The Democrats owe their majority in large part to war-weariness.

ECONOMIST: The Democrats

The Republicans' crushing loss of both houses of Congress in the mid-term election of 2006, thanks in large part to war-weariness, crops up only in passing, as a possible impediment to the planned surge in Iraq.

ECONOMIST: More vice than virtue

More important, however, nationalists seem to have gained a political self-confidence that unionists now lack, born of both war-weariness and faith in the leadership of Sinn Fein and the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party, the largest nationalist party.

ECONOMIST: Ulster waits