It is that he appears unable to couch, or even consider, his earnestly held beliefs in such a way as to build a consensus of support for them.
As Mr. Christie said on Tuesday, "When you have serious people from across the spectrum, not to mention from all across the country, passionately calling on you to do something as consequential as running for president of the United States, I felt an obligation to earnestly consider their advice".
The constructive criticizer will often couch his critiques with useful advice -- advice which he hopes you consider, because he earnestly desires to see you become the best version of yourself.
Taking Paul's ideas on monetary policy seriously is as difficult as earnestly considering the stilted arguments against global warming and evolution.
Which only makes one wonder what the commission members were thinking last night in Brooklyn as they earnestly considered the merits of nonpartisan elections.
The National Institutes of Health has given grants to ethicists earnestly considering the matter, and certain scientists maintain that there are those among us who will live indefinitely.
For the next eight years, I spent each month thinking that it would be my last in the United States; at one point, I earnestly considered packing up with my family and moving back to Ghana.
It will be hard for any school to alter its cost structure without making substantial changes to its faculty and pay, though some schools are earnestly considering two-year J.D. programs and beginning to experiment with more virtual learning in selected courses.
But now we see that "funny" can also mean: What I take to be serious, what I am not laughing about, what I am earnestly considering, or crying over, or bewailing even.
However, to take this whole event as a joke would be reductive considering Fielder speaks earnestly about the cause, and all these sizable donations are being made at a time when neo-Nazism and the alt-right are coming out of the woodwork.
