Even if that means admitting "yes", you might at least get some sympathy.Mr Gandhi did come across as serious, with dull and earnest plans for reforming his party.
What they've stolen from us and arbitraged away isn't just our own money; it's the vast accumulation of civilizational wealth that was bought with the blood, sweat, tears, endless sacrifice, earnest planning, and bold dreaming of a dozen generations of American ancestors, and then bequeathed to us to ensure our own futures.
Even some Yale-NUS faculty have seemed adorably earnest in planning what their Curriculum Report calls "a collegiate city in words".
After returning to New Jersey, he began his political career in earnest, with a plan to run for the Board of Freeholders in Union County in 1979.
Members of both parties say the issue has also become more visible and more bipartisan as the 76-million-strong baby boom generation ages and begins thinking in earnest about estate planning.
When a clear idea of the conspiracy emerged, more earnest and elaborate plans were made to obtain arms and to enlist international support.
President Barack Obama spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi via telephone on Friday morning about the new US plans, Earnest said. .
And no chief executive of this great nation has, in earnest, developed a unique plan to remedy that discomfort.
Queen of the South's manager, Gordon Chisholm, faces an unlikely dilemma before he can plan in earnest for the Scottish Cup final.
Most Syrians probably have more immediate concerns, and little opportunity for earnest conversation, but the plan will at least provide a starting point for the long, complicated process of building a new Syria once the killing stops.
