Word: backgrounder
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...casualties. "This has been rougher than any transition period before because Jim [Marvin] is the first conductor hired from outside Harvard," Conant said. "To look at it objectively, Jim is an unwanted guest. If the students had had their choice, they would have kept John Adams. With that background, Jim certainly didn't have a red carpet that was just lush with welcome. It's shame, because he has had a wealth of musical experience...
...sure, Carter and his people do not talk that way in their major messages delivered around the world. But even while declaring that the U.S. intends to remain on top, the uncertain U.S. response to events and the constant babble of background doubts have created the aura that we just may be tired of trying...
There was one glaring omission in Brown's blasts at the Carter Administration: never a word on either the broad trends or specifics of foreign policy. "There is time enough for that," Brown said. The fact is that Brown's background in foreign affairs is just about as bare now as Carter's was before he became President. Brown hopes to start catching up, with crash tours of China, the Soviet Union, Israel and Western Europe...
...leadership in the region-to create "options of power," in American University President Joseph Sisco's phrase-but there was disagreement about which options should be developed and how they might be used. The U.S. can no longer send in the Marines with impunity. Always in the background was the hard reality that the U.S. has long since lost its power to do almost anything it wanted around the world, the kind of overwhelming role it enjoyed in the aftermath of World War II. As the panel's discussion lengthened, this vexing problem kept coming back...
...card-carrying intellectual, goes directly for the exposed nerve. Invite a Jew to the White House (and You Make Him Your Slave) is the title of an article Gold planned to write before receiving his own invitation to Washington. Once there, he is constantly reminded of his background. Take this exchange with a Connally-type Texan: " 'Now, Gold. Everybody here is a somebody, and I don't know why you're being so captious about who it is you are. He is the Spade, she is the Widow, I am the Governor...