|
Reader question: Please explain “save the day” (What day?) in this sentence: “As Obama, Cameron and Hollande floundered around looking for a workable policy on Assad’s chemical arsenal, Putin stepped in at the last moment to save the day.” My comments: The day refers to the situation as a whole, the situation in which we find ourselves. You may, however, understand “the day” as the date when what’s under discussion is happening. It may help. Anyways, to save the day as an idiom means simply to salvage something, to prevent something bad from happening or to prevent something bad from getting even worse. Or to get something good out of a bad situation. In our current discussion, Putin prevented a bad situation from getting significantly worse. Vladimir Putin that is, the Russian President intervened at the last moment to help strike a deal between America and Syria – in which Syria agrees to stop using and to allow the United Nations to check its chemical weapons while America agrees not to use force against the Middle East country for the time being. First, let’s get the other names right. (Barack) Obama is the American President. He wants to intervene militarily in Syria’s civil war. (David) Cameron is the British Prime Minister while (Francois) Hollande is the French President. Obama needs the consent and support of these two in order to go ahead with its plans to use force against (Bashar al-)Assad, the Syrian President. | 
