1.   And lawmakers, uniquely sensitive to public opinion, largely have dropped the rhetoric of overturning Roe v. Wade through a constitutional amendment.

2.   ANC leaders have dropped such rhetoric since taking power, hoping to reassure the local and foreign investors it needs to jump start the economy and combat massive unemployment.

3.   The Abu Sayyaf has all but dropped religious rhetoric in interviews with reporters.

4.   With the fall of the Berlin Wall, it dropped Marxist rhetoric and sought to project a social democrat image in transforming itself into the Left Party.