How #ReplaceQuoteWithThingamajig Became a Worldwide Twitter Trend Covered in the New York Times

Yikes!  It's been almost a month since I last blogged!  But now I have a good reason to - I'm in the New York Times! 

It all started when Obama made this ridiculous and nonsensical statement:

"...if you have $3,000 a year extra, that helps you pay down your credit cards, that helps you go out and buy somethings that your family needs which is good for business.  Maybe somebody will be replacing a -- some thingamajig for their furnace. They've been putting that off, but if they got that extra money they might just go out there and buy that thing. Right?" Obama said to laughter.

(By the way, here's my Tumblr reaction to hearing that Obama’s solution to the economy is buying a #thingamajig)

The Twitterverse was all abuzz over Obama's use of the word "thingamajig" in talking about economics. It just shows how hopelessly out of touch and over his head he is on the economy.  #Thingamajig was already trending on Twitter from thousands of people mocking Obama.  I started thinking about Obama's other gaffes and I came up with this tweet:

"The cost of #thingamajig's will necessarily skyrocket" #replacequotewiththingamajig

— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

Then I thought of contrasting how ridiculous and undignified the word thingamajig was with famous quotes from Founders and presidents:

Mr. Gorbachev tear down this thingamajig! #replacequotewiththingamajig

— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

Give me Liberty or give me thingamajigs! #replacequotewiththingamajig

— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

Then it was just to, as Rush would say, illustrate absurdity by being absurd:

People in glass houses shouldn't throw thingamajigs #replacequotewiththingamajig

— AlexaShrugged (@AlexaShrugged) June 1, 2012

I shared the #replacequotewiththingamajig hashtag with friends and it caught fire - it was the number 1 trend worldwide on Twitter this afternoon!

Apparently this was enough to attract the attention of a political reporter from the New York Times who saw that I created the first #replacequotewiththingamajig tweet and contacted me.  She wrote:

“Thingamajig” was already trending on Twitter when AlexaShrugged, a conservative blogger, started the meme #replacequotewiththingamajig, which started trending worldwide.
...
(The original quote, by Mr. Obama in January 2008, is, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”)
“Then I thought how ridiculous it would sound in contrast to other presidents & famous quotes,” she said in an exchange of direct messages.
Other conservatives, like Redstate’s Erick Erickson, got in on the action. (His message was re-posted by Ryan Williams, another Romney spokesman.)

So that's the story of how I got my first worldwide trending topic on Twitter!  It just shows the amazing power of conservatives on Twitter with the help of sites like Twitchy and how much influence we have in driving the debate so that even the NYT takes notice.  Can't wait to continue flexing our muscles the rest of this campaign season!

Follow me on Twitter @AlexaShrugged