Under his rule, a country that a century earlier had rivalled the empire builders of Europe became a political and economic backwater.

Ms. Bellamy said she is about to shake up an agency that had become a political backwater.

House building is no longer a political backwater, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has seen to that.

When he ran for State Treasurer in 1974, the post was considered a "political backwater."

Mantua, a beautiful small city with glorious Renaissance squares, has a population of just 53,000 and is a political backwater.

No longer are schools a political backwater for state races.

To the urban avant-garde, the fledgling suburbs seemed to be a political backwater and cultural wasteland.

Other opponents of the measure say the change could make Colorado a political backwater; or worse, a laughingstock.

For most of Hamilton's time as ambassador, Naples had been a political backwater.

And in moving to Tunis, a political backwater, he also jeopardized his organization's relevance in any peace talks.