University of Virginia expert Larry Sabato says the single most important issue in next year’s election will be how voters rate Mr. Obama on economic issues.

John McCain, Mr Obama's Republican rival, was widely judged to have fumbled his response to the crisis.

George Will, a conservative columnist, notes that Disraeli's gibe about Gladstone might well apply to Mr Obama-he is "inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity".