The Fall Of Gordon Brown

So Gordon Brown is either just barely holding on, if you read the stateside papers, or probably in a good position to survive if you read the papers in Britain. Clearly Brown is just marking time until his inevitable exit after elections in around 2010, because I cannot see Labour being able to hold off the challenge from the Conservatives. Basically every incumbent from around the time of the financial meltdown has no shot of surviving, as a rule of thumb. But the tenor of the immediate, near-term threat to Brown's power really changes depending on what paper you read.

What makes this truly sad is that Brown exercised early and decisive leadership on the financial crisis, and steered the policy discussion in the right direction. Nevertheless, he's being blamed both for scandals beyond his control, like the expense account scandal among top political leaders, as well as general blame for the worsening economic conditions, for which he also should not necessarily be faulted, although he was the exchequer while the bubble was inflated.