Or is the point rather that he is talented, but not in a way that guarantees triumph?
Among the painful issues my friend is working hard to ignore is that Uribe's all but guaranteed triumph will hardly be a victory for democracy, no matter how wide his margin of victory or how secret the ballot.
Today the illusion of Jay Gatsby would not have shattered like glass against Tom Buchanan's "hard malice": Gatsby's money would have insulated him and guaranteed triumph – an outcome that Fitzgerald would have deplored more than anyone).
Although past success does not guarantee future triumph, the American system, with its relative freedom, is uniquely capable of recovering and adapting.
"Now, with electoral ends to win votes and guarantee the triumph of Dr. Serpa," President Samper "offers to evacuate," said a communique from the rebels, which also criticized Mr. Serpa's record as a peacemaker over the last 12 years.
Liberty, which is a big idea, protects itself by protecting the expression (though not, of course, guaranteeing the triumph) of other, smaller ideas, good and bad.
His failing so far has been playing it safe; after health care reform he seems to have focused on making no mistakes that might cause his defeat, instead of generating triumphs that would guarantee his victory".
Open theists like William Hasker and John Sanders can speak of God as "a risk-taker," but they insist that God can still perform miracles and guarantee the ultimate triumph of good over evil (Pinnock, et al., 1994, 151; Sanders 1998).
Moore's law all but guarantees the eventual triumph of smaller boxes.
When the Rangers won the Cup in 1994, Messier rallied them with a hat trick in Game 6 of the conference finals, a victory over the Devils that he had guaranteed -- hockey's version of Joe Namath's guarantee of the Jets' triumph in Super Bowl III.
