Knowing that most Americans have long considered him an undeserving victim of Mr Starr's investigation, Mr Clinton spoke against a backdrop that was understated, even funereal, and without any of the flags and drapes that usually proclaim the authority of his office.
So when a self-proclaimed Hindu statesman proclaims authority, her/his authority is somewhat suspicious.
And the organisation was quickly proclaimed the authority on the matter by the US media.
Dr. David Webster, a Mayanist at Penn State, said he agreed with much of Dr. Johnston's thesis, particularly the role of scribes in proclaiming royal authority through competitive displays.
If the encyclical aimed at proclaiming the authority of the papacy and improving public morality, it seems to have served its purpose badly.
Whether he was standing in front of a map on an easel, pointer in hand, briefing important people from Washington, or visiting American troops in the field, or inspecting villages in the Mekong Delta, he proclaimed his authority with his imperious self-control and rigid military bearing.
The President proclaims the authority to hold anybody anytime by saying it will make the country safe by just detaining people.
On August 7, David Gardner, a Middle East expert and reporter for the London Financial Times, pointed out that when, at the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, corresponding with the end of June, the "Islamic State" proclaimed its authority over all the Sunni Muslim believers in the world, the text was "translated into English, French, German, Turkish, Russian - and Albanian".
Researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania proclaim with totemic authority that, in a 1985 survey, respondents from the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans and the Maasai of East Africa were almost equally satisfied and ranked relatively high in well-being.
* Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, touring areas hit hardest by the earthquake, predicted that local authorities will proclaim many older apartments uninhabitable.
