If you say that someone is floundering, you are criticizing them for not making decisions or for not knowing what to say or do. Right now, you've got a president who's floundering, trying to find some way to get his campaign jump-started.

What does the term foundering mean?

intransitive verb. 1 : to become disabled especially : to go lame. 2 : to give way : collapse. 3 : to become submerged : sink. 4 : to come to grief : fail.

Where does the expression floundering come from?

"struggle awkwardly and impotently," especially when hampered somehow, 1590s, of uncertain origin, perhaps from an alteration of founder (n.), influenced by Dutch flodderen "to flop about," or native verbs in fl- expressing clumsy motion. Figurative use is from 1680s.