HONG KONG — Democracy in America — what a fine show it is, great television, wonderful speeches, some weird and wacky candidates, an opportunity for The People to make their views count.
But as the leaders in Beijing watched the results of last week's midterm polls in the United States, they must have been muttering their thanks to Mao Zedong or whatever gods they believe in that they don't have such a messy and unpredictable system.
Two years after President Barack Obama and his Democrats swept to power in the White House and Congress on a popular wave of "Yes, we can" — the belief that they were going to transform the U.S. — the U.S. economy is groaning under massive deficits and high unemployment. Obama's majority has been smashed, his capacity to govern gravely weakened, and he has to cut deals with his opponents to govern — a choice of abandoning his principles or risking gridlock.