As Ken Mehlman, the former Republican Party chairman, explained it to me recently, elections can either be "squishy" or "crunchy".
This complicates, at times paralyzes, federal decision-making, including issues regarding the recently adopted election law.
The nonprofit groups also, it happens, provide legions of volunteers for favored political causes — most recently, the election of Mr. Lee.
The council's parliament and, recently, its election monitors have managed some loud public grumbling at Ukraine, a less daunting target than Russia.
Barack Obama is reported to have chosen Patrick Gaspard, who was registered as a labour union health lobbyist as recently as election day, as the next White House political director.
Senate lawmakers have been bogged down by feuding interest groups and, more recently, by election year battles over unemployment benefits, overtime pay and the "outsourcing" of jobs overseas.
The problems Mr. Barak has had in contending with recently changed election procedures, which have resulted in a fragmented Parliament of small parties that pursue their own interests, were on full display again today.
The acrimony reflected the bitterness over the recently concluded election season, in which Democrats won enough seats to take control of the Senate for the first time in nearly half a century.
Everyone can recall their first encounter with America, whether it was watching Gone With the Wind or Dumbo, the death of John F Kennedy, the resignation of Richard Nixon or, more recently, the election of the Barack Obama.
In our recently concluded election, the Clinton campaign played with the objective to "beat the other team".
