, would be in charge of tapping new justices to the Supreme Court. 
  
 "You don't want someone who needs to ask for binders full of women - you don't want that guy," he said. "You want a president who's already appointed two unbelievable women to the Supreme Court of the United States." 
  
 Mr. Obama also renewed his attack on what he's casting as his rival's "sketchy" plan to fix the economy. 
  
 "Governor Romney's got his sales pitch. We heard it the other night in the debate, he's been running around talking about his five-point plan for the economy," he said. "He wants you to believe that somehow he'll create 12 million jobs, cut taxes by $5 trillion, even though it favors the wealthiest Americans. None of this will add to the deficit. When folks who don't actually work for Governor Romney start crunching the numbers, turns out tax plan doesn't add up, jobs plan doesn't create jobs, deficit plan doesn't reduce the deficit." 
  
 He continued: "Virginia, you've heard of the New Deal, you've heard of the Square Deal, the Fair Deal, Mitt Romney's trying to give you a sketchy deal," he said, to cheers. "And it's really just a one-point plan, not a five-point plan. One point. Folks at the very top play by a different set of rules than all of you." 
  
 Finally, he urged voters to give him a chance to "finish the job" he started four years ago. 
  
 "I believe in you. I need you to keep believing in me," he said. "I want to finish the job." 
  
 Romney addressed the president's new line of attack at an evening rally in Daytona Beach, Fla. - though he refrained from directly referencing "Romnesia." 
  
 "They've been reduced to petty attacks and silly word games," Romney said to thunderous applause from a crowd of thousands, some of whom were in town for the 'Biketoberfest' motorcycle festival. "Just watch it. The Obama campaign has become the incredible shrinking campaign." 
  
 Romney, who focused for much of his speech on the struggling economy and his plan for job growth, attacked Obama for failing to lay out plans for a second term in office. "They have absolutely no agenda for the future," he said. "No agenda for America. No agenda for a second term. It's a good thing they won't have a second term." 
  
 That brought an immediate response from Obama campaign spokesman Danny Kanner, who said that "just part" of Obama's second-term agenda is to "double our exports, create a million manufacturing jobs, cut oil imports in half, recruit 100,000 math and science teachers, train 2 million workers at community colleges, and reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion." ||||| We've noticed how some of the things Mitt Romney's made a major part of his campaign started out as obsessions of conservative blogs -- "you didn't build that," the 47 percent -- and now President Obama is borrowing from his blogging allies. At a Virginia rally Friday, Obama said that Romney is "changing up so much, we’ve got to name this condition that he’s going through—I think it’s called 'Romnesia.' If you come down with a case of Romnesia, and you can’t seem to remember the policies on your website… Here's the good news. Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions." 
  
 Romnesia, which is now trending on Twitter, is not a new coinage from the campaign. It's been going around Facebook all this month in the image at right, posted by the group Being Liberal. The kind of people tweeting as Big Bird -- actually the letters BLDBLRD -- have been using it for a while: "Romnesia (noun) - When a politician can't remember what he said earlier in the day. See also: outright liar, panderer…" Likewise, the account @SECrapp (which appears to have been created in opposition to conservative pundit S.E. Cupp), was tweeting the hashtag at various media organizations with this photo October 11. 
  
 The actress Eliza Dushku, whose mom was on the feminist Mormon group that pushed Romney to change some church rules while he was a bishop in Boston, used the hashtag when tweeting her mom's story October 11. So Obama neither deserves credit for the neologism nor blame for the pun. 
  
 Update: Successful neologisms have many fathers. We got several emails claiming credit for "Romnesia." The blog at Health Care for All used the term in an April 4, 2011 post about Romneycare. A reader writes in to say Democratic Underground came up with the Romnesia chart first. 
  
 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ereeve at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. 
  
 Elspeth Reeve ||||| Add a location to your Tweets 
  
 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Barack Obama unveils a new zinger… 
  
 . 
  
