BBC - Around the World - Ariel's 'Foreign Bureau' - 26 October 2004

By Martin Turner, Bureau Chief, Washington, 26 October 2004

Could we just ask people to introduce themselves? Such was the plea from one of the Washington staff at our morning meeting.

There is an extraordinary throughput of people. Whether it’s the Politics Show cutting its programme at 2am or HardTalk en route to Ohio, there’s always a collection of visitors in the Washington bureau.

They are welcome — particularly when they bring English chocolate which is so much better than the inedible stuff manufactured here.

However, I do find myself sidling up to staff and asking surreptitiously whether anyone has the faintest idea who someone is.

And of course, as the Daily Mail has taken delight in pointing out, the number of visitors is about to rise as we reach the final phase of the battle for the White House. It’s a battle being fought in a limited number of places, most of them far away from Washington DC.

So our teams have been criss-crossing the country, first to the debates and now to the toss-up states which will decide who wins on November 2.

On the night, we’re planning to be in Florida and Ohio and Boston and Oregon and California... and it’s tempting to add a Howard Dean scream to round the list off.

We’re taking over part of the hotel opposite the bureau to accommodate visiting staff. A laser beam will provide connectivity between the two buildings. In all there will be 16 radio filing points in Washington alone.

In an excess of optimism over common sense, we are trying to cram 100 people into the bureau.

Experience teaches that this works after a fashion, but creates conditions associated with a signal failure on the Northern line on a day with just enough moisture to release the delicious smells stored in everyone’s clothing.

But if there were ever an election worth enduring some odours, then this is it.

Political pundits scratch their heads. "No one knows what the result is going to be on November 2," they mutter.

The latest polls don’t tell us very much, except that there is a general trend at the moment in favour of George W.

But then there’s also a very slight trend in favour of John Kerry in the states that count and there’s also the small matter of hundreds of thousands of newly-registered voters who might actually turn up and cast their ballot.

Since this is an entirely new phenomenon, the polls are casting around in the dark to try to guess their intentions, which is why the pundits are right when they say we really don’t know what’s going to happen on election night.

It’s a crucial election and of course the number of BBC visitors always offers an easy target. But the reality is that there will be hundreds of hours of programmes for people around the world who are genuinely engaged in a fascinating story whose outcome will directly affect their lives.

So welcoming some visitors is meet, right and the natural thing to do – but please do come and introduce yourself.