Similar to "cut and run", a pejorative phrase used to describe cowardly withdrawal from battle, "stay the course" allegedly originated as a nautical metaphor on maintaining a constant, unaltering course while navigating.
[6] The phrase gained a central place in rhetoric due to the publication by journalist Stewart Alsop in his 1973 memoirs of a conversation with Winston Churchill.
According to The Washington Post, Reagan used the "stay the course" phrase while on a ten-day political campaign through fourteen states,[9] and it was included in his 1982 budget message,[10] where he sought to allay fears that his policies were causing a recession.
The phrase was used by George W. Bush in July 2003 while in Gaborone, Botswana, after a meeting with President Festus Gontebanye Mogae to discuss the War on Terrorism.
On the other hand, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News's This Week, Bush stated that "we've never been stay the course", in response to a question asking him about his thoughts on James Baker’s comments that the strategy in Iraq should be "between 'stay the course' and 'cut and run'.
"[20] The phrase has been repeatedly parodied by political cartoonists,[21] ranging from animator Mark Fiore[22] to Chip Bok of the Akron Beacon Journal.