 "I mean, [Mitt Romney]'s changing up so much and backtracking and sidestepping, we've got to name this condition that he's going through. I think it's called 'Romnesia,'" 
  
 . 
  
 First of all, this is in direct violation of Comedy Central's Rule #1 for Winning the Millennial Vote. But, somehow, it seems to be catching on. 
  
 I'll bet that the Romney people are kicking themselves for thinking "sobamanambulism" was too corny to drop after that first debate. 
  
 Tags: Barack Obama ||||| The Obama campaign is running on women's issues for a third day in a row, but this has been its most successful day yet. Attempting to encapsulate what it claims to be Mitt Romney's shifting positions on a number of issues, the president's team has hit on a catchy phrase: "Romnesia". 
  
 Obama unveiled the new noun during a speech to students at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, claiming that Romney had forgotten earlier positions in which he had opposed equal pay for women and easily-available contraception and had supported outlawing abortion. 
  
 The potency of the phrase was evident in the response of the audience, which laughed and cheered on first hearing on it and as Obama riffed on it in the remainder of his speech. 
  
 It quickly became clear "Romnesia" was not just a throwaway line, as the Obama campaign followed up within minutes. Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, tweeted that Obama "diagnoses Romney's failure to recall his extreme stances on women's issues". 
  
 The phrase instantly stuck on the social networks too. Within a couple of hours of Obama using it, #Romnesia was the third-most discussed Twitter term in the US. 
  
 major props to whoever wrote the #Romnesia bit Obama's doing on the stump right now — Rob Hatch-Miller (@robhatchmiller) October 19, 2012 
  
 A common theme was rewarding whoever came up with the term... 
  
 Pay rise to whoever came up with #romnesia — Emma Gilbey Keller (@emmagkeller) October 19, 2012 
  
 While others quickly embraced the opportunity to slam Romney's flip-flopping record. 
  
 If you made a fortune putting other people out of work but call yourself a job creator, you may have #Romnesia — princenoel (@princenoel) October 19, 2012 
  
 The Democratic Party of Virginia was quick to seize on the remark – posting a picture of Obama in full #Romnesia mode to its Facebook page, although as it turned out, a number of people had claims to the coining of the witticism. 
  
 Romneysia n. When you're running for President and lose the ability to recall your signature accomplishment in government. — Ish (@Ish) August 23, 2012 
  
 As far back as August, Twitter user @Ish was posting about Romneysia – which appears to be a similar ailment to the one Obama described. 
  
 While @anaheimboynxd also had a claim, as did @KawaiiMagpie: 
  
 Obama's campaign was offered an opening to attack Romney over women during Tuesday's debate, when the former Massachusetts governor made his odd remark about having looked through "binders full of women" when he wanted to achieve some gender balance in his cabinet. That phrase made Romney sound out of touch with contemporary society and the changes that have been taking place in the workplace and in attitudes towards women's rights. 
  
 In Virginia, Obama pressed home the message. Romney said he was for equal pay but refused to sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work. Romney had said he was in favour of access to contraception but supported legislation that would allow employers to deny it. Romney had said he would protect women's right to abortion but had said earlier this year he would sign a law outlawing the right to choose in all cases. 
  
 Romney is paying the price for having to move to the right during the Republican primaries and caucuses earlier this year, in order to win over over conservatives for whom abortion remains a top issue. Up against opponents such as Rick Santorum, who has an unyielding position on abortion, Romney was in trouble, having adopted a liberal position on the issue while fighting to become governor of liberal-leaning Massachusetts. In the primaries and caucuses, Romney shifted to the right, saying in one debate that he would be delighted to support legislation outlawing all abortion. 
  
 The Obama campaign is running hard on the issue because women could hold the key to the election. Democratic candidates normally hold a lead over their Republican rivals among women and Obama has long enjoyed a lead of eight to nine points over Romney among likely women voters, compensating for Romney's lead among white males. But some polls have shown that lead eroding and the Democrats need those wavering women voters back. ||||| At a campaign rally at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. on Friday President Barack Obama accused his opponent Mitt Romney of “side-stepping” and “forgetting” his position on a wide range of issues affecting women, saying the GOP presidential candidate had developed a condition known as “Romnesia.” 
  
