But in choosing someone from his own inner circle, Mr. Obama underscored his determination to keep Russian-American relations a centerpiece of his foreign policy after his early push to reset the relationship following years of growing tension.
By turning to Mr. Lieberman, the first Democratic senator to aggressively repudiate President Clinton for his affair with a White House intern, Mr. Gore underscored his determination to shed the shadow of Mr. Clinton.
Underscoring his determination to reach out to the United States, Mr. Zapatero noted that he had spent a month touring the country in 1990 under a program called "Leaders With a Future" sponsored by the State Department.
Underscoring his determination to seal the deal, he sent Ellen Tauscher, the under secretary of state for arms control, to Geneva to help resolve remaining differences, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to travel to Moscow next week.
And that underscores his determination to be an omniscient and omnipresent commentator on health-related affairs, one-stop shopping for all your somatic curiosities and some of your spiritual and intellectual ones to boot.
Mr. Bush's veto — the ninth of his presidency, but the eighth in the past 10 months with Democrats in control of Congress — underscored his determination to preserve many of the executive prerogatives his administration has claimed in the name of fighting terrorism, and to enshrine them into law.
As if to underscore his determination, his campaign is gearing up for a fund-raising push, including an event in Philadelphia to be held by gay activists, and a major New York City fund-raiser on Dec. 6.
But he did underscore his commitment to some Tea Party principles.
"It's a subtle move," he said, gesticulating to underscore his words, "to destroy a society".
She calls this the "urban carpet," and, while it is not the most successful element of the building, it underscores her determination to present the arts center as inseparable from the streetscape.
