Jargon watch: Harry Potter syndrome

Washington Monthly, June, 2005

"I wish I could just wave a magic wand and lower the price at the pump. I would do that. That's not how it works."--George W. Bush, 5/16/05

"The president would like to lower gasoline prices in the United States, and if he had a magic wand that he could wave and lower gasoline prices, he would be waving that wand."--Andrew Card, 5/1/05

"Saudis cannot wave a magic wand and say, we're gonna solve all your problems."--Roger Diwan, managing director of PFC Energy, 4/25/05

"Last year too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated. There is no magic wand. No one person is going to stand up and suddenly say it's going to change tomorrow. You have to do that."--John Kerry, 4/10/05

"I don't have a magic wand. But I was elected on the basis of my positions and views. That's the weapon that I hold in my hand and that's where the authority that I have derives from."--Mahmoud Abbas, 2/21/05

"If Kent [Conrad] and I were to get in a room quietly and we had a magic wand we could fix [Social Security] in about three or four hours."--Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), 2/13/05

"Karl Rove has emerged as some golden boy of American politics with a feel that everybody now admires and respects. He's just the man with the magic wand."--Mort Zuckerman, 11/4/04