Word: traction
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...million Americans have tried marijuana. That's a lot of people using a substance we all say we abhor. Before we can get any traction on controlling pot (which accounts for most of the rise in teen drug use), the generation that popularized the stuff has got to finally come clean about what made it so alluring in the first place--and then square that with current marijuana policy. A good start might be for every middle-aged public official in America to take the following oath...
Whatever happens in the fall, a legacy of Perot's race may spark a more durable movement that survives his defeat. Owing to the energy from 1992 and Perot's push this year, Reform parties in various stages of development are gaining traction in half the states. Lamm has said Perot is not the figure to take the Reform Party into the Promised Land of electoral viability. "Pass me the torch," he has implored the Founder. Perot has no intention of doing that just yet, and anyone who comes near it is likely to get burned--if Perot doesn...
...retrospect, it seems inevitable that Clinton would sign. And not just to take away from Bob Dole one of the few issues the Republican contender had been counting on to gain traction in the campaign. Political strategists figured a veto might cost the President about five points in the polls, but Clinton could endure that with plenty to spare. A veto, however, would have repudiated the entire moderate, New Democrat stance--champion of family values, balanced budgets, more cops on the streets--that Clinton had been cultivating so assiduously since the rout of the Democrats in the 1994 elections...
...special prosecutor who once predicted that his investigations would be wrapped up well before the '96 election now gives every sign that he will pursue the President and First Lady into their second term, if they get that far. With the Dole campaign still unable to gain traction on its own, Republican hopes are riding on a presidency worn to pieces by subpoenas and indictments...
...keeps stealing your shoes. Imagine that you have decided to risk everything to win the woman you love and you keep stumbling over your rival, already kneeling before her, reciting the lines you had carefully rehearsed. Imagine that you are Bob Dole, just a man, trying to get some traction while running for President. And every time you think you have spotted firm, sensible, conservative ground, there is the Democratic President already crouching in ambush. "If this keeps up, Bill Clinton won't have to make speeches anymore," Dole grumbled last week. "All he'll have to do is find...