The plan sounds reasonable enough at first glance. DHL, the express mail service of Deutsche Post in the US, is not doing well, with slow business already having led the company to torpedo its US expansion plans in May. Now, facing losses of up to $1 billion this year, the company is negotiating with competitor UPS in the hopes of cooperating on air cargo.

Yet what may seem like a sound business move has the state of Ohio, where DHL is based, up in arms. The entire Congressional delegation from the state has said it would resist any UPS-DHL deal and Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher told SPIEGEL ONLINE that he would "do everything we can" to prevent the trans-Atlantic marriage.

And now, even Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his Democratic counterpart Barack Obama have gotten into the act, each voicing concerns about possible violations of US anti-trust laws.

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