273. Perspicacious

Extract from, "Maureen Dowd's Holiday Pudding," by Geoffrey Dunn, Huffington Post, 11/29/12:

 During a week in which those icons of feminism -- senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham -- viciously attacked Rice, Dowd somehow decided it was perspicacious to go after her, too, using a series of unsourced allegations.


Perspicacious:  having a ready insight into and understanding of things; shrewd

272. Resurgent

Extract from, "California Finds Economic Gloom Starting to Lift" by Adam Nagourney, The New York Times, 11/27/12: 

After nearly five years of brutal economic decline, government retrenchment and a widespread loss of confidence in its future, California is showing the first signs of a rebound. There is evidence of job growth, economic stability, a resurgent housing market and rising spirits in a state that was among the worst hit by the recession.

Resurgent: increasing or reviving after a period of little activity, popularity, or occurrence

271. Dystopia

Extract from, "The Final Insult: Mitt Romney’s Clueless Gift Gaffe" by John Avlon, The Daily Beast, 11/14/12:
 Romney’s comments about his opponent’s “old playbook,” as he called it, again revived a dystopian scenario conservatives have been warning about since the New Deal, where Democrats “buy” a permanent majority and undermine democracy at the cost of the productive class.

Dystopia:  an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one

270. Gallimaufry

Extract from,  "Romney Is President," by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, 11/10/12:
 Just like the Bushes before him, Romney tried to portray himself as more American than his Democratic opponent. But America’s gallimaufry wasn’t knuckling under to the gentry this time.

Gallimaufry:  a confused jumble or medley of things