Andrew Sullivan provides the following quote from Sidney Blumenthal -- an extended and rambling presidential cliché metaphor.
Not only did [Clinton] have to navigate the vessel of state in a vast sea through unpredictable storms, but he had to build a safe harbor. His political ability to tack with the wind was usually interpreted as being rudderless. Even long-term policy gains - whether on the economy, crime or trade - were obscured because of short-term political losses. And Clinton himself, caught in the midst of howling winds, could not know whether and how much he was succeeding.Let's consider one of those sentences. His political ability to tack with the wind was usually interpreted as being rudderless. So, it was Clinton's decision to blow with the wind? While purposefully blowing in the wind may be better than lacking all direction, it certainly is not the attribute of a great President, a great leader or a great man. Surely, Sid could have worked Dick Morris into the metaphor as the anemometer or the cock on the weather vane pointing President Clinton further down wind.
