Mr Bush's to hammer away at the question of values.

ECONOMIST: The duck-hunting season begins

The plan represents an 11th-hour effort to hammer al-Qaida until the Bush administration leaves office, two government officials told NPR.

NPR: Bush Puts New Focus On Bin Laden, Al-Qaida

So George Bush has been unwise to leave Mexico in limbo, instead of completing the deal he had begun to hammer out with Vicente Fox.

ECONOMIST: Managing the market

Behind the scenes, moderates were feverishly working to try to hammer out a compromise to avoid the "nuclear option, " which would end Democratic filibusters of Bush's nominees by changing Senate rules rather than mustering 60 votes to end debate.

CNN: Senate showdown set for Tuesday

That leaves one, rather distant, hope: that, in the lame-duck period between the election and the next Congress, prompted by the imminent expiry of George Bush's tax cuts at the beginning of 2013, America's politicians will sit down and finally hammer out the grand bargain the country so desperately needs, with the tax increases delayed in exchange for sensible reforms to spending and the tax code.

ECONOMIST: America��s fragile recovery