They looked like they had always been the weak,unhappy creatures who were bent over the doctor's table.

VOA: special.2010.10.23

The GOP is probably two-thirds responsible for the credit crisis to begin with (chain-sawing rulebooks will do that) and its current leadership has been equally pathetic in terms of bringing solutions to the table for joblessness and weak business activity.

FORBES: GOP Offers Heckling As Economic Solution

What makes all of this potentially realistic -- and not a fantasy -- is that the deals on the table are not transformational ones where weak and constrained leaders need to push for impossible goals or make decisions beyond their capacities.

CNN: Obama's Israel trip is about legacy

That decision was a response to a U.S. unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent, a recent slowdown in already weak GDP growth, a decline in total employment in three of the past four months, a low and declining inflation rate, weak money growth, and fiscal policy off the table over deficit concerns.

FORBES: Global Pots Calling the Kettle Black