Word: adroit
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...government. He also possessed a huge appetite for more responsibility, a need to perform in the political circus' center ring and a perfectionist's burden of self-doubt. That Darman, after some detours, became George Bush's Budget Director last month shows a degree of adroit tenacity rare even among Washington's tribe of striving Type A's. He appears joyful in his new post, though his return to public service dumps him into a sticky triangular paradox. Alone among Reagan advisers, Darman lent his name to a Washington coinage: "Darmanesque" denotes the arcane stratagems he devised to promote Reagan...
Warhol began and ended as a commercial illustrator; what lies between is the interesting stuff. He was an adroit draftsman but not a distinguished one. He soon overcame the influences of his early advertising days (Jean Cocteau and Ben Shahn), but the drawing is never more than efficient. Partly for this reason his freehand "studies" of soup cans or dollar bills never acquire the pressure of the silk-screened ones, but it is hard to see how they could: those coarsely nuanced rows of ready-mades, in taking Duchamp a small step further, remain the most eloquent comments...
...responded with both wit and grit. But the incantations about "magic" imply mystical powers beyond the ken of other politicians. There is nothing mysterious about a veteran public performer with a knack for timing, a keen sense for what will please a mass audience, and a talent for hiring adroit p.r. advisers...
...everything about this glum and self-important adaptation of Anne Tyler's upper-cute novel is dim. Director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) knows how to get Edward on and off screen effectively, but he is far less witty and adroit with his nominal stars. Dim too is the judgment of the New York Film Critics Circle, which last week named Tourist best English- language picture of the year...
Gorbachev's timing was adroit. He has proved to be a virtuoso at playing on Reagan's romantic notions about peace and disarmament. Faced with an incoming President far more cautious than Reagan, Gorbachev finagled a meeting at which his own vision of the future would go unchallenged. Bush could not properly respond until he takes office next month, and Reagan seemed barely relevant as he bubbled his favorite Russian phrase, "Trust but verify," at a press conference following Gorbachev's departure...