After we toss Obama from office in 2012?

WASHINGTON (Market Watch) — The United States is unlikely to manage a quick return to the top-tier rating of AAA, a Standard & Poor’s official said Monday.

“Given the nature of the debate currently in the country and the polarization of views around fiscal policies right now, we don’t see anything immediately on the horizon that would make an upgrade back to AAA again the most likely scenario,” said David Beers, S&P’s head of global sovereign ratings.

The earliest a sovereign has ever returned to a AAA rating was nine years, officials with the ratings agency said.

The dollar is likely to remain the key international reserve currency despite the downgrade, said John Chambers, chairman of S&P’s sovereign ratings committee.

Their comments came as S&P defended its decision late Friday to strip the U.S. of its debt rating for the first time in history, saying that the political system of the world’s top economy has become less stable and that budget cutting announced last week didn’t go far enough.