Strengths of a flipping politician one secures (9)
I believe the answer is:
abilities
'strengths' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both human attributes as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'a flipping politician one secures' is the wordplay.
'flipping' says the letters should be written backwards.
'politician' becomes 'lib'.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'secures' becomes 'ties' (tying is a kind of securing).
'lib' written backwards gives 'bil'.
'a'+'bil'+'i'+'ties'='ABILITIES'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abilities that I've seen before include "Talents" , "skills" , "The powers to do" .)