Word: defeatism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Campaign managers know that strictly abiding by the rules is an invitation to almost certain defeat. The prevailing ethos is to skirt the limits as aggressively as one dares. In Iowa, political operatives estimate that some campaigns in both parties will spend close to $2 million each, with many of the expenditures dubiously allocated to other states or exempt under federal loopholes. Even if campaign officials get caught, says Jim Lake, press secretary for the 1984 Reagan re-election effort, "at least they won't have to say they lost because they didn't spend enough...
...wake of last week's defeat, contra supporters tried to specify what went wrong. After all, it was only a year and a half ago that Congress approved $100 million in aid to the rebels. Some cited the Iran-contra affair. Others said political expediency had come into play. "This is an election year," said one contra booster, "and the plain fact is that there is not resounding ((public)) support...
Read this way, European history looks subtly different. Supposedly decisive battles such as the destruction of the Spanish armada in 1588 or Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815 seem instead to be foregone conclusions, the visible death throes of nations that had previously mismanaged or squandered their resources. Kennedy does not subscribe to the "Great Man" theory of history. He acknowledges that his account of the Napoleonic wars tends "to downplay the more personal aspects of this story, such as Napoleon's own increasing lethargy and self-delusion." But the author insists that inspiring < leaders or brilliant generals...
...Defeat couldn't have come to a better bunch of bandits. Colgate makes the Los Angeles Raiders--the NFL's bad boys--look like Sunday school children...
...Germany quickly rose to become the most powerful nation in Europe, and rivalled the United States and Russia in economic and military resources. Germany's downfall resulted not from economic decline, but from the foolishness of Wilhelm II's Weltpolitik, and provoking America into entering the war. Despite defeat in World War I, Germany still reigned. Hitler's rise to power in the 30's was followed by an expansionist German foreign policy, but his premature invasion of the Soviet Union and his rash declaration of war against the United States, not economic downturn, destroyed the Third Reich...