 It's Washington, but not our studio... |
Hello again...
It's funny how things change.
Two years ago when I was here in the US for the Presidential election, people looked at you as though you were slightly strange when you raised the subject of Iraq.
Two years on, and just a few days from the mid-term elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate, oh boy, how that has changed.
But there are a couple of other big ticket issues as well causing huge concern, and when I finally list them, we are going to pose that question so loved by examiners: "compare and contrast".
 Will Jesse Jackson's Democrats offer what's needed..? |
Yes, the other two main issues here are... illegal immigration - perceived to be out of control (ok, from across the Rio Grande and not the English Channel) and... the declining trust in government.
It all sounds very familiar.
On this Sunday's special edition of the Politics Show from Washington, I'll be talking to Tom Ridge, a close ally of the President and the man he charged with protecting national security after 9/11, about what's gone wrong.
We'll also be talking to the veteran black Civil Rights leader and former Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson about what the opposition Democrats have to offer.
Also on the programme...
 They are still very much alive in the memories of many |
The UK government is about to complete the process of pardoning the three hundred soldiers shot for desertion, cowardice and other offences in the First World War.
Relatives of the executed men have been campaigning for them to be exonerated ever since, and there's no doubt that the court martial process which led to their conviction was fairly arbitrary.
But just suppose for a moment that they did run away, when thousands of others, equally scared, stood and fought?
Almost all of us have relatives who served on the Western Front; what would they have thought about pardoning soldiers who, some say, let their comrades down?
Max Cotton reports on the emotive issue before Parliament this week.
The Politics Show on Sunday 05 November 2006 at 12:00 GMT on BBC One.
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