More than any other cabinet officer, the attorney general sets the moral tone of an administration.
The tone of the administration's comments on Mr. Arafat were less harsh than in previous days.
Taken together, the departures could alter the tone of the administration's approach to China, one of its most vital but difficult relationships.
No matter what hopes we pin on her husband, or disappointments we suffer, Americans look to Michelle Obama to set the emotional tone of his administration.
The harsh tone of the administration's message stunned both Wall Street and Detroit, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down by more than 250 points.
The tone of the administration's pitch to Congress appears to have shifted in recent weeks from actively selling the merits of the deal to stressing the lack of viable alternatives, but it continues to argue that fears among Republicans and the Israeli government about the impact of lifting sanctions are overstated.
The speech was cited by political analysts as a defining moment for the new president, and indeed, since it was his first national, prime-time address as president, it did much to establish Mr. Bush's public persona and clarify the tone of his administration.
Democrats like Jerry Brown of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York, as well as progressive mayors like New York City's Bill de Blasio will be the first line of defense for many immigrants and others who feel threatened by the ugly bigoted tone of the administration.
The Jerusalem Post, the voice of the right-leaning English-speaking immigrants here, titled its Monday editorial "62, Under a U.S. Cloud" and fretted that the Obama administration "has diverged from the tone of previous administrations on the status of Jerusalem, and it has damagingly publicly questioned fundamental aspects of our alliance".
Many critics on the left cannot help but notice the disturbing parallels between the sudden urgency which now characterizes the Obama administration's call for action against Syria and the tone of the Bush administration during the runup to the war in Iraq.
