Yet, for all its bad memories, shady past and current feebleness, the opposition does have something important to offer.

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One reason may be the feebleness of their financial markets.

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The kind interpretation of America's feebleness is that the administration is prepared to rise above a nasty little snub to keep the hope of a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace alive.

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"There has been a kind of hectic feebleness about his every move which is beginning to awaken pity rather than anger, " wrote the Evening Standard, beneath the headline "Let's Admit It: Foot's a Disaster".

BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | First 100 days: Michael Foot

An itinerant Islamist activist, he also spent time in Egypt, India, Turkey and Russia, railing against the feebleness and injustices of Oriental despotisms and the immorality of Western imperialism, and trying to forge a Pan-Islamic movement.

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