But it's entries like these that make me think Brinkley's favorable interpretations of Reagan and the diaries go a bit too far.
Spinicism Bill Safire, the regular proprietor of this space, once generously identified me as the coiner of the term "spin doctors," referring to faceless campaign aides who work ceaselessly to impart favorable interpretations to their candidates' harried pronouncements.
A few other authors have also begun offering somewhat favorable interpretations of Cixi, notably Sterling Seagrave in his 1992 book, "Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China".
Mr. Schell and Mr. Delury co-wrote a recent book, "Wealth and Power," which included a chapter on the empress dowager with a guardedly favorable interpretation of her rule.
And even under the most favorable interpretation, the results of the bank stress tests run by the Federal Reserve found that some banks are still struggling.
Even with a favorable interpretation of the crime, however, proving a conspiracy is difficult when the government does not have a cooperating witness to testify about the nature of the agreement and the involvement of others in the criminal enterprise.
The favorable interpretation, as I said, is that it's just packaging for an economic strategy centered on public investment, investment that's actually about creating jobs now while promoting longer-term growth.
Anil K. Kashyap, an economist in the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, gave a more favorable interpretation, predicting that the Fed would be praised for lowering interest rates, making emergency loans and ultimately pumping trillions of dollars into the economy.
The Washington Post, which serves as a hometown newspaper for many of Mr. Moran's constituents and which first reported the loan last month, said in an editorial that it could see "no favorable interpretation of Mr. Moran's behavior" and that his acceptance of the loan "suggests impropriety".
This has been Mr. Madjid's theme since he first appeared on the national stage, shocking his fellow Muslims with a speech that gave a favorable interpretation of "secularization" at the moment that the new military dictator, General Suharto, was consolidating power.
Re "Gatlin Looking to Outrun Competition and Suspicions," May 1: Jer?ongman stated that Justin Gatlin wasn't really welcomed by the Penn Relays crowd and that Gatlin's favorable interpretation of his reception was "perhaps sensing more of an embrace than actually occurred or perhaps just relieved not to hear any boos".
