I feel that this article buried the lead (or lede, as they like to write now):
81% of seniors say they are certain to vote in the mid-terms, versus only 35% of the youngest voters (18-29). That should bode well for the G.O.P., but it mystifies me. Those youngsters will have to live 50 years or more with the consequences of the elections, yet so many of them give zero fucks.
Lead vs lede
“Lede” has only been in the Webster dictionaries since 2008. Before that it was simply newsroom jargon, but not even that for long. The earliest appearance of the term dates back only to the 1970s.
(Even now I guess it would be considered an Americanism. It is still not in the OED except as “obs. variant of lead n. and v.” It appeared as a spelling of the metal as early as 1300, and as a variant spelling of the verb meaning “to cause others to follow” as early as 1375. Remember that English did not have uniform spelling guidelines until the middle of the 18th century. Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, was published in 1755. Before that, no source was considered authoritative, so one might be able to find any word spelled in any imaginable way. Ol’ Billy Shakespeare wrote out his full name three times in signatures. He used three different spellings, and none of the three is spelled as we do today: William Shaksper; William Shakspere; William Shakspeare.)
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