Word: populist
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Four years ago, Bush campaigned with a populist message—just as selectively applied then as it is now—to govern in a way that respected the rights of the people to make their own choices. He smirked and did that eyebrow thing and said famously (not to mention falsely), “My opponent trusts the government; I trust the people...
Making matters worse was the absence of Sistani, who left his home in Najaf two weeks ago for medical treatment in London. Al-Sadr supporters say the U.S. was exploiting his absence to crack down on the populist cleric. But Sistani's associates say al-Sadr was the one taking advantage of the ayatullah's departure to intensify his campaign against the U.S. Just before undergoing angioplasty, the Grand Ayatullah issued a strong statement calling on all parties to stop the fighting...
...anything, Sadr's decision to confront Allawi and the Americans from inside the holy city reflects a canny, and often underestimated political instinct on the part of the populist cleric. Ever since Baghdad fell to U.S. forces in April 2003, Sadr has parlayed his strong following among the Shiite urban poor and the growing resentment toward the U.S. to his own advantage. And his previous showdown with the U.S. - last April, when they tried to arrest him in connection with a warrant issued by an Iraqi judge - had showed that tangling with the Americans actually boosted, rather than undermined...
When John Kerry reported for podium duty last Thursday night at the Democratic Convention, he faced a deceptively simple rhetorical decision: One America or two? This has been an essential Democratic fault line for more than a century. The populist temptation--to frame a campaign as a contest between the "people" and the "powerful"--has never had much success because it is rooted in resentment, even when it is camouflaged with a smile, as it was by John Edwards last Wednesday night and, less felicitously, by Al Gore in the 2000 campaign. The idea of an expansive, inclusive United States...
...there will ever forget how Kennedy brought down the house at the Democratic Convention that year with the Shrum-crafted line that "the dream shall never die." It's that kind of magic candidates are looking for when they hire Shrum, but he is also known for bringing a populist edge and internal foment, and the extent of his influence over Kerry today is the subject of much intrigue in Washington political circles. Shrum's political-consulting partner Tad Devine has become the face of the campaign on the cable shout shows. But Kerry campaign insiders...