That's why political overpromising from Washington on this issue is particularly dangerous.

Overpromising has always been the strength - and weakness - of American education.

That does not reflect a lack of imagination but a determination to learn from the overpromising of previous Administrations.

Even when some constituents made gains, they had been courted with such lavish overpromising that they felt cheated.

Further, he says, today's more sophisticated car shoppers are likely to detect any overpromising, and have their suspicions of a salesman's slipperiness confirmed.

The overpromising and underfinanced No Child Left Behind initiative?

Overpromising, a chronic mistake in airline ads, could be more damaging now, Mr. Harteveldt said.

Mr. Bush's overpromising has included a forecast that we would all be buying hydrogen-fueled cars in 20 years and his pledge a year ago to rid the country of its addiction to oil.

Glance back 50 years, if you will, to an era when proclaiming a product a "miracle" was neither derided as hyperbolic overpromising nor accepted with a knowing smirk as retro-chic kitsch.

Overpromising, together with the willingness of both Democrats and Republicans to use any gimmick conceivable to avoid a tax increase, is what put New Jersey in such deep trouble in the first place.

"Part of the problem they have now is the overpromising and underdelivery in the first year," he said, citing the talk that Mr. Pittman and Mr. Levin served up at the time of the merger.

"I think we've learned from problems that we inherited that the state has tended to implement programs without having all the answers, and all that overpromising and underperforming are just not acceptable," Mr. Fox said in an interview.

The perils-of-Pauline saga of Lani Guinier is but the latest in a series of events in which Mr. Clinton has demonstrated a pattern of first overpromising and then backing down in the face of political heat.