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Addressing the California Republican Convention in San Diego, Agnew targeted "the nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H Club—the 'Hopeless, Hysterical, Hypochondriacs of History'."
After Nixon's 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and for Spiro Agnew; he is known for having created Agnew's famous alliterative term, "nattering nabobs of negativism". Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Nabob is an Anglo-Indian term that came to English from Urdu, possibly from Hindustani nawāb/navāb, [2] borrowed into English during British colonial rule in India. [3] It is possible this was via the intermediate Portuguese nababo, the Portuguese having preceded the British in India.
With the 24/7 news cycle occupying our minds and stealing our sanity, we need to fight back.
The Republican presidential nominee has the chatter, the notoriety, and the cynicism from the famous quote, writes Edward A. Wasserman.
"Nabob" can also be used metaphorically for people who have a grandiose sense of their own importance, as in the famous alliterative dismissal of the news media as "nattering nabobs of negativism" in a speech that was delivered by Nixon's vice president Spiro Agnew and written by William Safire. [6]
During the war between the United States and North Vietnam, Vice President Spiro Agnew accused newspapers of anti-American bias, and in a famous speech delivered in San Diego in 1970, called anti-war protesters "the nattering nabobs of negativism." [37] Not all accusations of bias are political.
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