Word: undercutting
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...even that slight ambiguity - and all his cross-aisle flirtation - has proved more than enough to position Lieberman as the Senate's one-man tipping point. If he were to jump ship, the ensuing shift of power to Republicans would scramble the politics of the war in Iraq, undercut the Democrats' national agenda and potentially weaken their hopes for the White House in 2008. Those stakes are high enough to give Lieberman leverage with both parties no matter how slim the chance of his crossing the aisle. Which means Senate leaders aren't worrying only about whether Joe Lieberman will...
...complicated by the Palestinians' new "national unity" government, which will be dominated by the militant organization Hamas. Earlier, Rice had exhibited discretion, saying she would withhold judgment on the controversial Palestinian government until it is formed in five weeks. But her caution, and any leeway for bargaining, was undercut by news from Washington. Soon after her arrival in Jerusalem on Saturday, the Israeli press reported that President George W. Bush already had assured Olmert that the U.S. will never deal with the new government until Hamas softens its stance by recognizing the Jewish state's right to exist and renouncing...
...analyzing how people perceive one another and their world. Trachtenberg is at his best when drawing the reader’s attention to the significance of some otherwise-overlooked fact. Trachtenberg first presents Henry James’ more conventional analysis of Whitman’s poetry, only to undercut it by showing Whitman’s grittier side. For Trachtenberg, the poet is not merely a man of nature, but also a man of the urban environment who wrote about dead prostitutes in the street. Trachtenberg’s Whitman is a complex figure, less important as a poet than...
Accordingly, the strength of Obama’s unifying political messages will undercut the importance of race as a defining factor in the success or failure of his presidential campaign. Far more important than his race will be his ability to excite his liberal base in the primaries. Given Obama’s eloquence and charismatic appeal, he ought to enhance his chances of winning the election by being politically courageous. If he were to take strong but carefully measured positions on key issues, he would not only be able to address the concerns of liberal Democrats, but also draw...
...N.P.A. boasted 12,000 armed regulars in the mid-1980s, when many saw it as the only force capable of challenging dictator Ferdinand Marcos. But its Maoist leaders were snubbed even by Mao Zedong himself: in 1974, to undercut support for the N.P.A., Marcos dispatched his wife Imelda to Beijing, where she supposedly swept Mao off his feet. ("I like Mrs. Marcos because she is so natural, and that is perfection," he gushed.) After People Power ousted Marcos in 1986, the N.P.A.'s declining popularity was devastated by internal purges in which hundreds of people were tortured and executed...