End of midterms
So it’s all over bar the shouting – the US midterms have transformed politics in Washington, and President Bush must add a new phrase to his political vocabulary – bipartisan cooperation.
The ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s team in Washington, winding down after a week surviving on black coffee and adrenalin, are taking stock of the new landscape. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the new stars of Washington’s political constellation. It remains to be seen just how well soon-to-be House Speaker Pelosi and the presumed Senate Majority Leader Reid will work with President Bush.
But what next? The departure of Donald Rumsfeld puts the spotlight back on the President’s Iraq policy and how it might change. The independent Iraq Study Group has been charged with finding new ideas – it’s expected to report in early December. New ideas are urgently needed.
The long thinkers are already looking to 2008 and which political figures have burnished their presidential ambitions during the midterm campaign. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is still the odds-on favourite to take her party’s nomination, although Barack Obama is a long bet.
The picture is far less clear on the Republican side -- it’s much easier to point to White House hopefuls who have crashed and burned in recent months. So who’s left in the field? Arizona Senator John McCain is still standing, and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has a strong following.
The next two years will be fascinating. Any viewers, listeners or readers who might wonder why the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has devoted such energy and time this week to reports from the US, need only consider how wide the implications of this week's events might be - not just the US, but Iraq, the wider Middle East, the UK - and perhaps even the premiership of Tony Blair.
Comments
One question I have about the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage is that the picture quality when Gavin Esler was presenting from the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Washington studio for Newsnight was very poor. Was this a NTSC-PAL conversion problem or was it due to different ´óÏó´«Ã½ services needing feeds from Washington at the same time?
America is now truly on a highly necessary new course of direction. Thankfully the Democrats have come in with a bang and will be able to ensure that the middle class and the poor get the attention they need to alleviate the abject situation they were in especially with regard to health care, jobs and employment. President Bush has two years to go and he could resurrect his flagging poll rating by adopting more multilateral policies and working in tune with the Democrats. He had no choice but to get rid of Donald Rumsfeld and he will have to relieve other abrasive figures if he really wants to play ball with the Democrats, make a difference and give Americans a better future.
Never mind 2008, just contemplate Bush strategist Karl Rove's conclusion that "The profile of corruption in the exit polls was bigger than I'd expected". Heck, where's the justice in that?
Midterm brings a check call for US politicians, a clear message of uncertanity, violent behaviour, criminal attitute, because of unavailability of national & international agenda to public.
A communication gap between public & politicians, every body is complaining & no body is listening.
Infact US society is unable to catchup to speed of moderanisation as society & social values are dissolving or rapidly changing, this is a big challange to an human society to maintain the sustainable gap.
Due to constant defeat by modernisation, society, culture moral & social problems arises in common public life, they are unable to handle or they are not ready to face the problems, then they try to resolve the problems by way of putting them in trouble with law enforcement , blame to Govt, blame to parents inability to install quality & standard of life etc, fact of matter is modernasition is on high speed & causing trouble in common public life or is not in positive direction. Cutting long story short keeping in view common public interest we have to determin direction of modernasition in ignored sectors with out damaging basic human society's structure.
"So it's all over bar the shouting." If so, then the ´óÏó´«Ã½ must plead guilty to raising its voice beyond shrill. Today again, a week after the elections I heard ´óÏó´«Ã½ report that President Bush's visit abroad will be the first test of how he is perceived by foreign governments since the defeat of Republicans in the mid-term elections. Who wants to bet ´óÏó´«Ã½ will continue to shout about it well into the new year. You can hear in ´óÏó´«Ã½'s tone of voice if nothing else its hopes and expectations that US policy will change in ways it approves of on a whole host of issues from global warming treaties to the war in Iraq. Well ´óÏó´«Ã½, you may be in for a bit of disappointment, American policy is often the result of consensus, the position of the President not only strongly influenced by many others but representing a majority including even those in what you call "the party opposite." Don't hold your breath waiting, it could be a long time coming...or never.