I have spent the last week in my favourite city in the world – Washington DC. It’s a city with a buzz, a mecca for those of us who love to obsess about politics. And it’s a city full of culture, history and entertainment. The fact that it’s an appallingly run city and a very dangerous one are two facts which are masked by its aura of power and influence.
I have been struck by two things since I have been here. Firstly, by how truly admired and respected we British are. Everywhere I go people thank me for Britain sticking by her powerful ally in the war on terror. They truly regard Tony Blair as a hero.
The advert my internet TV station made called A WORLD WITHOUT AMERICA, in which we examined what the world would be like if America didn’t exist has become a cult hit, and was the most popular video on Youtube last week. Everyone here seems to have seen it - apparently including the President himself – and as a consequence we have been lauded everywhere we have been.
Secondly, I have been slightly appalled by the number of people who have asked if I think that David Cameron will ruin the so-called ‘Special Relationship’. A myth has grown here that Cameron is somehow anti-American. It stemmed from some unfortunate remarks he made in a speech on the fifth anniversary of 9-11, where he said that America needed a foreign policy of ‘patience and humility’. These remarks caused grave offence here, despite the fact that if one read the full speech there were plenty of positive remarks about America and the need for Britain to forge close links. This speech was followed up by William Hague who said we should not have a ‘slavish relationship’ with America. I’m tempted to ask if any politician would propose we should indeed have a ‘slavish relationship’!
Whatever Cameron and Hague’s intentions, they have badly backfired in Washington and there is a lot of work to do before the damage can be repaired. Some may say, so what? Why should we bother? After all, isn’t our priority now to build closer relations with our European partners? The truth of it is that Britain matters in international relations because it has successfully played a ‘bridging’ role between American and Europe. Whoever is in power, Labour or Conservative, has been able to use their influence and friendship with the Americans to good effect. Only when Nixon and Heath were in power did the relationship founder.
The first foreign policy for the next Prime Minister – Gordon Brown, or David Cameron, is to build a close relationship with the American President. Without it our influence in world affairs is diminished.
The next US presidential election promises to be the most interesting for two decades. The candidates are already squaring up and knocking ten bells out of each other. The three front runners on the Democratic side are Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. Clinton is a woman who polarises opinion like few other politicians. You either love her or you hate her – and that’s why in my opinion she cannot win. She may win the nomination, but she will not be able to emulate her husband and build that ‘big tent’ coalition which swept him to power. Obama is a man full of Kennedyesque optimism and vigour, but one wonders whether he will last the course.
On the Republican side, John McCain is already faltering. He turned 70 this week and looks it. I saw him speak at last years Tory conference and he bombed. The mormon former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney has plenty of charisma, but his policy flip-flops threaten to make him seem vacuous.
The man I would vote for is Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York. He has proven leadership skills and has turned New York City round and ridden it of its reputation as the most dangerous city in the world. But his liberal views on abortion, gay rights and gun control mean that he will struggle to gain the support of the religious right. If he can win despite that he may prove to be the saviour of the Republican Party, which is threatening to become more of a sect than a political party. Just as the Conservatives narrowed their political appeal by appearing to obsess about Europe, so the Republicans seem determined to emulate them by becoming neurotic about social issues.
This is a time when they should be widening their appeal, not narrowing it. They need to give Rudy Giuliani the chance to do for America what he did for New York.
You do have to wonder at news values sometimes. Most newspapers made great play of a little girl sticking out her tongue at David Cameron during his visit to sheets devoted acres of column space to this momentous issue. Oh well, I guess that's more important than his views on the Middle East Peace Process then. Of course it really would have been a story if he had turned round and stuck out his tongue at the little girl!
There was a very funny ‘post oscars’ moment when a reporter on the snow clad streets of New York asked someone what they thought of Al Gore winning an award for his climate change film AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Looking as if he was about to freeze into an a statue the interviewee blurted out: "So Al Gore won an Oscar for global warming. Well Al Gore can kiss my frozen ass."
So eloquent, and so concise. I particularly loved the scenes of all those celebrities swooning over Gore... having all arrived in their 7 litre stretch limos. Dontcha just love Hollywood hypocrisy?
