Justin Webb's America

Strange endorsement

• Justin Webb
• 7 Nov 07, 04:00 PM GMT

The endorsement of Rudy Giuliani - the gay-friendly, abortion-tolerant, gun-hostile, former mayor of New York - by the evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson is breathtaking on all kinds of levels. Didn't Pat once think that 9/11 was a punishment visited on Gotham City by a vengeful God?

There was a wonderful moment at a debate a few months ago when lightning struck nearby while Rudy was talking about abortion - he paused and laughed! Supernatural interventions in human affairs are not for rigorous Rudy. He now gets the "free media" of the Robertson TV empire and its audience, having given nothing in return.

What a mess the religious right is in...

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A 'transformative' election?

• Justin Webb
• 7 Nov 07, 01:00 PM GMT

A year to go. The buzzword here on the subject of the 2008 presidential election is that it will be "transformative." Washington insiders nod sagely at this thought and go about their business warmed by its power. I am at a disadvantage though: I am not sure what "transformative" really means.

Does it mean a black man might take over, or a woman? To some that is it; particularly those who back Senator Obama as a generational - not just a racial - new start; a man who will take the nation beyond the stale battles of the baby-boom generation. But transformative means rather more, it seems...

The best explanation I have had came from the respected and super-smart pollster John Zogby, who kept off the personalities (at least on the record) but talked instead about the polling data that suggests a rare restiveness among the American people, a sense that the status quo is rotten. Zogby points out that FDR did not come to power with the New Deal in his pocket; Ronald Reagan did not have the battle plan to win the Cold War up his sleeve: it's just that both men were able to seize moments. Now is a moment to be seized; there are (to mix the metaphor) open doors to be pushed at.

So who is going to win? In London the other day a senior figure from the Tony Blair inner circle bet me fifty pounds that Barack Obama will be the Democrats' choice, pipping Hillary Clinton at the post. I doubt it: but the primaries are dynamic events in which (remember the Dean Scream) stuff happens. And neither of those two candidates has any executive experience; might the party panic at the last moment and turn to Bill Richardson, a governor, former cabinet member and UN ambassador?

As for the Republicans; there is a real danger that the media abuse heaped on all of their candidates will rather rebound on the commentators when someone is chosen and that someone becomes (as I am sure they will) a perfectly respectable presidential candidate. But Lord knows who it will be. My money is on a McCain comeback, fuelled by improving news from Iraq and the desire for a grownup to take on the resurgent Democrats.

A friend of mine from California makes an intriguing suggestion: that the post of president should be left vacant this time round. Empty chair the rascals, substitute introspection and self-analysis for leadership, and try again in four years time.

PS: This is the first substantive post - the first of many - in my new blog. You can learn more about me here, my job here, or visit the main index of this blog. You could also subscribe to my RSS feed (or, indeed, click here if you don't know what an RSS feed is).

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About Justin Webb

• Justin Webb
• 7 Nov 07, 12:00 PM GMT

There is nowhere in the world I would rather be than Washington DC. Sexier cities do exist of course, and less socially-divided places as well, but nowhere is as powerful, as full of news, and as vitally important to the lives and futures of us all. I have been here for six years and intend to stay for 600. My youngest child is American and my older ones sound American. And that's fine by me.

Washington is even more powerful than Brussels, where I was for three years before coming here, and from where I was (semi) expelled after suggesting that Prague might make a prettier capital of Europe.

These have been my only two foreign postings - although years ago I used to fly out of London on brief forays abroad (to the Maldives to cover what turned out to be an imaginary coup, for instance, and to Bosnia for an all-too-real war). I also spent time getting up at three in the morning, wearing makeup and feeling knackered, as the presenter of Breakfast News on BBC One.

Before that I was a reporter on the Today programme on Radio Four and way way back (if you're still reading this...) I had the honour of beginning my career in the wonderful BBC Northern Ireland office - Good Morning Ulster was the name of the programme and a very fine one it was, and doubtless still is.

I have never worked outside the BBC unless you count a brief stint writing speeches for an MP and licking envelopes at a lobbying company called GJW Government Relations.

I am the product of a Quaker school so am incapable of lying. My alma mater is the world's finest, the London School of Economics from where I graduated in Economics back in 1983.

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