Word: soften
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...imminent coups and assassinations, she visited Davao City on the strife- torn island of Mindanao. By week's end the police were tearing down strike barricades. The moves are proving to be popular, so much so that even Aquino's disaffected Vice President, Salvador Laurel, has begun to soften his criticism of her leadership. Earlier, Laurel admitted there was a tactical alliance between some of his supporters and those of Aquino's archrival, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. After the President's speech, Laurel said his differences with her had "started to narrow." Enrile, however, dismissed her pronouncements as "beautiful platitudes...
...jovial man whose company is enjoyed even by ideological foes, Bork amiably uses smiles and quips to soften his forcefully expressed views. After a Justice Department official commented that a certain decision would be made "over my dead body," Bork noted, "To some of us, that sounded like the scenic route." His disarming humor is likely to help him seem personally sympathetic and even comfortably moderate during the televised hearings. But the prolonged wait has taken its toll, and his irritation with the drum roll of criticism sometimes prompts him to grind his teeth nervously and show flashes of anger...
...attention with calls for affirmative action at the highest levels of the Labor Party. Journalist Wadsworth, for example, is chairman of the four-year-old Black Sections National Committee, which demands that nonwhites be named to all of Labor's decision-making groups. Party Leader Neil Kinnock, eager to soften Labor's radical image, is in no mood to bow to such demands. Nonetheless, Black Sections leaders have turned up the heat. At their fourth annual conference last March in Nottingham -- from which white journalists were banned -- delegates called for the repeal of Britain's immigration controls. They also drafted...
...free, nearly two months after Sakharov's release, a story from Moscow Correspondent Philip Taubman made the front page of the New York Times: SOVIET TURNS A BIG CORNER -- RELEASE OF DISSIDENTS MORE THAN A GESTURE. Taubman found in Sakharov's release not only Gorbachev's desire to soften international opinion but also his need to win over the Soviet intellectuals, a view increasingly held by Kremlinologists. Now that the hitherto heavy-handed Soviets have become slicker at manipulating opinion, it takes a little time to recognize that a package so wrapped in public relations may still have a kernel...
...Last week, prompted by a reporter's acknowledgment that the innuendos of infidelity were being subtly spread by aides of rival candidates, Hart suggested, "Sooner or later, someone has to write the story about how this is coming out of other campaigns." Hours later he tried to soften the point, saying he did not believe rival camps were spreading rumors. Nevertheless, the initial remark illustrated the dangers of a presidential candidate's uttering the truth. Instead of stifling the rumors, Hart's words prompted another day's worth of stories about them and about his critical response...