Mr. Maldonado's power was achieved through a potent combination of ambition, charm and his unusual role as a centrist in a body largely made up of highly partisan lawmakers operating out of gerrymandered districts.
But behind the pretty-boy looks was a dramatically potent combination of naked ambition and deep vulnerability, both likely products of his Dickensian childhood in the Bronx.
Tall and beetle-browed, he stammered and suffered both from clawing insecurity and secret ambition — always a potent combination.
It is seen as a potent symbol of China's ambition to modernise its navy, amid a strategic shift in the region.
Released last year on Tzadik, John Zorn's label, it's an album of coolly restrained ambition, easily the most potent in Mr. Klein's young discography.
But Yu brings to his potent mix of market-tested subjects the ambition, energy and flair of a born provocateur.
Indignation mixed with ambition, pride and genius is a potent blend, particularly if combined, as they were in Washington, with realism, practicality and moral vision.
This combination of talent, voice, looks and ambition struck Pomus and Shuman as something potent, and his stardom as surely inevitable.
But the mere fact that I'm considering Girls among these worthies, based on only three episodes I've seen so far, means this is a series with the ambition and talent to grow ever more potent and varied.
That's what makes their rage so potent, and so easily tapped by dangerous forces with more pointed ambitions.
