"Truthiness" is defined as "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true." And so 2008 will birth the word changeiness - "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to exemplify real change, rather than concepts or facts known to embody real change."
In the weeks ahead, I'll try to keep a running tab on changeiness - the moves that we'd like to believe suggest the possibility of real change, but, in fact, are not real change. As the first example of changeiness, check out this story from the Huffington Post in which Barack Obama tells Democrats to keep Joe Lieberman in their Senate caucus.
Obama doesn't say Lieberman should keep his chairmanship (a chairmanship that will allow Lieberman to investigate an Obama administration) - so in that sense, it suggests the possibility of a change (ie. Lieberman being removed from his chairmanship). But as the article notes, Lieberman has said he will leave the Senate Democratic caucus if he is stripped of his chairmanship, meaning Obama is effectively endorsing him staying in the chairmanship. That's not change we can believe in - that's changeiness.
UPDATE: Just as a quick follow up, Josh Marshall reports that Bill Clinton is now making calls on behalf of Lieberman - effectively insisting that Democrats allow Lieberman to retain the subpoena power to investigate an Obama administration. Change or changeiness? I'd say the latter.
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