A sharper emphasis on the economic concerns of ordinary Americans shows up in Mr Obama's more frequent references to jobs, workers and the economy.
Its acrid view of political ambition is nothing new (that perspective is all over TV these days, on shows like HBO's "Veep" and Starz's "Boss"), but the series has some sharp twists, with an emphasis on corporate graft and media grandstanding.
CNN and MSNBC have somehow managed to photocopy several pages from the playbook of Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News and its chairman, whose emphasis on sharp opinions, glitzy graphics and big personalities has been taken to heart by competitors like CNN's Anderson Cooper, Mr. Olbermann and his running mate on MSNBC, Chris Matthews.
Among those whose imagery reflected the new sharper style, with its emphasis on form rather than atmosphere, was Yasuzō Nojima, who gained a reputation for his incisive portraits, groundbreaking nudes, and landscapes.
Along the way, the "Left Behind" books have drawn sharp criticism for elements like their emphasis on the conversion of Jews and their focus on the brutal rule of the Antichrist, who happens to head the United Nations.
In an essay on "how to think about stem cell research" last winter in the Hastings Center Report, Gilbert Meilander, who teaches ethics at Valparaiso University, proposed that those who favored sharp limits were influenced by an "emphasis on means over ends" primarily grounded in Jewish and Christian belief.
The Discourse on the Positive Spirit, also from 1844, which he used as the preface to the treatise on astronomy, marked a sharp change of direction by its emphasis on the moral dimension of the new philosophy: now that the sciences had been systematized, Comte was able to return to his initial interest, political philosophy.
It made for a sharp series of exchanges and an emphasis on the theatrical.
