Word: chameleon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Speaking of indigestion, the Harvard Dining Services (HDS) was playing the chameleon last week. After an especially unpalatable sequence of meals, a student mutiny hung in the air. But suddenly HDS scored a victory in the experimental cuisine department, and the masses were appeased...
...This chameleon style may be a shrewd defense mechanism, designed to mask the harsh reality that Bush is more constrained than any other President in modern memory. The borrow-and-spend policies that Ronald Reagan presided over have bequeathed to his chosen successor a downsized presidency devoid of the resources to address long neglected domestic problems. The Bush campaign strategists -- with the candidate's active complicity -- burdened the new President with an obdurate stance on taxes. And for all of Bush's conciliatory zeal, Congress remains an enemy camp; no elected Republican President in this century has come into office...
Fire Came to the Earth People (St. Martin's Press; $9.95) speaks of another kind of legend. The moon goddess Mawu, say the West Africans, wanted to keep fire for herself. The lion, panther, elephant and antelope vainly tried to persuade her to part with the secret. Then the chameleon had an idea. Straw was gathered and given to the tortoise. He sneaked it up to the sacred flame. The glowing embers were gathered under his shell and valorously brought home, safe forever from the jealousy of Mawu. The secret of Susan L. Roth's retelling lies in the strong...
...Bush is "the vision thing." While Dukakis is trying to hide his ideology, Bush is attempting to conceal the fact that he does not have any. A former Bush aide contends, "He's not interested in policy." Through his entire career, the Vice President has been a political chameleon, taking on the coloration of the President he serves. Although he would hate to admit it, Bush was even willing to stay on under Carter as CIA director. The most important unanswered question in this campaign: Who would shape Bush's values and priorities if he became President? The near indefensible...
Sometimes Bush's speech has a chameleon quality. One day during a tour through central Illinois farmland, Bush and his wife Barbara rode in a bus with the country singers Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue, all sisters. At a stop in the town of Wenona, Bush told the crowd that the three sisters had been giving a country concert in the bus, and "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven." George Bush, out of Kennebunkport and Houston, out of Andover and Yale, had a little mountain twang in his voice when he said it, standing...