Word: clouts
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...underknown talents with ordinary looks who were given lead roles in movies and instantly proved their pull as comedy stars; they could make the audience fall in laugh with them. Just now, they are two of a dozen or so movie comics who are giving the genre a clout it hasn't seen for decades--maybe since the great silent era of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn and their jolly colleagues aren't of Chaplin's artistic stature, but they are something the industry loves (moneymakers) and the public needs...
...About Mary and Night at the Museum, when he's not taking roles as the pompous, uptight bad guy (in, say, Dodgeball) or the preening oaf, as in the well-nigh-immortal Zoolander. The moneymen love Stiller too, because he's the rare comic star with international box-office clout...
...historical artifact. The next President will spend countless hours managing China's rising influence in Asia, which threatens to marginalize the U.S. and our close ally, Japan. And he or she will have real problems with Russia, which although domestically weak throws its weight around overseas, jockeying for clout in the former Soviet Union and using its gas exports to bully Western Europe. Dealing with Moscow and Beijing will require strategic judgment, not humanitarian action. And if Democratic candidates avoid it, they risk confirming the stereotype that Democrats see foreign policy as social work and flinch at hard-nosed calculations...
...political repression and greater authoritarianism inside Russia and fueled chauvinism among Russia's people. Putin exploited his success in stabilizing the chaotic post-Soviet society by restoring central control over political life. The war in Chechnya became his personal crusade, a testimonial to the restoration of Kremlin clout...
...some ways is reminiscent of Nigeria, as corruption and money laundering fritter away a great deal of the country's wealth. To an extent, Russia can use its vast profits to get its way. But buying influence, even in Washington (where money goes a long way), cannot match the clout the Soviet Union once enjoyed as the beacon of an ideology with broad international appeal...