President Obama says his Republican opponent has 'Romnesia.' | JAY WESTCOTT/POLITICO Romnesia's rise from Twitter to Obama

President Barack Obama’s campaign quip that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has “Romnesia” spawned countless headlines on Friday, but Obama did not invent that portmanteau.

On the stump at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Obama said: “I mean, he’s changing up so much and backtracking and sidestepping, we’ve got to name this condition that he’s going through. I think it’s called ‘Romnesia.’”


( Also on POLITICO: Obama: Mitt has 'Romnesia')

The word may have been coined by liberal Twitter user @BreakingNuts, who tweeted on March 23, “Romnesia: a severe form of amnesia that strikes dishonest politicians. #Romney #GOP #Amnesia #Romnesia.” The Nation’s editor and publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel, then retweeted @BreakingNuts to her 55,000+ followers.

As The Atlantic noted, “Romnesia” spread through Facebook via “ Being Liberal’s” page. A graphic defines “Romnesia” as “when a politician can’t remember what he said earlier in the day. See also: Outright liar, panderer.”

Timothy Lange, who goes by Meteor Blades on Daily Kos, used the term in June to attack Romney’s health care position: “On this matter, the candidate now would like the whole nation to suffer from what he so often does: Romnesia, that public unremembrance the governor loves to apply when what he has done and said in the past is an inconvenient reminder of his political fickleness.”

And The Guardian’s George Monbiot wrote on Sept. 24: “We could call it Romnesia: the ability of the very rich to forget the context in which they made their money.”