Word: government
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...opportunity was lost. Unlike the Inaugural Address, the speech contained no inspirational phrases, no soaring metaphors, just commonplace sentiments about how "we must take a strong America and make it even better." This failure of rhetoric can be excused, for as the President said, now "it's time to govern." But governance requires agonizing choices, and Bush, like his mentor Ronald Reagan, stoutly declined to confront them publicly. The President's program, as he defined it, is all gain and no pain, with scant need to explain the inherent contradictions...
Legal experts see trouble ahead for set-aside plans and other government- sponsored racial remedies. "It's clear that affirmative-action programs will be harder to justify," concludes Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School. Officials around the country expressed concern over how their plans would fare under the ruling. The National League of Cities found the decision "troubling in what it says about the capacity of states and cities to govern at all in some matters...
...simplicity was profound, and more in keeping with his underlying message. After a negative campaign that valued victory above all, Bush's positioning himself as a moral leader may seem strange. But the new President, for one, believes that the election "was then" and that the "time to govern" should obliterate inconvenient memories...
...substance and paramount importance: the beginning of what may be an exquisitely orchestrated retreat. The flip side of "kinder, gentler" is embodied in Bush's famous campaign pledge, "Read my lips: no new taxes," a politically expedient stance that helped him win election and now threatens his ability to govern successfully. "Backing off that promise could destroy his presidency," says a senior Administration official. "But we'll probably have to do just that. How we do it without making the President out to be a liar or an incompetent weakling is going to take all of George Bush's skills...
...Alice Rivlin, a former head of the Congressional Budget Office. "The budget deficit," she told the Wall Street Journal, "has become a defense issue, a foreign policy issue, a health-care issue, an education issue. Getting the budget deficit behind us has become a test of our ability to govern...