Word: grit
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...face of an indifferent electorate. And Simon survived a rocky start-up phase in mid-1987 when his campaign was derided as little more than an ego trip to nowhere. Like Dole, his initial campaign organization was a study in amateurish chaos, but Simon also belatedly displayed the grit necessary to move aside longtime friends in favor of political professionals...
Alas, another irony: while gentrifiers as they first venture into an old neighborhood may be democratically inspired -- The diversity! The grit! -- they attract mobs of merely stylish followers who diminish the diversity and sweep away every last speck of grit. The old-line residents and the anchors of their communities -- the hardware stores, the cobblers, the taverns -- are driven out by suddenly high rents. Gentrification is not fun for everyone. Walter Reinhaus, a white graduate student, is renovating a Charles Addamsesque mansion in the middle of an all-black Chicago neighborhood. "With gentrification," he says, "it's easy...
...other risk is more personal. Gore's thoughtful positions have an intellectual appeal to party moderates, and he has impressed Washington insiders with his articulate understanding of both the issues and the system. But he must still prove that he has the grit and the common touch needed to inspire a wider appeal. He often appears to be compensating for his fresh- faced youthfulness with a formality bordering on stiffness and a cocky & earnestness that sometimes seems like noblesse oblige. In his living room there is a framed cover of Memphis magazine with his photograph and the headline BORN...
...moment, this has led to a contest of backgrounds and biographies. Bush, for example, is fond of claiming, "I've got the most unique resume of any candidate in either party," one of his ways of trying to overcome the wimp issue and show he has grit. In addition, most members of the class of '88 are playing that time-honored game (pioneered by William Henry Harrison in 1840) of searching for the log cabin that can convey their just-folks humble heritage. The self-made rhetoric all blurs together as Dukakis talks of his immigrant parents, Dole recalls...
...this regard, baseball has always been different. Hockey has become almost a parody of what a contact sport should be. Football has always striven for grit; bloody noses are badges of honor. And even basketball, supposedly a non-contact sport, celebrates perspiration, endurance and size...