WASHINGTON – One month before the deadline, negotiations between President Barack Obama and Republicans to save the economy from a plunge over the fiscal cliff are still in the throat-clearing stage. Serious bargaining is on hold while the two sides vie for political leverage.

Deal or no deal, nothing is likely to become clear until far closer to the year-end deadline, when the lure of getting away for the holidays will sharpen the focus of negotiators.

"There's a stalemate. Let's not kid ourselves," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Friday, punctuating the end of a week of political theater by divided government. "Right now we're almost nowhere."