maineman @ 121: There seems to be an emerging consensus that we may be able to wake up from the nightmare of the past two years without the requirement of a national crack-up.

I don’t know about “consensus”. The financial meltdown was arrested, for only an immediate expenditure of $3,000,000,000,000. But an arrest is not a conviction, the perp may walk and offend again and cost another $3t or $6t or $15t, and what then? Not to mention the empty suit in the White House who thinks we *should* add another $1t/year just for the fun of it.

Or perhaps you mean, the democratic super-majority may be broken before we are all marching around singing the praises of the glorious leader before dropping dead of malnutrition and lack of medical care. May be, but there are still many problems remaining, including an unprecedented polarization and no prospects at all of that changing for the better.

I’m glad for the respite, and know that much of life is just stumbling through, but I really don’t grok that consensus thing.