Word: asserting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...patriotic fervor Reagan has spent four years inspiring. Democrats thundered about the dangers of deficits and a nuclear-arms race, but they never raised serious doubts about Reagan's leadership. The President did not even spell out a program for his second term: it was enough to assert that "America is back, standing tall" and ask crowds repeatedly, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" They invariably roared back "Yes!" They did the same with their votes on Tuesday...
...sets all this against Frost's compelling need to establish his poetic voice. The poet knew that his technique-the colloquial tone played against traditional meters, the apprehension of unnamed mysteries in ordinary experiences-was far more original and subtle than it appeared, and he was determined to assert his distinctiveness...
Most startling were the candidates' very different views about what has been happening around the world: it's a question of major assumptions of reality and different conceptions of the presidency. It's incredible that two candidates can assert such marked differences on questions of historical fact. It's as if one were from Venus and one were from Mars. On Lebanon, Mondale's version was that the causes were mistaken U.S. policy, the procedures amounted to presidential bungling, and the effect was to embolden the terrorists. Reagan answered that the causes were mainly Lebanese...
Worst of all, debate critics assert, the match-ups have turned into a game of gaffe exploitation. "Modern debates are the political version of the Indianapolis Speedway," charges Political Scientist Nelson Polsby of the University of California, Berkeley. "What we're all there for-the journalists, the political pundits, the public-is to see somebody crack up in flames." Trivial mistakes get blown out of all proportion. Harking back to some celebrated ones from past debates, Kansas Senator Robert Dole, the admitted loser of a TV match against Walter Mondale in 1976 when they were opposing candidates for Vice...
...pushing through a sweeping 1982 education reform and tax bill that, among other things, makes it mandatory beginning in 1986 for local school districts to offer kindergarten classes. After completing one term as Governor and being barred by law from succeeding himself, Winter was the obvious choice to assert the Democratic Party's claim to pre-eminence in the progressive New South...