"This to defuse his critics who say, based on his campaign, that he is a warrior, not a peacemaker," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy research group.
Trying to defuse likely critics might have helped, but as with the Sydenham debacle, the standing of the mayor in minority communities is so shaky that he cannot champion his own cause.
In many ways, the decision by John S. Reed, the interim chairman, to hire John A. Thain, the president of Goldman Sachs, to be chief executive at the exchange, was an attempt to defuse the New York Stock Exchange's critics in this regard.
WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday sought to defuse attempts by President Obama's critics to turn this week's overnight seizure of two American patrol boats and their crews into a symbol of what they say are the administration's foreign policy failures and feckless relations with Iran.
Carney pushed back against critics who have suggested that U.S. diplomats, seeking to defuse the situation with Beijing, had pressured Chen into his original decision to stay in China.
But he did that by defusing Raonic's serve, the weapon a lot of good critics had understandably predicted would cause Murray the most problems.
WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Jack Lew, President Barack Obama's pick to be U.S. treasury secretary, on Wednesday defused heated questions from lawmakers about his work at Citigroup and managed to find common ground with critics over the need for tax reform.
But by appeasing critics now they are inviting pressure to make more concessions.To reveal, but not to regulateStandard-setters should defuse the argument by making clear that their job is not to regulate banks but to force them to reveal information.
He won over scientific critics with a technically sound program and a separate budget, sold Congress on the medical benefits, and defused potential criticism by earmarking a percentage of the project's funds for ethical studies.
His critics have dubbed him a "neoconservative with a French passport".The rise of Mr Sarkozy coincides with a growing determination in America to defuse global anti-Americanism.
