The optimistic point of view is that the bickering is over, and that the foundation for a strong, single-minded push has been laid.
Both Ronald Reagan and Bush began with an almost single-minded push for tax cuts during their opening months, while Clinton opened with an economic program and then a monthslong drive for health care reform.
That is caused by Republicans in the House voting to gut the Clean Air Act and the Clean Drinking Water Act, by Republicans attacking women's right to birth control, by Republicans refusing to pass the normally overwhelmingly bipartisan transportation bill and by the Republicans' single-minded focus on pushing more and more money to the most wealthy (this is just a partial list).
This single-minded, ask-no-questions push for football stardom has now reached a crisis, brought to a head by a report in The Star-Ledger of Newark that a campaign to raise $30 million in private contributions for a $102 million, 14,000-seat expansion of the university's football stadium is on the rocks.
We have seen how their hostility to the strikers of 1911-14 grew in intensity and how their single-minded concentration on the vote pushed every other issue out of their heads.
Some, particularly the Egyptians, objected to Mr. Azzam's single-minded focus on the Afghan cause and pushed Mr. bin Laden to form a group that would bring Islamic rule to their homelands.
And Dr. Frist has pushed the measure with a single-minded focus that has impressed his colleagues.
The single-minded goal of too many high school students — pushed by parents, guidance counselors and society itself — is to get into a "good" school.
Then Tony Blair - in one of the exhibitions of single-minded determination for which history will remember him - pushed the pendulum as far as it would go in the other direction.
He is ruthlessly single-minded about getting what he wants, musically speaking, whether pushing his Mariinsky Theatre forces to the limits of their stamina with their concert and touring schedule, or producing incendiary performances with the London Symphony Orchestra.
He said he hit a wall at about Mile 16, with the Queensboro Bridge and its steady incline, but that he pushed through it with some prayer and a single-minded focus on getting to the finish line.
