For both men, the goal of clinging to power was a top priority.

But blindly sticking to principle would have been a highly risky option for the ECB.

And it would be a catastrophe if the recovery were derailed by excessive devotion to anti inflation shibboleths, much as some central banks were excessively devoted to the gold standard during the 1920 s and 1930 s.

The goal of clinging to power remains the priority, and risk aversion the main guideline.

And if anyone should be clinging to the former glory of the coal mining history, and of the town, it should be Judy.

A dictator who has shown no concern for his people might actually prove quite talented at clinging to power.

It can cling to office, as José Zapatero is doing in Spain and Gordon Brown is doing in the UK.

Chen s record suggests he will hang on to his failed presidency. He will use his legal training to fight on technicalities.

So long as the façade holds, Russians will continue to cling to Putin s illusion of power.

The press agencies have been called upon by national and international observers to adhere to a policy of avoiding incitement to hatred, intolerance and xenophobia.

The NPT is not a license for the five original nuclear powers to cling to these weapons indefinitely.

But the Bank of England s direct intervention prevented these images from gaining a foothold on our collective psychology.

A breakthrough appears to be at hand, though all the parties still seem to be clinging to their traditional positions.

Now, after the third round in Moscow, they are holding on by not much more than their fingernails.

And now that you ve acknowledged history, stop holding on to it as if electricity were running through it, as if your hand can t let go.

As most of the world knows, America s quest to maintain its claim to the title of greatness, has, of late, also been elusive.

Clinging to the hope that it is all chance, and all natural, seems naive.

In that case, Raúl may seek to cling grimly to the fossilized system that he helped build and maintain with such brutality.

The main uncertainty in life the destination of one s immortal soul nudges one toward morality.

A president s modernizing vision degenerated into a dictator s power driven myopia.

Opposition to globalization and market forces has often been the preferred way of trying to hang on to an idealized view of what life used to be like.

Arguably the most damaging is to stick to a successful growth strategy (a combination of comparative advantage and supportive policies) for too long.

True, faced with the choice of keeping the constitutional name of their country or compromising with Greece for the benefit of joining the Union, Macedonians are sticking to their guns.

Today, it sounds old fashioned to describe the university s purpose as being to cultivate people, as if it were a glorified finishing school.

Second, the bloody 1959 revolution in Rwanda, a country mirroring Burundi's ethnic and social structure, induced Burundi's Tutsi to cling even more tightly to power.

Brussels There is no more depressing sight in politics than a leader who, desperate to cling to power, ruins his country in the process.

Never mind that this logic is now in danger of unraveling along with the US housing market Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson will stick to it.

Many families now face stagnating wages, owing to the kinds of jobs now available, but are determined to cling to a lifestyle that they can no longer afford.

I want you to say, or I want you to convey, that you are going to die if you have to, with your very last breath, with your fingernails scratching as they drag you out.

Rather than continuing to adhere to policies that do more harm than good, policymakers should consider a new approach one that actually contributes to their countries social and economic progress.

Much of the fiscal stimulus to consumers causes companies to hang onto employees a little longer rather than to release them to export and import competing industries that are expanding.

So the government will prefer to muddle through the crisis, rather than risk any decisive reform. The goal of clinging to power remains the priority, and risk aversion the main guideline.

So far, China s reaction to all of this new activity has been to dig in its heels and insist on addressing its territorial disputes with ASEAN s militarily inferior members on a bilateral basis.

Her rigorous sense of the true duty of a politician always gave me comfort during a political struggle, for our duty as leaders is not to hold office, but to use our power to improve people s lives and increase the scope of their freedom.

If too much deference to great artists is the mark of a society that has never quite escaped from its aristocratic roots, too little regard for them is a sign of narrow philistinism.

Many of McNamara s critics assert rightly, I think that he stopped short of full understanding, that he sought to hold fast to claims of noble intentions that the record could not sustain.

The difficulty for Tadic lies in convincing Serbian voters that drawing closer to the EU is infinitely preferable to remaining attached to an outmoded concept of statehood that can only lead to isolation and backwardness.

Ironically one of the most important issues, the replacement of the light firearms, failed during his mandate due to the soldiers clinging onto their cheap and highly reliable Heckler Koch G3's, made by INDEP (the Portuguese Military factory) in Portugal.

Is it competitive enough to prevent discredited leaders from clinging to power? Analysts also must pay attention to the nature of the implied social contract.

But Europe s problem is greater, for its politicians are at a loss to cope with the high voltage issues of race, religion, and ethnicity in societies that seem determined to remain anchored in the past.

The US has been behind the curve from the moment the turmoil sparked, trying to play catch up as two authoritarian governments were toppled by popular protest and more regimes try to cling to power as long as they can.

There is neither the illusion nor the desire to hold onto captured territories permanently, or to build Jewish settlements, and Israel has virtually no international support for any of these goals.

If it does not, we should make clear that we will lead the free world to avoid the senseless slaughter of any more Libyan citizens by a madman bent on maintaining power.

It is uncertain how long the old clerical leadership and the country s nationalist politicians can hold on to power, although high oil and gas prices have been shielding them so far.

Instead of sticking to doomsday prophecies or to categorical perspectives that prevent an understanding of the complex fabric of Islamic movements, the West needs to keep the pressure on the incumbent regimes to stop circumventing political reform.