Last Tuesday's midterm elections, which put the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, raised the possibility of government gridlock, an event that "from a market standpoint probably is not a bad thing," Mr. Thorne added.
The scenes captured all the conflicting impulses in the nation's capital three days before George W. Bush's inauguration as the 43rd president, the hopes for cooperation across party lines to pass legislation on education, tax cuts and health care and the equally strong possibility of continued gridlock and sharp partisan conflict.
In his State of the Union address, the president drew a connection between the success of gay marriage and the possibility of ending gridlock in politics, "I've seen something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to drive us apart to a story of freedom across our country, a civil right now legal in states that seven in ten Americans call home".
The debt-ceiling debate is about to begin again, and House Speaker Boehner has said he will continue to press for more tax cuts without raising additional revenues, reviving the possibility of more budget gridlock and credit downgrades.
But there is no possibility of that given the political gridlock in Congress and President's Obama's desire to appear moderate and fiscally responsible going into next year's election.
The politics of gridlock.
The threat of gridlock faded.
Overall, there's a sense of gridlock.
