E. J. Montini in The Arizona Republic on Giffords’ return to Congress:

Is she ready to do that?

No.

Is she close?

No. […]

“The only firm timetable is the legal timetable, and that is May of 2012, when petitions are due for re-election,” [Pia Carusone, Giffords’ chief of staff] said. “That’s a firm timetable. Short of that, we’d love to know today what her life will be, what her quality of life will be, which will determine whether she’ll be able to run for office and all sorts of other things involving her life. But we just don’t know yet. . . .

“We’re about halfway through the process that is the most important time for recovery. Patients recover for the rest of their lives, but it’s the first 12 to 14 months that you make the biggest jumps. . . . In the doctors’ minds, it’s not even close to when you begin to make the final prognosis for the quality of her life.”

Via. Discussion. Comment, “One gets the sense, reading the interview, that those immediately around Giffords are realistic, while the rest of us, perhaps, have been dreaming a little.”

Speculation about Giffords’ 2012 campaign needs to stop.