A military officer who had studied at an army staff college in the United States, Colonel Nimeiri seized power from president Ismail Azhari in a coup in 1969, following the example of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser.
VOA: standard.2009.05.31
If there was any hope the tax debate could be separated from that seemingly distant presidential contest, it was extinguished when Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declared that his party's main political goal was to deny Mr. Obama a second term and when the presidentseized upon that comment to portray the Republicans as more interested in politics than in governance.
Four years before that Vice President Al Gore looked to be the bigger spender and more avid war-monger, but President Bush seized those mantles once inaugurated.
Most recently, President Obama seized upon an ill-timed bureaucratic announcement regarding planned housing construction within Jerusalem's city limits as a pretext for having his administration serially denounce Israel.