TOBY HARNDEN: Down On The Fourth of July: The United States Of Gloom. “The last comparable Fourth of July was probably in 1980, when there was a recession, skyrocketing petrol prices and an Iranian hostage crisis, with 53 Americans being held in Tehran. . . . Obama’s promise of a national transformation after the Bush years, moreover, means that the thud of coming back down to earth has been that much harder.”

So much for all the hope-and-change talk.