Word: earnest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that Democrat is John Kerry, how would Republicans come after him? Although he has spent nearly two decades in the Senate, it's his two years as Lieutenant Governor under Michael Dukakis in the 1980s that will form the template for the attack. Sixteen years ago this winter, the earnest Governor of Massachusetts was favored to be elected President. But Bush pere prevailed, of course, by portraying Dukakis as soft on defense, out of touch on values and lenient on crime. Look for a similar though not identical pitch this time. "There's a lot to mine in the Dukakis...
...dogged and earnest as she is when she is campaigning for Kerry on her own, Teresa (pronounced Tuh-ray-za), 65, does not function nearly so well as a prop. Onstage beside her husband during yet another recitation of his stump speech, she stands with her wavy hair falling over her eyes, looking preoccupied or, worse, bored. Only recently did she begin using Kerry's last name, switch her party registration from Republican and quit referring to the late Senator Heinz in the present tense as "my husband." She still has a tendency to volunteer what another political spouse might...
...Such earnest talk is the luxury of being in the lead--Kerry watched his support surge in two days. For the rest of the field, the test now is to define electability to their advantage. They are trying to convince voters that whatever quality distinguishes them best equips them to take the fight to Bush. Iowa set the table and offered each some hope. Dean, the fighter, won among the voters who were looking for someone to take strong stands on the issues. Kerry, the statesman, won the people who cared most about beating Bush. John Edwards, the Everyman, prevailed...
...larger political and ideological warfare that has gripped Washington and kept good ideas from becoming law. Perhaps naively or arrogantly, or both, he even believes it may help change the climate. Ask him what he hopes the book will accomplish, and he will talk about Social Security reform in earnest tones: tough choices won't be made in Washington so long as it shuns honest dialogue, bipartisanship and intellectual thoroughness. O'Neill may not have been cut out for this town, but give him this: he does exhibit the sobriety and devotion to ideas that are supposed...
DIED. PAUL SIMON, 75, deeply earnest former Democratic Senator from Illinois and one-time presidential candidate; of complications from heart surgery; in Springfield, Ill. With a uniform of horn-rimmed glasses and bow tie, and no college degree, he was an unlikely politician. But after making a name for himself as the corruption-busting editor-publisher of a weekly newspaper, he was elected to the Illinois state legislature in 1954 and went on to serve five terms in the House of Representatives and two in the U.S. Senate. He made an ill-fated run for the presidency in 1988, dropping...