The phrase "a powerful moderate" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe someone who holds moderate views but has significant influence or impact in a particular context, such as politics or social issues.
Example: "The senator is known as a powerful moderate, often bridging the gap between opposing parties to foster collaboration."
Alternatives: "influential centrist" or "strong moderate leader".
The university is largely run by the family of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful moderate and leading opponent of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
That said, the government did recently strike a political agreement with a powerful moderate Islamist militia, which may join the offensive from the inland regions of the country.
In 2012, for instance, it came out against Richard Lugar, a powerful moderate Republican whose voting record on guns during his run as Indiana's longest-serving senator earned him an F-rating from the NRA.
But the idea that there is a powerful moderate / non-wacko bird conservative Republican Establishment that can push him to the side sooner or later is based on false assumptions.
QUESTION FROM HELENR: Are there any powerful moderates left in the GOP? JEFFREY FRANK: I think the key word here is "powerful," and I'd say no — the five remaining Presidential candidates sort of make that case.
After getting his law degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, the 'Harvard of the south,' he became an assistant federal prosecutor in his state and met up with Howard Baker, then a powerful and moderate Republican senator from Tennessee (he was later George Bush Sr's White House chief of staff).
These are easy criticisms to make, but they reduce the Democratic Party to a caricature that ignores the party's still powerful moderate wing.
The once powerful moderate faction in the G.O.P. has dwindled, but still, there are four Northeastern senators -- Chafee, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both from Maine -- who meet weekly to discuss issues and strategy over lunch or breakfast.
The leader of the Republican trio, Ms. Collins, has emerged as the most powerful moderate in the Senate, and like her fellow Mainer and now-retired Senator Olympia J. Snowe, often shows her own flair for the dramatic — the only Republican vote on several high-profile Democratic bills and the must-have Republican.
The deaths of Gokhale and of the Bombay political leader Sir Pherozeshah Mehta in 1915 removed the most powerful moderate leadership from the Congress Party and cleared the way for Tilak's return to power in that organization after its reunification in 1916 at Lucknow.
In the Republican primaries, Mr. McCain proved to be a powerful lure for moderate Republicans, independents and moderate Democrats, a centrist band of voters prevalent on the West Coast.
