But there are times when bare-knuckled politics are inescapable, and now is one of them.

ECONOMIST: The political mincing-machine

After bare-knuckled bargaining with the city, he won tax breaks to refurbish a rundown hotel near Grand Central Terminal.

FORBES: The Real Apprentices

Mr Kozlowski looks for people like him bare-knuckled, blue-collar fighters, immersed in the business and not the company bureaucracy.

ECONOMIST: Face value

But none seems to have the stomach for the kind of bare-knuckled fight that is needed to make it to the top.

ECONOMIST: Who might replace Hashimoto?

Fixing European budgets remains a messy, bare-knuckled fight, but Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, will argue that he delivered a deal.

BBC: EU budget: National interests trump solidarity

Clinton would love to rip off the gloves and go bare-knuckled.

NPR: Commenter: Obama Rolling Toward Mississippi

Thus, the adoption of gloves to make bare-knuckled boxing safer made it possible for fighters to throw head punches without breaking their hands--resulting in more brain injuries and death.

FORBES: The Internet's Unintended Revenge

They are living in a world of bare-knuckled competition.

FORBES: Gary Hamel: Crowdsourcing The Reinvention Of Management