 “Mr. ‘Severely Conservative’ wants you to think he was severely kidding about everything he said over the last year,” the President claimed. 
  
 Obama said he isn’t a doctor, but wanted to tell the crowd the symptoms of Romnesia “to make sure nobody else catches it.” 
  
 “If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care, you might have a case of Romnesia. If you say you’ll protect a woman’s right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you’d be delighted to sign a law outlying – outlawing that right to choose in all cases – man, you’ve definitely got Romnesia,” the President said, bursting into laughter. 
  
 As the President described the signs of Romnesia, he grew more and more animated, feeding off the energy of the crowd, which was eating up his “diagnosis.” By the time he got to the climax of his Romneisa joke, the President was not only laughing but also shouting as he announced the “good news” about Romnesia. 
  
 “And if you come down with a case of Romnesia, and you can’t seem to remember the policies that are still on your website or the promises you’ve made over the six years you’ve been running for President, here’s the good news: Obamacare covers preexisting conditions,” Obama yelled. 
  
 “We can fix you up! 
  
 “We’ve got a cure! 
  
 “We can make you well, Virginia! 
  
 “This is a curable disease!” the President continued. 
  
 Obama, who has made women the focus of his campaign since Romney’s “binders full of women” comment from Tuesday debate, was introduced at the rally by Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. Earlier in the speech Obama hit Romney for saying he would defund Planned Parenthood and claimed that Romney is trying to offer women a “sketchy deal.” 
  
 Romney has never said or suggested that he wants to stop women from having access to contraception, but that didn’t stop Obama from repeatedly insinuating that’s exactly what the Republican candidate for President would do if elected. 
  
 “Gov. Romney wants to take us back to policies more suited for the 1950s. Even his own running mate said he’s ‘kind of a throwback to the ‘50s’,” Obama claimed. “He may not have noticed we’re in the 21st century.” 
  
 According to a Rasmussen poll released Friday, the former Massachusetts Governor now leads the President 50 percent to 47 percent in the Old Dominion with only two percent of voters remaining undecided. And for the first time in the race, news and polling website Real Clear Politics also has Romney beating Obama in electoral votes 206 – 201 with 131 electoral votes listed as toss-ups. 
  
 Watch OFA’s video of Obama’s Romnesia remarks below. 
  
  
  
  ||||| TheWashingtonPost Romnesia? Really? 
  
 Jeff Foxworthy is doubtless rolling over in his grave current FOX gig as the host of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” 
  
  
  
 President Obama just did a strange, political parody of “You Might Be a Redneck,” and no one stopped him. People Against Cruelty to Tired Old Jokes raised a brief fuss, but no one was listening. “That joke has been out to pasture for decades,” they pointed out, “and it’s not up to performing on the national stage.” 
  
 But it was too late. 
  
 He’s coined the term “Romnesia.” 
  
 I understand the impulse. The idea that Romney has changed his position so many times as to provide fodder for him to debate himself is fairly well-established. There’s even a RoboRomney capable of agreeing with you on almost anything. 
  
 But “Romnesia”? Really? I get that it sounds like amnesia, and that those MN-combo words are hard to come by. But “Romnesia” also sounds like one of those over-workshopped names for a new drug to counteract restless leg syndrome that you are supposed to ask your doctor about. Lunesta. Mylanta. Romnesia. 
  
 One of the demands of the presidency is that you are able to address millions of people every year and get them to like you. And it helps to have jokes. 
  
 But surely there’s better material than this. Just look at the president’s performance at the Al Smith dinner, when he made a whole room full of people in white tie chuckle politely! 
  
 This one was forced when Jeff Foxworthy birthed it in the 1990s. 
  
