<p>Neither Mr. Obama nor the Republicans has a workable plan.
Neither Mr. Obama nor the Republicans have a workable plan.</p>
<p>Which is correct? The first one was written in the Economist, but the second sounds better to my ear.</p>
<p>“Neither” usually takes a singular verb, but it’s tricky in this case because you’re mixing singular and plural subjects. According to [url=<a href=“http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp]this[/url”>Subject-Verb Agreement | Examples and Rules]this[/url</a>] source (Rule 5) you should go with “have” in this case.</p>
<p>The first version sounds better to my ear, though. I think if I had written the sentence, I would probably try to rephrase and avoid the issue.</p>
<p>The latter is correct.</p>
<p>The rule for “neither . . . nor” is a little strange. The rule is: the correct verb is determined by the subject CLOSEST to the verb. So, the following sentences are all grammatically correct:</p>
<p>Neither Mr. Obama nor Ms. Palin has a workable plan.
Neither the Republicans nor Mr. Obama has a workable plan.</p>
<p>Neither Mr. Obama nor the Republicans have a workable plan.
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a workable plan.</p>
<p>lol Economist fail.</p>