Word: slicks
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...people talked of Reagan's magic and meant it as a compliment. Today people talk of Clinton's trickery, and do not mean to be flattering. Reagan's rhetorical skills made him the "Great Communicator" (good); Clinton's make him "Slick Willie" (bad). These are journalists' characterizations, but the perception is widely shared, fairly or unfairly, by the public...
...more sophisticated pro-Clinton version goes like this: Americans are no more cynical than they have always been. Sure, Clinton is a slick politician and a morally flawed human being--but so is Dole, and so were other Republican presidential candidates of recent years. It's just that in the years between Lyndon Johnson and Clinton, the Democrats got in the habit of nominating high-minded, too-good-for-this-world types like George McGovern, Jimmy Carter and Michael Dukakis. Not coincidentally, they also got in the habit of losing elections. So finally in 1992 the Democrats nominated somebody...
...perhaps fitting that the President whom his enemies labeled "Tricky Dick" lived to pass judgment on the President known as "Slick Willy." Throughout the 1992 campaign, Nixon denigrated Clinton: "He's Dogpatch...Even his wife is for him only because he is her ticket to power...[He] will be a disaster. But it will give me leeway to criticize him on Russian aid and everything else he screws up. With Bush I had to be restrained." But when the fledgling President sought Nixon's counsel on foreign policy, Nixon found him "very respectful with no sickening bulls...
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