could it be justly obnoxious to the charge of being a receptacle of ‘lame ducks’ or broken down politicians.” It was levied against Calvin Coolidge, as it was speculated that he would be facing a Senate of the opposing party–thus throwing a wrench into his presidential influence.In politics, a “lame duck” usually refers to a president in that period of time after an election and before the inauguration of a successor. Our first recorded use dates back to an 1863 edition of the Congressional Globe : “In no event. Lame ducks wouldn’t become politicians until the 19th century. Basically a heady investor who lost all their money wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the other ducklings milling about in the pond. The analogy to from stock broker to lame duck was pretty simple. For example when the Duchess of Devonshire lost a ton of money in stocks, Mary Berry wrote that the Duchess would be “posted up as a lame duck.” This was around 1791. More specifically, the London Stock Exchange, where a lame duck was a broker who had defaulted on their debt. The term “lame duck” dates back probably to the 18th century. Similarly, Bill Clinton issued 140 pardons on his last day in office. ![]() Bush was on his way out in December 1992, he pardoned six convicted/indicted Contra planners. That changed when Bush lost to Bill Clinton. ![]() Bush was Reagan’s Vice President at the time, so he claimed ignorance with Reagan when he took office afterwards. Bush claimed that they had no idea this was going on–despite many members of his administration being convicted for their involvement. The long-short, Reagan sold weapons to Iran and used the money to meddle in Nicaraguan politics.Īnyway, Reagan and H.W. The Contras, by the way, were an American-funded right-wing rebel group accused of lots of human rights violations and the like. Remember the Iran-Contra Affair? If you don’t, it was a plot during the Reagan Administration where weapons were sold to Iran, and those funds were funneled to the Contras in Nicaragua. It was a lame duck Congress that tried to cover up Watergate. We’re going to keep using the US as an example. Pretty big decisions can come out of the lame duck period. Lame Ducks Do WalkĪctually, some of them fly. Secondly, being on their way out with a successor already named, the influence of lame duck politicians is curbed as people already start moving on and getting ready for their new boss. For starters, there’s just not a lot of time to get sweeping agenda items done (if you’re the president of the United States you had four or eight years anyway, a couple months isn’t going to be the make-or-break). You know the ones.īy definition these lame duck officers are named so because their days in office are numbered because they’re on their way out their capabilities are quite limited. Unless they happen to be one of the handful of truly awful ones. Because new members of Congress similarly are elected in November and take office in January, “lame duck” applies to them as well–there’s just not as much media cut-through for Congresspeople. It gets tossed around until the next president officially takes office the following January. You will most often hear the term “lame duck” applied to American presidents after presidential elections conclude in November. “Lame duck” is also something we often hear when it comes to political representatives leaving office, so where did the phrase actually come from? What is a lame duck? Presidents and Politicians ![]() If that was the definition you were looking for though, your reading for the day is done we suppose. Alright for everyone who saw the title and said “well obviously it’s a duck that can’t walk ” just because you’re correct doesn’t mean you’re interesting.
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