Word: reform
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After Wall Street stabilized in the spring, it didn't take long for the economy to become a political afterthought to the major battle of the year in Washington: health-care reform. But Tuesday's off-year election broke D.C.'s political trance like a brick through plate glass. Republicans triumphed in two major gubernatorial races, thanks largely to independents fleeing Democrats over economic worries. Suddenly every politician in town cares about the economy more than anything else. (See TIME's special "Out of Work in America...
...plan is simpler: link the drive for health-care reform, to which the Democrats are now deeply wedded, to the continuing economic troubles. "From the very outset of this debate" over health care, McConnell said Thursday, "the Administration has rested its case for reform on the need to do something about the economy. The economy was in bad shape, the argument went. And reforming health care would make it better ... But somewhere along the way, the Administration got off track...
There are, however, three qualities that could make her a memorable Secretary of State. She brings a vision of departmental reform - the need to elevate foreign aid programs to the same status and rigorous scrutiny as diplomacy - that could change striped pants into chinos in the developing world. She is also the first elected politician to hold the office since Edmund Muskie briefly did during the Carter Administration, which has enabled her to better understand and interact with the politicians who run places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. But most important, she is an international celebrity with a much higher profile...
...doesn't, it seems weak and supplicatory. A call for the Israelis to freeze settlements is effective only if it is accompanied by the credible threat of a reduction in aid. "You can't be seen pushing countries around - demanding [that] Israel freeze settlements, demanding that Hamid Karzai reform his government - and not get results," says Leslie H. Gelb, author of Power Rules. "The leaders of these countries are tough, successful politicians, and they'll begin to take you less seriously." (See pictures of the 1979 revolution in Iran...
...from conservative political circles in the past week, seemed to undercut the President's recent proclamation of the result of nuclear talks with the West as an Iranian "win." And when Ahmadinejad unexpectedly showed up in parliament on Nov. 3 to push for his version of a bill to reform Iran's food and energy subsidies, speaker of the parliament and powerful conservative Ali Larijani gave him icy treatment. Even before the 2009 presidential election, Iran's parliament served as a source of criticism against the perceived managerial incompetence of the President...