wonk

Are they academics, scholars and scientists, or do they also include those of less elevated standing — technocrats, policy wonks, apparatchiks, pundits, journalists — who command a sizable public audience?

“Am I a policy wonk? No, but I do approach this from a very business-minded, fiscally conservative perspective.”

The media will, no doubt, lean into Walz’s experience as a football coach — in 1999 he helped Mankato West win a state championship and political wonks love a good sports metaphor.

It sounds like the makings of theater for wonks, doesn’t it?

They also flesh out a portrait of Mr. Obama as a steady-as-she-goes, hyper-disciplined but not especially warm, policy wonk who scrolled the Brookings Institution website for ideas and had to overcome his own political mistakes.