Word: cuttingly
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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Time was, selling a tax cut to Americans was about as hard as selling lotto tickets on the day of a $50 million jackpot. Everybody wanted one, no matter how loudly the experts warned against it. Just the phrase "tax cut" had a pleasant, numbing effect on otherwise disgruntled voters...
Which may help explain why George W. Bush looked a bit mystified last week as he struggled to interest voters in one of the biggest tax-cut proposals in recent history. Taunted by Al Gore's accusations that his plan favors the rich and endangers America's prosperity, Bush and his aides abandoned their Theme of the Week--education--and spent their time rebutting Gore and explaining (and then explaining again) Bush's plan. This marked the campaign's first serious message derailment since last February, when Bush visited Bob Jones University while slugging it out with John McCain...
...should have been a classic punch line: "(Gore:) 'I took the initiative in creating the Internet.' Yeah, and I invented the remote control, too." It's a beauty - right up until that final and redundant "too," which utterly screws up the rhythm of the joke and would have been cut by anyone with an ear for idiomatic English...
Then it was off to a visit to a legal-aid center, a quick walkabout among the people, then back on Air Force One for a scheduled 1 a.m. arrival in Washington. Next up, vetoing a Republican tax cut, spending Labor Day weekend in upstate New York, new home to a certain Senatorial candidate, then another set of meetings with more foreign leaders next week...
...Bush gets viciously personal, Gore will be able to mount a devastating counterattack. Edit in your mind a quick-cut television ad showing George W. Bush groping for the names of heads of state, garbling sentences, saying "hostile" when he means "hostage" - a procession of he's-not-ready moments that would reinforce the most damaging rap against Bush (he's not smart enough) and emphasize Al Gore's strength...