Like a toddler to the slaughter...
And...Language Log responds.
I agree -- what little linguistic experience/research and general lack of expertise I boast, as well as general experience with hearing this oft-employed phrase -- that using "that" as in "give me some of that old time magic," is an attempt to allude to a better and previous time. Not now, but then. That time, you know, when we were better. There was magic. Then. That point. That palpable moment. Grasp it.
We can't catch it, but NOT because it's gone. We merely lack the correct leadership, apparently.
But don't you wish someone could lead our country, our people, back to that?
And that's the appeal of that in Palinspeak: positing yourself [Frau Palin] as she who will lead us to the good ol' days.
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