It's only January, 10 months away from the US of A presidential election, but the Republicans are still scrapping like hyenas over the Conservative corpse, turning against each and growling. The sillly thing is that once the candidate is eventually chosen, then the other would-be presidents will all hunker round and support him (That's one thing we do know,it will be a Him not a Her. The Hers all fell by the way side a long time back). This is what happened in the Obama versus Hillary Clinton bout in the last presidential election campaign when the Democrats were trying to choose their candidate. Hillary, sweet-natured lady that she is, tore into Obama, describing him as a no-good, inexperienced jumped-up Senator who hadn't a clue about Big Time politics. But as soon as she had lost out to Obama, and after a period of mourning, grinding of teeth and screaming at the wall, she and Bill came out into the sunshine and said they would give their all for Obama and that he was The Chosen One who would be a great President. We don't know yet, and Hillary isn't telling, whether Obama is or will be or might be a great president. Four years of hassle hassle hassle hasn't made it possible to make an historic judgment as yet. Mind you, I'm just a Brit interloper, what do I know? What I do know - because I was standing a few feet from her not that long ago and asking her a question about Iraq, as you do - Hillary is looking absolutely exhausted. She claims she doesn't want another four-year term as Sec of State if Obama wins and I believe her. She's pooked and fancies a quiet life is my thinking. Meanwhile, the last four Republican candidates left in the race, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, are steadily getting louder, more insulting, more belligerent and less and less presidential and they haven't started on Obama properly yet. I still think Romney will win because he looks more the part than Gingrich, and Gingrich thinks he's another Churchill which he ain't. Word of warning, don't read up about Mormonism if you want to feel comfortable with having Romney in the White House. Apart from the taxi driver who launched the religion, there's something about a spaceship involved somewhere which I find slightly disturbing, although it may account for some of Romney's weird, somewhat unhuman mannerisms. Beneath that Hollywood veneer there's a little green man bursting to get out. I'm surprised Newt hasn't brought this up. After all, in the early days, Republican candidates were scoffing at Obama's birthplace, saying he wasn't born in Hawaii but in a shack in Indonesia. Someone should ask Romney whether he was born in the US of A or on the moon.
Two fashionable ladies sitting in a posh restaurant in Boston and drinking Chardonnay are chatting quite loudly about guns and stuff. One turns to the other and says: "Well darling, the most important thing is if you're going to shoot someone make sure you kill him, otherwise he'll sue you." This little gem was overheard by a Times reporter while on a visit to Boston the other day. It could only happen in America. And this ain't the deep south, this is clam chowder Boston, very upmarket. While on the subject of shooting, and forgive me those of a delicate nature, but the following story in one of the US papers is, I think, worth recording: "Headless body found in topless bar." This requires no further comment.
I have at last managed to break through the biggest obstacle in being a Brit here in Washington, being recognised as someone worthy of asking a question at a press conference. As I have mentioned before, whether it's Obama or Leon Panetta or Hillary or whoever, the same old routine is always followed. It's the big boys and girls from the broadcasting organisations plus the New York Times, Washington Post etc and Associated Press who get to ask the questions, and to be honest, most of the questions are pretty mundane and often stupid, ie we all know the answer already so why ask it! Well, I got my question to Hillary, but that had been pre-arranged. The press conference was for the visit of William Hague to see Hillary. I was told I could ask the Brit question and someone from the US o A would ask the American question. But last week Panetta, esteemed Defence Secretary and former CIA director, was giving a press conference at the Pentagon about the defence cuts - a staggering $487 billion's worth (about 487 times bigger than Belgium's annual defence spending!!). I was sitting at the back of a room packed with about 100 journalists. All the questions were blaa blaa blaa and the answers were blaa blaa blaa. It was falling asleep time. I popped up my hand and caught the eye of the Assistant Defence Secretary (public affairs), and to my astonishment, he said: "This is the last question. Mike?" In my frightfully Brit accent which made everyone turn around - 99 pairs of eyes - I asked Panetta, in terms of security challenges and threats, what was worrying him most, particularly looking ahead the next 12 months. He hesitated and then replied, with a chuckle: "This is a set-up." Everyone in the room laughed. Good old Brit, he's done it again, changed the sleepy atmosphere. Panetta, unfortunately, didn't give the reply I wanted which was: "What keeps me awake at night is that man Ahmadinejad and his nuclear weapons programme." But he gave a reasonably good answer which did mention Iran. Anyway, the other reporters thought it was a good question because they were furiously writing down the answer and came and said so afterwards. Quite satisfying really.
