Word: duck
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Reagan's tepid and grudging reactions -- reluctant and uncomprehending -- confirmed a suspicion in many minds that Reagan, a lame duck with 15 months to go in his second term, was presiding over an Administration bereft of ideas and energy. It was a custom a generation ago for people to remark, "Well, we must trust the President in that decision -- he has more information about it than we do." No one says that in the second term of Ronald Reagan. In fact, one unstated anxiety during the stock-market crash was that Reagan would inadvertently say something to make the panic...
...exchange fell 1,096 points, the third biggest loss ever. But after the slide, the Nikkei climbed by 731.15 points on Friday, its third biggest rise ever, and an additional 563.87 points on Saturday. Controlling the effects of the second-week crash posed a substantial challenge for the lame-duck government of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who hands over power on Nov. 6 to his successor, Noboru Takeshita. Following Monday's precipitous slump, the Japanese Finance Ministry quietly pressured major trust funds and insurance companies to begin a stock-buying blitz. Most complied, says Economist Kinji Yajima, because "management knows...
...announcement was a devastating political blow for Reagan, all but ending his last, best hope for recovering from a string of setbacks that have left him, with 15 months remaining in his term, not just a lame duck but a crippled one. One after another, his major goals for this fall have gone aglimmering: the appointment of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, the hope to win renewed funding for the contras in Nicaragua, and his aim of pushing through a budget plan that would protect defense spending without raising existing taxes or imposing new ones. The stock-market plunge...
...performances are, for the most part, cartoonish. T.J. Mitchell (Peerless Gynt) delivers all his lines with a self-conscious self-importance, while Jennifer Lack (Aase) shrieks all of hers at the top of her lungs. Listening to the two of them argue is like listening to Daffy Duck argue with Yosemite...
Such a showdown could invigorate, at least temporarily, a presidency that has recently been creeping along like a paraplegic duck. The conciliatory approach Reagan used in pushing Bork was similar to the strategy he pursued with his ambivalent support for the Central American peace plan and his reluctant compromise on the budget. In the process, he has come close to losing on three of his most important remaining goals: securing his social agenda by shifting the Supreme Court to the right, saving the contras and preventing a tax increase or cuts in defense spending. The White House stands to gain...