Word: moment
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Although looking for universal qualities of greatness is a historians' parlor game, different historical moments require different qualities. Does either of this year's candidates have the seeds of greatness? I think both do. But unfortunately, our current political system seems designed to weed out precisely the qualities that are most needed at the moment...
...Danner, executive vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business, says most of his 350,000 members are "some combination of nervous, scared, in the trenches. At the moment, credit is not a problem only because they're in survivor mode, waiting to see if they're going to have customers tomorrow." David Guernsey, who owns an office-products firm in Chantilly, Va., knows the feeling. While less expensive items are selling, purchases of office furniture that are normally bank-financed are lagging. Customers are telling his sales staff, "We just need to circle the wagons and wait this...
...campaigns. George W. Bush is a good example. [He appeared] to be just very flat during the campaign. It was hard to tell what he thought ideologically. And how he behaved in office, of course, was different in those terms ... I was just trying to think of examples of moments that have become kind of our iconic moments of ideal presidential temperament. The Cuban missile crisis seems to be one. [Franklin] Roosevelt's first 100 days, I would argue, particularly because so many people are making comparisons with the present day, is another one that I think [is] often held...
...that he can call upon down the road when things inevitably become more difficult. Maybe think of F.D.R. in March of 1933--I would argue that there really was never a majority of Americans who bought into the right-wing notion of Stalin Delano Roosevelt, because at a critical moment, F.D.R. established a kind of credibility ... God knows he was controversial. God knows he was polarizing. God knows he made mistakes. But that credit and credibility stayed with...
...Barack Obama had met on the campaign trail. The job, in this case, was finding health insurance. And in years past, McCain would have had the better of this argument - it is the classic division between liberals and conservatives. But 2008 has proved to be a new and frightening moment for the American electorate, and having the government help in finding, and funding, health care doesn't sound like such a bad idea anymore. McCain had a feisty debate, with some high points and a bit too much anger to make Americans feel very comfortable in his presence...