The people running the country — the ones with the real clout, whether Democrats or Republicans — are all part of this power elite.
The term has assumed such political and financial clout, whether you're working in family planning or disaster management, it seems as if every funding proposal, every programme, every result has to be seen to be contributing to resilience.
People with financial clout, people who, whether you agree with them or not, have vision.
Stoltz said the companies might not compete directly, but that their combined marketing and purchasing power would give them unprecedented clout over programming whether it was delivered to TVs or to the internet.
Chan may have the political clout to decide whether Goode — the president and chairman of Dogpile Recordings, and the fifth richest black man in America — gets the go-ahead to build his mall, which supporters argue will bring a lot of jobs to the 'hood, and which threatens to ignite already simmering racial tensions in the Berkeley-Oakland borderlands.
"The biggest issue in this race is whether or not our small state is going to continue to have a person of significant clout in Washington or whether we are to trade that person in for a rookie," said Mr. McConnell, slightly dressed down for the festival in a barn jacket with a leather collar and "Mitch" stitched on its front.
But whether the clout of little firms is growing is an important question for buyers and sellers, as they decide between a highly visible name with vast listings and resources, and a smaller firm that promises to shower the client with individual attention, in many cases focusing on a particular segment of the market, like new downtown condos, prewar Classic 6's or East Side brownstones.
If the North East and Cumbria do find a strategy to improve their political and economic clout, the question is whether they focus on getting more powers and investment from Westminster, or, like their borderer ancestors, they gravitate towards a potentially empowered northern neighbour.
"This will be the test of whether Italian-American clout is equal to that," Ms. Alaya said.
She's been testing out her clout in the primaries, and whether her clout wins some races or loses some races, the big honking important thing (to her, at any rate) is that everybody in the media is raptly paying attention.
Nor is it clear whether he has the clout to keep the party job.
