horizontal politics
n.— «“I have a great respect for Barack Obama,” Huckabee said. “I think he’s a person who is trying to do in many ways what I hope I’m trying to do, and that is to say, let’s quit what I call ‘horizontal politics.’ Everything in this country is not left, right, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican. I think the country is looking for somebody who is vertical, who is thinking, ‘Let’s take America up and not down,’ and people will forgive you for being left or right if you go up.”» —“Top of the Ticket: Huckabee gets 10 late-night minutes before the big day” by Andrew Malcolm Los Angeles Times Jan. 2, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
In Black English, the word trifling describes a person who lacks ambition or fails to keep promises. Former President Barack Obama used it that way in his memoir Dreams from My Father (Bookshop|Amazon). This is part of a complete episode.
Related
Daniel Radosh argues convincingly that horizontal / vertical is evangelical Christian lingo for towards fellow men / towards God.
http://www.radosh.net/archive/002163.html