A year ago he was thought to be a lead-pipe cinch to win the Democratic nomination.

"That makes quite a lead-pipe cinch for the operators of the numbers ring."

It's a lead-pipe cinch according to her instruments.

If she kept her wits about her, she said to herself, this was a lead-pipe cinch.

In 1988 it'll be a lead-pipe cinch.

It was a lead-pipe cinch.

It's a lead-pipe cinch, I tell you.

"This is a lead-pipe cinch.

(A novel called The President's Boyfriend ought to be a lead-pipe cinch.)

"A lead-pipe cinch," Eric repeated nervously.

It's a lead-pipe cinch that General Watsube will be in the Getoba within the next forty-eight hours.

It was a lead-pipe cinch that, because I'd made a date, Tinnie would suffer a miraculous remission from the sulks.

"But Blackbeard added, 'And that's a lead-pipe cinch.'

Then there's the kind of simple-minded news that Mr. Neuharth's book itself delivers: that success in business or in life is a lead-pipe cinch.

And if there were a crisis, and the President called . . . . (A lead-pipe cinch, but only under those unlikely circumstances).

"It's a lead-pipe cinch we will get the state money; it's just that it has created an expense we should not have to endure," Mr. Michael said.

Since blues have a disposition to impale themselves on anything you throw at them, I felt it was a lead-pipe cinch that we could have fresh ceviche for lunch.

Asked the chance of all three occurring, Rothenberg, realizing he might have to eat his words, said, "I think we're a lead-pipe cinch at all three of those."

The list looks like a lead-pipe cinch, with beloved classics like banana cream pie, apple pie, butterscotch pudding and malted milkshakes, but overthinking diminishes its impact.

"I don't think it's a lead-pipe cinch they will care," Mr. Buchanan said, "but they could take cues from that media emphasis, and then the question is whether he can establish that kind of credibility."

"Given what the continued killing has done to the president's standing in the polls this far, it is a lead-pipe cinch that as we lead up to the first days of November 2004, violence is going to be horrific."

'Trustees Responded Very Well' "There would be no credibility for this institution if the trustees didn't raise the $2 million, which we think is a lead-pipe cinch," Mr. Macomber said in an interview.

Weber said that DeWitt asked him to do it the day that Weber's statue of Ozzie Smith was unveiled "At the time, everybody thought he was a lead-pipe cinch to get in the Hall," Weber said of McGwire.

There obviously no pockets in Turrin's pajamas - and if he was carrying a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, it had been a lead-pipe cinch he wasn't carrying a house-key between his toes - he wouldn't have locked himself out.

And when a burglary of Democratic Party headquarters threatened to expose the nefarious range of news suppression or creation conducted by the investigative team called the White House plumbers, it was a lead-pipe cinch that a cover-up would result, with far worse consequences for the president, and for the country.