Lame duck

A person or thing that isn't properly able to function, especially one that was previously proficient.

Origin

The description of 'lame duck' is often applied to politicians who are known to be in their final term of office, when colleagues and electors look toward a successor. It is also sometimes used to describe office-holders who have lost an election but have not yet left office.

In recent years (as of 2006) both George W. Bush and Tony Blair, unable to see out further electoral victories, have been faced with such mutterings, for example:

In May 2006, The Washington Post ran an article titled 'Bush's Political Capital Spent', including the opinion:
"Such weakness has unleashed the first mutterings of those dreaded second-term words, 'lame duck'."