• ailing (troubled, sick)
• Air Force One (the President’s plane)
• allegation (formal accusation)
• antics (ludicrous acts done for amusement)
• anti-incumbent (against current officeholders)
• asset (useful or valuable property)
• avert (avoid)
• backtrack (retrace one’s course, go backwards)
• bail out (financial rescue)
• bastions (group that defends a principal)
• beleaguered (beset by trouble or difficulty)
• bemoan (regret strongly)
• bestowing (giving)
• bide one’s time (wait, endure)
• blast (criticize loudly and strongly)
• blatantly (in an obvious way)
• blow back (damage one receives in return for an aggressive action)
• blunders (mistakes)
• boiling point (being highly angry or excited)
• brainchild (idea)
• breakthrough (discovery or productive insight)
• bruising fight (violent fight)
• burden (difficult concern)
• call play by play (sports commentary)
• call the shots (rule, make all the decisions)
• campaign stunt (campaign action meant to get publicity)
• clamor(loud demands)
• confidence motion (censure motion)
• counterparts (people who share the same function as other people)
• crack down (enforce a law more stringently)
• cronies (friends appointed to positions of authority)
• crushed (defeated)
• deal breaker (issue which causes a relationship to fail)
• deeply rooted in (deep ties or history with)
• defeated (win against)
• don’t ask don’t tell rule (a US defense directive that allows gay and bi-sexual people to serve in the military and that their superiors won’t ask if they are and they won’t tell.
• draft (write a preliminary outline)
• eke out (make by laborious means)
• endangered (in danger)
• expense (money spent)
• feat (notable achievement)
• felony (serious crime)
• foot-dragging (deliberately delaying or moving slowly)
• forged (shaped)
• fraud–tainted (marked by deception)
• galvanize (stimulate action)
• get out of the way (move to not obstruct or hinder)
• go rogue (cease to follow orders)
• GOP (Grand Old Party=Republican Party)
• grease the wheels (clear the way)
• halt (stop)
• hands off (not involved)
• have your work cut out for you (have difficult work ahead)
• hung parliament (unable to make a decision)
• in over one’s head (in a more complex situation than one can understand)
• incumbent (official who holds the office)
• keep at bay (keep at a distance)
• lackadaisical (lacking in spirit or liveliness)
• lashed out (attacked)
• leaned in(incline towards)
• learning curve (time needed to learning something new)
• liability (disadvantage)
• Lincoln bedroom (a room at the White House best known as a guest room used by presidents to reward friends and political supporters.)
• litigation (a legal proceeding in a court)
• loopholes (ambiguity in the law that makes it possible to evade it)
• main street (any small town, regular or ordinary people)
• making the rounds (being distributed to the usual list of people)
• malfeasance (wrongful conduct by a public official)
• mandate (authority)
• midterm (elections in the United States in which members of United States Congress (including all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and full terms for 33 or 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate), and some state legislatures & governors are elected)
• mince words (restrain oneself in a conversation)
• much sought after (greatly desired)
• off the mark (inaccurate)
• old guard (faction unwilling to accept new ideas)
• oust (to remove from office)
• out in force (out exerting influence)
• out of pocket (cash spent that won’t be reimbursed)
• outcome (result)
• outpolled (defeat in a poll)
• oversight (supervision)
• papering over that (concealing or hiding something)
• pettiness (narrowness of mind or ideas)
• phony (fake, false)
• pick up the slack (move faster, work harder)
• played from his gut (acted by instinct)
• plight (difficult situation)
• pocketbooks (wallets)
• poised (ready for action)
• pork-barrel deals (legislative appropriations to ingratiate legislators with their constituents.
• portray (make a portrait of)
• poster child (someone who is prototypical of something)
• prevailed (won)
• pundits (someone who gives opinion in the media)
• push a story (promote)
• reign (predominate, have authority)
• revamp (change)
• root out (find and eliminate)
• run the gauntlet (do something very challenging)
• run up (escalate)
• runoff (a second election to resolve an earlier one that didn’t produce a winner)
• seize (take or capture by force)
• senator-elect (a recently elected Senator who hasn’t yet officially taken office)
• shout out (greeting or acknowledgment)
• shrewd (astute)
• slip (mistake)
• slipping steadily in popularity (losing popularity)
• slur (insult)
• speak your mind (state one’s thoughts or opinions openly)
• spin (twist and turn to give an intended interpretation in the media)
• spotlight (make visible or prominent)
• squabble (argue)
• stand more than a snowball’s chance of winning (abbreviated version of «a snowball’s chance in hell» meaning no chance at all)
• stick one’s neck out (took a risk)
• stump for (travel through a district and make political speeches)
• surmount (overcome)
• tabloids (yellow, sensationalist journalism)
• take on (assume, undertake)
• take some of the flack (take some of the criticism)
• the straw that broke the camel’s back (A small and seemingly insignificant addition to a burden that renders it too much to bear)
• thin-skinned (quick to take offense)
• tied (equal score in a contest)
• tokenized (to be made insignificantly small and symbolic)
• too close to call (when there is no clear winner)
• topple (cause to collapse)
• trailblazer (pioneer)
• turnaround (reversal)
• underdog (expected to lose)
• undertake (promise to do or accomplish)
• unemployed (doesn’t have a job)
• uprising (rebellion)
• upside (positive side, advantage)
• vented (complained)
• viable (feasible)
• weigh in (give an opinion)
• whip up (arouse or excite)
• withdraw (retire)
• withstood (resist)
• zero in (focus on)