Word: got
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Last week, by a surprisingly lopsided bipartisan vote of 28-6, the House Judiciary Committee approved a constitutional amendment to scrap the Electoral College. Citizens would vote directly for President, as they do for all other elected officials. If no candidate got at least 40% of the vote, a run-off between the top two aspirants would follow. Such a system would not have changed the outcome last year, but it would have eliminated the twin risks inherent in the present constitutional practice: that a candidate running second in the popular vote would get a majority of electoral votes...
...Gaulle was strongly emotional, but the French are, au fond, a pre-eminently reasonable rather than sentimental people. So long as there seemed a plausible correlation between De Gaulle's aims and France's means, the fervor for the Cross of Lorraine held firm. But the moment De Gaulle got beyond what French common sense thought to be feasible, he began to gradually lose his constituency until finally it was gone...
...facility at digesting official dossiers became legendary and led to his own decision-making shorthand style. "Vu" meant seen but waiting for better arguments. "Soit" meant so be it, but not the best solution. "Oui" meant O.K., but he still had reservations. Only the best dossiers got a "D'accord," meaning that the matter was settled. Pompidou began to enjoy politics with a gusto, and it showed even in his complaints. "I am bombarded with daily problems," he said one day. "I handle dossiers of a burning actuality. Everything is urgent at Matignon [the Premier's office]. But when...
Pompidou did win, in a brilliantly organized campaign. He, of course, got the credit and De Gaulle answered his own question nine days later in what seemed to be one of the most astonishing displays of ingratitude of his career: he dismissed his longtime friend as Premier. True to form, Pompidou seemed less disturbed by the news than anyone else; he simply removed his favorite modern oil paintings from Matignon, set up an office on the Left Bank and waited for life to come to him. Or seemed to wait. Actually, he made a point of keeping in close touch...
...Because one man resigns," Poher insisted in town after town, "France will not be consumed by chaos." He has been suggested as a centrist candidate for President because of his performance. He maintains that "I am not ambitious" and says that he would agree to run only if he got the kind of draft that is now unlikely in view of factional bickering in the centrist parties where his strength would lie. Unless he changes his mind, Poher will thus surrender his Elysian prerogatives after 35 days, taking away a memory of temporary power well-employed and a sense...