If he walks like a lame duck...

摘要

The economy is buoyant; the budget is balancing; the jobless are fewer. There is even a resurgent Saddam Hussein to unite Americans against an old enemy abroad. Yet this week Bill Clinton, the canniest president in most Americans' memory, retreated from the local fray. Rather than risk defeat, the administration postponed a vote in the House of Representatives to give Mr Clinton "fast-track" authority to make trade deals with the rest of the world unhampered by congressional meddling. What has gone so wrong that the Democratic Party is split asunder and Washington's pundits have, overnight, transformed Mr Clinton from political maestro to presiden-tial lame duck?