 But there is always a strange transition process for jokes getting into the political process. “Washington funny” and “actually bearing any resemblance to humor” are seldom the same. Al Franken, famous for being a funny person, had to wait decades to go into politics, and he is only now very gently beginning to joke again. 
  
 Jokes get used and trotted around on sitcoms and in stand-up routines for years before they finally collapse from exhaustion and are sent to the stud farm of political speeches. It’s not an environment for a thriving, vigorous young joke. Certain audiences will laugh at anything — audiences in cold rooms, where the only way to stay warm is to chuckle — and audiences at political functions. They’ll even laugh at jokes about the president’s birthplace — and that’s about the lowest bar there is. There’s no subversion. There’s little spontaneity. It’s not a good environment for the one-liner. You have to stay on-message. One of the major functions of humor — to point out the absurdity of things and enable you to see the world a little differently, to sort the really important from the silly — can be actively dangerous in the context of political speeches. Edgy? Tearing down The Man? Not from The Man himself. 
  
 Nothing like a crowd of screaming supporters with OBAMA signs who laugh before you’ve even started the routine to give you the emperor’s new sense of humor. 
  
 “What a funny president we have!” everyone wants to say. 
  
 But so much of it depends how you look at it. 
  
 Th Romnesia speech, which is already being ballyhooed in the YouTube comments (always reliable) — “This was good, I dont care what party you're from... this is funny. Obama 2012” — illustrates the joke-hand-me-down rule. Comedy did not want these jokes any longer. So the president is using them. This concept is 20 years old. The “You Might Be A Redneck If...” album is from 1993. It was played out when I was in middle school. 
  
 “If you say you’re for equal pay for equal work,” the president joked, “but you keep refusing to say whether or not you’d sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work — you might have Romnesia. If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care — you might have a case of Romnesia.” 
  
 And so on, and so on. 
  
 “Now, this extends to other issues. If you say earlier in the year I’m going to give a tax cut to the top 1 percent and then in a debate you say, I don’t know anything about giving tax cuts to rich folks — you need to get a thermometer, take your temperature, because you’ve probably got Romnesia.” 
  
 You need to get a thermometer? I’m just saying. 
  
  
  
 “Here’s the good news! Obamacare covers a preexisting condition! We can fix you up! We’ve got a cure! We can make you well, Virginia! This is a curable disease!” 
  
 Can we go back to making Binders Full of Women jokes? The meme was getting a little tired, but it’s still got legs. And at least those didn’t sound like something that came limping in from the 1990s complaining of mistreatment by actual comics. ||||| ‘Romnesia’ takes off on Twitter 
  
 By Alicia M. Cohn - 
  
 President Obama’s campaign launched a popular term on Friday: Romnesia. 
  
  
  
 According to the Democrats, “Romnesia” is “a failure to recall previous extreme stances.”The word immediately took off on Twitter and jumped within the hour to a worldwide trend term. Team Obama, understandably excited at the quick popularity, jumped on the trend by promoting a tweet from Obama under the trending hashtag. 
  
 The campaign actually did not coin the word, but Obama's use of the term in a campaign speech certainly brought it to the attention of a wider audience. 
  
  
  
 "He's forgetting what his own positions are, and he's betting you would too," Obama said of Mitt Romney at a campaign stop in Virginia on Friday. "He's backtracking and sidestepping. We've got to name this condition he's going through. I think it's called 'Romnesia.' I think that's what he's going through." 
  
 Conservatives responded with their own hashtag: #Obamnesia. Twitter analytics said thousands used the alternative hashtag on Friday, but it did not show up in the trending terms although #Romnesia remained a hot topic well into the afternoon. 
  
  
  
 .@barackobama diagnoses Mitt Romney's pre-existing condition: #Romnesia, a failure to recall previous extreme stances. j.mp/T38QWs 
  
 — The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) October 19, 2012 
  
  
  
 Updated at 3:04 p.m. 
  
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