Obama’s Vision: “Everyone Gets a Fair Shot”

The New York Times, Wednesday, January 25, 2012, by Helene Cooper

OBAMA SETS GOAL OF ECONOMY BUILT FOR THE LONG RUN

Characterizes His Vision as an America “Where Everyone Gets a Fair Shot”

Washington–“President Obama pledged on Tuesday night to use government power to balance the scale between America’s rich and the rest of the public…

Ordinary Americans, the president said, have the right to expect, if not a helping hand from their leaders, then at least a field in which everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

There are two sports idioms in the headlines: “for the long run” and “fair shot.”  A third idiom “a field in which everyone plays by the same set of rules” is both a sports and games idiom.

A long run is used for an actual run by horse or man or for the economy in this idiomatic sense.  President Obama is a basketball player;  a fair shot occurs according to basketball rules within the boundaries of the game.  However, this idiom could also be from shooting clay pigeons where there are rules, or in an older sense meaning a “good shot”  pertaining to a shooter or hunter who shoots skillfully, accurately.  “A field in which everyone plays by the same set of rules” is such a general idiom it applies to all field sports and  war.

Tags: a fair shot, a field in which everyone plays by the same set of rules, the long run