Boomerspeak: inflated egos, inflated rhetoric

"Gilding the lily — casting the everyday and unexceptional in the most grandiose terms — has always been a weakness of boomers, who in their youth would sometimes compare Captain Marvel comic books to the Sistine Chapel or call Yoko Ono an artist. Overstatement has been George W. Bush's prime rhetorical technique. When he drew our attention to a handful of troublesome regimes, he couldn't just call them troublesome regimes; instead they ballooned into an 'axis of evil.' His hope of stabilizing the Middle East by fostering self-government was not just a geostrategic Hail Mary — it would lead, he said in the stunning capper to his second Inaugural, to 'the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.' Born into happiness and prosperity and languor, American boomers have long compensated by goosing their language, and their self-image along with it..." "The Roosevelt Legacy Bush Shouldn't Carry On" Time