The lack of any comment on the hydrogen bomb from Downing Street, presumably the result of election preoccupation elsewhere, was strongly criticized as showing "caution to the point o feebleness," by the Manchester Guardian, which went to say, "It is no part of either political or moral leadership to sit back, shrug the shoulders, and imply that all would be well if the Russians were Englishmen".
Mr Anderson says he can find no evidence of political meddling in the way the crisis was handled, beyond the usual pre-election preoccupations of politicians.
The 1994 and 1996 elections were his great preoccupations as chairman, and he took them on with a military aggressiveness.
Such a process is surprisingly close at hand, if America can rouse itself even briefly from its election-year and Middle East preoccupations.
As Mr Campbell said in a waspish Blair profile for the US magazine, Vanity Fair, this week: "There's two people, me and him, who wake up every day thinking 'Right, how can we lose [the election]'?" But that laudable preoccupation has produced what Labour policy wonks would call perverse results.
And nearly everyone expects widespread violence among supporters of rival candidates — a hallmark of past Egyptian elections and a preoccupation of pre-election commentary this time.
The election centered on the fundamental preoccupation in Montenegrin society, whether to stay, or split from Serbia.
The preoccupation with the election battle has utterly smothered what talk show producers had expected to be the next logical step in their Clinton fixation: the ascent of Hillary Rodham Clinton to the role of senator.
Places like Monessen, Pa., and Hickory, N.C., have come to be seen as central to his rise — and that of Bernie Sanders, before he bowed out — as well as symbols of a national preoccupation during this election season: the downsides of globalization.
From the Palestinian intifada to America's preoccupation with its presidential election to the rise in oil prices, events have conspired to open a window of opportunity.
His budget proposal is more modest, a reflection of the political stakes in an election year and the Legislature's preoccupation with Congressional redistricting.
