Word: wonking
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...radiates - at least, what it sure sounds like - is an essential decency. Obviously there's an ego in there, but she seems genuinely modest (a rare attribute for a TV or radio host) and self-deprecating in a wry but not flagellating way. A self-proclaimed "civics geek," "policy wonk" and "prude," she will often dare to be square. On Wednesday's radio show Maddow acknowledged that whenever she hears The Star-Spangled Banner, "I immediately start to weep." Then she cut to a live feed of the convention's nominating roll call, and as New York State delegate Hillary...
...troops to Beirut to aid Syrian Christians against the Druze; they helped the Bulgarians against the Ottomans (again)--and on and on. In Freedom's Battle, Bass tells the strange, bloody tales of these now nearly forgotten campaigns with extraordinary verve and wit, especially for a Princeton political-science wonk. But the book's real payoff is what it brings to our understanding of contemporary conflicts that have been justified on humanitarian grounds, from Somalia to Kosovo to Iraq: context. "All of the major themes of today's heated debates about humanitarian intervention ... were voiced loud and clear throughout...
...More surprising to those who didn't know him in person is his successful recasting as a wonk. Smart, candid and capable of an objectivity that seems downright fair-minded, Rove has won over even some who were more comfortable viewing him as a dark strategic overlord. Reviewers at the New York Times and Slate have called him "mild-mannered," "dispassionate," "generous" and even "graceful." "He makes his case well and comes across as thoughtful and fair," says Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten. "I'm surprised that people are surprised at that...
...Jason Rae, 21, of Rice Lake, Wis.--the party's youngest superdelegate, a co-chairman of the DNC Youth Council and a political-science student at Marquette University--says he has promised to call friends from the floor to "keep them in the process." It's the young wonk's version of holding up a cell phone at a rock concert so a far-away fan can listen...
...sales pitch - to thousands of pastors, dozens of heads of state, financiers at the Davos World Economic Forum and editorial boards - that suggests where its limits might be. He refers repeatedly to the "1 billion" Christians he thinks the plan can mobilize. His sell combines the aid wonk's jargon of "self-sufficiency, scalability and reproducibility," the dotcommer's dream of exponential growth and something older. Says one pastor participant: "This is like the fishes-and-loaves story. People think that that kind of miracle is happening...