The Economist Cover: The Hardball Campaign

The cover picture on this week’s The Economist sums up what the next 7 months will look like in the United States.

Elections that offer clear choices can be good things. Isn’t that politics as usual? But American voters are in danger of being forced to choose in November between a Republican Party that is allergic to needed tax rises and a Democratic Party that lacks the courage to make the spending cuts required for America to live within its means. The prospect is for a shouting match that pushes the parties ever further apart and threatens to make the whole system of government seize up.