McCainian "oversight"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

In the first presidential debate, McCain used "oversight" as a
transitive verb, meaning "to provide oversight for" -- he referred to
Obama's chairmanship of "a committee that oversights NATO." (OED3 only
has a rare intransitive sense of the verb, "to make a mistake through
negligence or omission." )

McCain has used "oversight" in the same way a few times earlier in
this campaign season:

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http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/01/sitroom.02.html
CNN, Apr. 1, 2008
I was chairman of the Commerce Committee that oversights all sectors,
practically, of our economy.
---
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/17/acd.02.html
CNN, July 17, 2008
He has been the chairman of the committee of the subcommittee that
oversights NATO operations. Afghanistan, we obviously know, about NATO
involvement.
---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603226.html
Washington Post, Sep. 16, 2008
I was chairman of the Commerce Committee that oversights every part of
our economy.
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http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Sep17/0,4670,McCainChange,00.html
AP, Sep. 17, 2008
That's the committee that oversights our economy — transportation,
science, telecommunications, airlines — all of the factors that drive
our economy.
---

And he used it back in the 2000 primary debates:

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http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E1DD123BF934A35752C0A9669C8B63
New York Times, Jan. 7, 2000
I think that's appropriate in my role as chairman of the committee
that oversights that bureaucracy, which by the way, is extremely
difficult for most people to deal with.
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--Ben Zimmer

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