Not with a bang, but a whimper

You know times are tough when the American president and the British prime minister start talking about the good ol' days of the Blitz....

Times are so bad, in fact, that Brown flew to America on a plane provided by the discount charter company Titan Airways. The stature of the two leaders had shrunk so much that there were empty seats in the Rose Garden yesterday, and only Fox News bothered to have its correspondent do a live report from the event. When aides preceded the two leaders to the Rose Garden, they left the door to the Oval Office ajar -- forcing the president himself to reach out and pull the door shut so he could make his grand entrance.

[From Dana Milbank - Isn't That Special? - washingtonpost.com]