Words and Terms

Rorschach test (a personality test in which a person describes what he sees in a set of ink blots)
" 'I'm a Rorschach test,' Hillary Clinton said of herself, describing the ways Americans projected their own hopes, anxieties and fears about women onto her lightly padded shoulders." (page 34)

disparities (inequalities)
"Having spent the last two months … bonking each other over the heads with our gender differences, race differences, income and education disparities, Clinton and Obama supporters may not have learned all that much about their candidates." (page 34)

internecine (characterized by conflict)
"In Ohio particularly, Clinton took two out of every three white women, and that split may have had less to do with internecine debates between soccer moms and tae kwon do moms than with working-class moms fretting about health insurance for the twins." (page 34)

scrutiny (examination)
"But just as relationships tend to transition from the early fizz when all you can see is yourself reflected in your partner's eyes, so too is this contest changing into a more sober scrutiny of the guy across the table." (page 34)

© 2008