[gwenhwyfaer]

About the only advantage of the lack of democracy in the European Commission is that it's very difficult to buy people who have security of tenure...

I don't know that the term "stunning" is wholly appropriate (yes, I know it was Yahoo's choice) - perhaps "comprehensive" or "thorough" would be better, as I don't think anyone in the EU was particularly surprised at the outcome. I found what happened (or not) in the US much more confounding.