William Safire says (said) inartful is the first entry in the Obamaworld dictionary:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/magazine/20wwln-safire-t.html
[..]
^^^^^ CB: Safire uses "Obamaworld" " ? Is he going to write a column on that ?
^^^^^^^
The lexicographically unrecognized word was mantracized by the Obama staff that is, made the campaign’s favorite locution in ameliorating awkward statements. Last November, a spokesman said Obama believed the D.C. gun ban to be constitutional, but when the Supreme Court decided otherwise, the senator then said he agreed with the decision; the earlier statement was described by spokesman Bill Burton as “inartful.” Charles Krauthammer, the media’s foremost serious critic of the Obama campaign, wrote that this attempt to “explain the inexplicable . . . suggests a first entry in the Obamaworld dictionary ‘Inartful’: clear and straightforward, lacking the artistry that allows subsequent self-refutation and denial.”
That was a devilish definition in the Ambrose Bierce tradition. (In a fit of postpartisanship, the columnist chose the neutral Obamaworld rather than the dismissive Obamarama or the savage Obamanation.) However, as a service to fellow harmless drudges now updating online dictionaries, here is my take on today’s artsmanship: