What is said might box in the president, and Congress, but only because they've left a void.

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While poll after poll may tell us that the Republicans are losing the spending argument and are likely to shoulder the blame for any real pain caused by the sequester, what must be recognized is the box in which Congressional Republicans have been placed.

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What makes Mr Blair look lonely in his bottom-right box is the absence, now that Mr Mandelson has gone, of a single senior colleague who shares both his economic beliefs and his vision of political strategy.

ECONOMIST: Politics

The team is trying to install a new offense, and offensive coordinator Tony Sparano is still deciphering what he'll use from his "big box of goodies" in terms of playcalls involving the quarterback.

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Alistair Darling, Mr Brown's chancellor of the exchequer, looked a harried man as he made what is usually a grip-and-grin sprint to the House of Commons, brandishing the budget in Gladstone's red box.

ECONOMIST: Politics and the British budget