America, the eagle with clipped talons
The following is excerpted from the 12 October 2011 edition of The Globe and Mail.
It is hard to imagine anything substantial being accomplished by the U.S. Congress before early 2013.
Both parties are already in non-stop campaigning mode, gearing up for the November, 2012, presidential election. Whoever wins won’t take office until January, which is also when new legislators arrive in Congress. After that, it will take many weeks or months for legislation to be framed, for presidential appointments to be ratified and for the new administration to set its course. The settling-in process will be shorter if Barack Obama is re-elected, but the very mention of his name so infuriates Republicans that it is hard to imagine compromises unfolding before then in the interests of making Congress work...
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