Word: wonk
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Indiana Governor: The Future of the Party Mitch Daniels was a somewhat tragic figure as President Bush's budget director, a policy-wonk, small-government conservative who found himself carrying water for a politics-driven, big-government budget buster. His aides almost had to strap him down to get him to sign a White House-directed letter supporting the corporate-welfare farm bill of 2002. But as Indiana's governor, he's gotten to do things his own way, privatizing roads, expanding health coverage, even supporting tax increases to get his state's fiscal house in order. His tough-love...
Last week, Tercentenary Theatre was decked out in Commencement fare, festooned with large banners proclaiming that “Green is the New Crimson” in an effort to welcome home eco-wonk-cum-movie-star Al Gore ’69, shown above in classic Uncle Sam pose.But lost amidst the glitz of Harvard’s sustainability efforts was a more meaningful step forward that took place a few hours after Gore’s speech and a few hundred yards to the south: the unveiling of Harvard’s revised master plan for Allston. While...
...have always loved School House Rock, and since I was a bit of a wonk even in my youth, the “I’m Just a Bill” song describing a bill’s journey from draft to federal law has always been my favorite. Harvard has a very different process for passing a bill, and by a bill I mean a change in policy. Unfortunately the administration has not yet come up with a helpful song to explain it, but this somewhat convoluted process can facilitate important discussion as long as everyone involved with...
...likely see such huge numbers leading the networks' evening newscasts because deficit talk is akin to Washington wonk speak. But Dave Walker, former Comptroller General of the U.S. and now President of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, is out to change that and bring the big picture of deficit woe to America's attention...
...Obama seems a more certain policymaker now, if not exactly a wonk in the Clintonian sense. He has a clearer handle on the big picture, on how various policy components fit together, and a strong sense of what his top priority would be. He wants to launch an "Apollo project" to build a new alternative-energy economy. His rationale for doing so includes some hard truths about the current economic mess: "The engine of economic growth for the past 20 years is not going to be there for the next 20. That was consumer spending. Basically, we turbocharged this economy...