Video guide to the US mid-terms
Kevin Marsh
is director of OffspinMedia and a former Today editor
Covering the US mid-term elections usually gets BBC editors in trouble with their audiences. 'It's a US story ...' or 'it's nothing to do with us ...' or 'you focus too much on America and not enough on Europe ...'
US Mid-Terms Briefing
Justin Webb talks about some of the big stories and themes in the forthcoming US mid-term elections.
Actually, that last point has got a lot going for it ... but maybe not when the most powerful man in the world has to submit himself to what is always seen as a half-time judgment on his presidency.
And that's the truth of it. On one level the US mid-terms are a big domestic story ... 3,000 miles away in the US. They'll determine which party, Democratic or Republican, controls Congress for the next two years and will create the political context for the rest of President Obama's first term.
But the outcome - and the story - is about much more than that.
And, for the political classes at least, they mark the beginning of the countdown to the next presidential election in 2012.
Justin Webb was the BBC's North America Editor during the last presidential campaign. In this video guide, he talks about some of the big stories and themes around the mid-terms - both before and after the votes are counted.
Individual races for seats in Congress or the Senate will provide much of the colour and drama on election night, he says, but what matters just as much is the story of where the votes come from.
Who will capture the middle ground - many of those voters who supported Barack Obama's last presidential bid - and what will it mean for the electoral map in 2012?
