> fascinatingly softened description of both, particularly Lula. Something related to his tacit support for violent far-left terrorism, vote buying or corruption would have trumped "doddering" for me.

My macroexpansion is: he is a democrat, and sound on the environment. But he has done precious little to unleash growth or restrain spending. He has failed to push economic reforms, bar a sales-tax simplification, and calls fiscal discipline “nonsense”. His government is on course to end the term with the largest public-debt-interest bill in a quarter of a century.