I took the idea to Nick, and stressed that it was only a short-term answer but it might be better than none.

They're a short-term answer to clean up the streets.

"The short-term answer is lower gas prices, but the longer-term answer for developing countries has got to be alternative energy strategies," he said.

Unbridled immigration, which provided a short-term answer to skill shortages, is about to backfire.

The short-term answer, however, is simple: Congress must stop the bleeding from this administration's reckless tax-cutting agenda.

The short-term answer, he said, "is going to be in improvement of the models and better agreement between models."

For the New Jersey Nets, one short-term answer came over the course of a game.

Obviously, it's going to be difficult to find short-term answers.

We can, and we should, have short-term answers, namely for those who are the most vulnerable in our societies.

People think much more in short terms, which is why when asked a freeform question like that, they would jump to the short-term answers.