The term “lame duck†was originally English slang for any disabled person or thing. It came to mean a deadbeat, a person unable to pay his debts. In the 19th century American political slang it meant an office-holder serving out the remainder of his term after being replaced in an election e.g. a president who has not been re-elected between the November election and the inauguration of his successor. The term has recently been debased to describe any official ineligible to run for another term after his or her own election.
President Clinton’s notorious pardons near the end of his second term in office were lame duck actions in the original political sense.
Alexandra of All Things Beautiful has an absolutely fascinating post about the Algiers Accords, the agreement with Iran that ended the hostage crisis, that was completed in the dwindling hours of the Carter presidency—an extreme case of lame duckery.
