So Mr. Wright will continue to push for a new tax, in the somewhat forlorn hope that a weakened President can be pressured into supporting it.

Mr. Clinton and his advisers long for a clear shot at the weakened President, and the Arkansas Governor spends the most time - and draws the most cheers - criticizing the President.

For Mr. Netanyahu, it must have seemed a good opportunity to squeeze a weakened President who reportedly wanted the photo-op of a signing ceremony at the White House very badly.

The new nativist politics in both capitals hinders the weakened Russian and American Presidents from enhancing relations.

Even a weakened President has extraordinary powers in a military challenge of the kind posed during the Iraq crisis over the last week.

Congressional Democrats, who once fled joint appearances with the weakened President, now clamor to stand by his side, and Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances of winning back control of the House.

The power to impound - to not spend - funds appropriated by Congress was taken away from a weakened President in 1974; Mr. Reagan's counterattack, the line-item veto, never had a chance of passage.

Of a weakened President trying to address a global crisis with a strong speech instead of an immediate action plan?

"I said it, and it turned out to be true," he added, "and we now have a weakened President for two years and a weak President is something that weakens us all."

Has the right wing now forced a weakened President to nominate a divisive justice in the mold of Antonin Scalia?