Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief strategist, is confident to the point of being almost dismissive of Mr. McCain.
Issues of human rights do not loom large in his foreign policy, and issues of democracy promotion, he's been almost dismissive of".
As for working again with Depardieu, Huppert is almost dismissive about the legendary status of their reunion, which was so much the film's selling point.
Perversely, for an organisation which makes such effective use of legends and martyrs, the IRA has, since 1977 been almost dismissive in the treatment of its dead, burying them three and four to a grave in the new Republican plot, recording only names and "volunteer" status.
I asked this question of everyone I interviewed who was close to Powell, and the reaction was almost universally dismissive.
"I was almost as dismissive a few years ago when not one English club got that far [in 2011-12].
He was almost as dismissive of 1950's Americanism, which he thought on the whole to be vulgar.
Le Progrès didn't mince its words: "Bye dummies!" And Le Journal de la Haute-Marne was almost as dismissive: "Failing to give good performances on the pitch, the French players still achieved a good feat: becoming the laughing stock of the entire world".
Joan Sutherland sang the title roles of "Lucia di Lammermoor" and "La Fille du Régiment" at the Met when she was almost sixty, but Dessay is dismissive of the argument that opera singers have never been expected to stop singing the parts of maidens even as they push into mature matronhood.
But on his rare forays into detail, Gove was almost comically nonsensical, blithely and airily dismissive of any negative impact on the wonderful people he loves so much.
