I wonder how many of you are old enough to remember when George W. Bush was running in 2000. On the day that he chose Cheney as a running mate, tons of leftist pundits kept repeating the same, obscure word:
rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2007/11/30/gravitas_montage_explains_it_all
>HUNT: He is a man who meets all George W.'s weaknesses: lack of foreign policy experience, lack of gravitas. I think now when Gore is trying to make the case of lack of gravitas against George W. ...
>WILLIAMS: Now we look and we see the son, who is seeking some gravitas, to say to people that he is an intelligent man...
>SHIPMAN: There is a lot talk they are looking at older candidates, candidates with gravitas.
>ROBERTS: He's had health problems, uh, he's worked for a Big Oil company, but he has the gravitas. You can sum it up in one word: stature.
>FAZIO: I really believe that George W. Bush needed that perhaps more than anyone in recent memory because, if there is a rap about him, it may go to the gravitas issue.
>GREENFIELD: If the question about Governor Bush was one of the weight, or to use the favorite phrase of the moment, "gravitas"...
>ALTER: What he gets here is grav-i-tas, a sense of weight, competence, and administrative ability.
>KERREY: I've gotta strengthen it in some fashion. I've gotta bring gravitas to the ticket.
>KERREY: He does not need anybody to give him gravitas!
>CARLSON: It means that Bush, you know, Gore has experience and gravitas.
>McCURRY: I think he also needs to demonstrate some gravitas, too.
>DONALDSON: ...that he was put on the ticket, but by former President Bush, to give gravitas to the ticket.
>CLIFT: Well, Dick Cheney brings congeniality and he brings gravitas.
>ISAACSON: He does seem to bring some vigor as well as gravitas and stature to the ticket.
>HUNT: It's called "gravitas."
>SHIELDS A little gravitas!
>WOODRUFF: You certainly have gravitas tonight.
>DONALDSON: Displayed tonight a certain gravitas.