But behind Mr Darling as he delivered his pre-budget statement in the Commons was the glowering face of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who knows the government is gambling a fortune of borrowed money to beat the slump.
The statement, nearly an hour long, followed more leaks than St David's Day and put the Tories in a stew.
How could Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, the MP for Tatton, object to attempts to increase spending pre-Christmas or threaten to reverse tax cuts for those earning £150,000 or more?
From the moment he stood up in the Commons chamber, Mr Darling faced jeering from the Tory benches, and not a few pale faces amongst Labour back-benchers as he said these were `extraordinarily challenging times' for the economy and the effect on families.
The chancellor cut VAT as predicted. But he warned that the giveaway would have to be paid for with rises in duty on petrol, alcohol, tobacco and National Insurance if the economy begins to pick up from 2010.
Tory MPs were aghast as he said that borrowing would rocket to £78bn this year and £118bn next year and Mr Osborne, in a fierce attack, said the package would double the national debt to £1trillion and leave a "huge unexploded tax bomb" ticking under the public purse.
"The prime minister's claim to have abolished boom and bust is a great deceit. This is the bill the country will have to pay for Labour's decade of irresponsibility," said Mr Osborne.
With Gordon Brown's famous "prudence" dumped in the river, and Labour's U-turn on taxing the higher paid, Mr Darling emerged bloodied but unbowed - after apparently cutting himself while shaving yesterday morning. The chancellor's aim was to shorten the recession and get families through difficult times.
It remains to be seen whether it works and whether it will get the government through difficult times. Tweet