Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A cow on the tracks

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele offers an ill-chosen metaphor about impeding progress on health care reform: “I’m the cow on the tracks. You’re gonna have to stop that train to get this cow off the track to move forward.”

Well, no. There is the cow catcher:

A cow catcher is a device attached to the front of a train in order to clear obstacles off the track. . . . A cow catcher is typically a shallow, V-shaped wedge, designed to deflect objects from the track at a fairly high speed without disrupting the smooth movement of the train.
Related reading
All metaphor posts (via Pinboard)

comments: 5

Unknown said...

That mental image made me laugh. There's a few other politicians I'd like to see on those tracks as well- I won't mention any names. :)

Crritic! said...

Association: cow catcher = Buster Keaton.

Michael Leddy said...

Mari, it sounds like you want to dispense with the cow catcher.

Crritic!, is that The General?

Crritic! said...

Indeed! What an image. Buster caught on the cow catcher with a railway sleeper in hand, with a well-aimed shot bounces both the sleeper and an oncoming obstruction off the tracks...

Michael Leddy said...

I should watch that again — I haven’t seen it in years.