At home, the White House found itself working hard to persuade doubting Democrats in Congress to provide an open-ended authorization for a military attack.

Today he persuaded far fewer Democrats: 73 out of 211 voting on the bill, or 35 percent.

Organized labor reasserted some of its old political clout last month when it helped persuade Congressional Democrats to defeat urgently needed free-trade legislation.

Republican backers of the Danforth plan have sought to persuade liberal Democrats that it goes far enough in addressing job discrimination.

The other will be to persuade Democrats that the Bush Administration is moving to meet their concerns about domestic needs.

She initially set out to persuade other Democrats, elected officials and former office holders, to run against Mr. Forbes.

Mr. Clinton had further alienated the unions, and in a recent interview, he admitted that he was never able to persuade most Democrats to support his approach.

Even should it prove to be an achievable goal, persuading Democrats that Clinton can't win gets you only so far.

Democrats, the strategist said, want the publicity to signal their success and to help persuade other Democrats to give more.

In the meantime, I was attempting earnestly to persuade Democrats that environmental optimism could be a potent political idea.