Word: statesmanly
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...world has to a secular saint, but he would be the first to admit that he is something far more pedestrian: a politician. He overthrew apartheid and created a nonracial democratic South Africa by knowing precisely when and how to transition between his roles as warrior, martyr, diplomat and statesman. Uncomfortable with abstract philosophical concepts, he would often say to me that an issue "was not a question of principle; it was a question of tactics." He is a master tactician...
...sometimes vicious spirit. This year, when the party is in an even worse way, the heir-apparent will probably be expected to pitch in just as actively. If Nixon does engage in a vigorous and partisan campaign, however, he risks demolishing the glittering image of a mature and moderate statesman which he has built up over the past four years. He has gone a long way towards living down an unfavorable national reputation, but democratic cartoonists love to portray Nixon throwing mud-pies, and any indication of “low-road” politicking on his part will send...
Colton's account sticks closely to the biographical mode and largely avoids big, historical controversies. Sometimes, perhaps, he underplays the man's animal exuberance. Yeltsin, after all, played the spoons on the heads of his ministers - hardly the behavior of an average statesman. But Colton's research is thorough and his chronicle lively and measured. It's fitting, too, that Yeltsin has sprung his last surprise by finding a biographer to rank him, justifiably, among the politicians with the greatest impact on the 20th century...
...Catherine Mayer's reference to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations could usefully include Smith's cynical view of politicians: "that insidious and crafty animal vulgarly called a statesman or politician." Gordon Brown's many soubriquets - Iron Chancellor, Clunking Fist, Prudence Brown, Ditherer and Mr. Bean - suggest why an authoritarian Chancellor makes a poor Prime Minister. Brown's obsession with minutiae is best demonstrated by his Byzantine tax-credit system, which requires taxpayers to complete vexing forms to reclaim the tax that was due to them in the first place. What is frustrating is that he constantly reminds British...
...getting lucky (with the Palm Beach "butterfly" ballot that led seniors to accidentally pick Pat Buchanan over Gore), then aggressively going after the jump ball in the media, the courts and the streets. In Recount, the enemy is often Democrats. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher (John Hurt), elder statesman of Gore's recount effort, is portrayed as a wet noodle, fretting about honorable compromise while Baker goes to the mattresses. Gore's running mate, Joe Lieberman, hands the Bush team a gift by declaring that challenged military ballots should be counted. With friends like these, who needs Karl Rove...