Come here for America in all its glory - my take on the twist and turns of the presidency, electoral races and life beyond Washington
15 hours ago
Plenty of people have left Vegas broken after a huge gamble, perhaps a smaller number as clear-cut winners. After the Republican debate, did any of the candidates lose their shirt?
Remember, at the moment, this contest isn't about breaking the bank; it's about earning more chips. It's about coming second.
22 hours ago
I've just read a fascinating book about one of the big issues in America which divides the US and most puzzles us British: America's gun laws.
Gun Fight by Professor Adam Winkler (full disclosure: a freebie) is intriguing in these partisan times, both because it is a very balanced, objective book and because the author makes the case for a middle way.
19:46 UK time, Monday, 17 October 2011
President Obama is out on the stump again, pushing his American Jobs Act in North Carolina and Virginia.
The Republicans have put out a detailed document arguing he is trying to resell a policy that has failed once already.
02:45 UK time, Friday, 14 October 2011
The singer keeping the Occupy Wall Street protesters entertained in Liberty Plaza in New York sounds uncannily like the young Bob Dylan.
"In unrestricted greed we trust, bail out the banks and not the single mum, borrow from China to pay for the bombs…"
07:58 UK time, Thursday, 13 October 2011
In Nashville, Hirak Pati has mixed feelings about his experience at the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York.
It was the first time the 20-year-old political science student had found himself on the wrong side of the law.
00:07 UK time, Tuesday, 11 October 2011
America feels a gloomier place today than when I arrived two years ago.
It is not hard to work out why. Most, including the president and the White House, expected people would be feeling the effects of the recovery by now.
01:45 UK time, Saturday, 8 October 2011
The young men, smart in their uniform of khaki trousers, dark blazer and red ties, are hurrying to their next class. Teachers here hope they are leading a charge, out of the ghetto and into good jobs.
This is Urban Prep, a charter school in inner-city Chicago, which revels in its nickname: "Hogwarts in the Hood". It's deliberately modelled on an English public school.
01:41 UK time, Friday, 7 October 2011
The lights go out and the people sitting around the trestle tables burst into a heartfelt round of Happy Birthday.
Betty Price, a big woman, resplendent in a purple dress and beads, is "Mother Price" to them. Like a good mother she makes sure her children are fed.
03:51 UK time, Thursday, 6 October 2011
Sarah Palin's decision will have disappointed some.
Not the American people who clearly didn't like her as John McCain's running mate in 2008. Not Republicans: 72% of party supporters did not want her to run.
18:45 UK time, Tuesday, 4 October 2011
President Obama has declared himself the underdog (albeit one with a vision) and indeed a majority (55%) of Americans think he'll lose the next election. But if he does lose, it won't be to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Mr Christie has done himself no harm at all by declaring, with some passion, that he's not going to stand as president, that "now is not my time".
22:15 UK time, Monday, 3 October 2011
He's a big man for a big job, according to a leading conservative pundit.
But the Republican clamour for Chris Christie to throw his hat into the presidential ring says more about the stature of the current candidates than the political heft of the New Jersey governor.
16:24 UK time, Friday, 30 September 2011
Anwar al-Awlaki was an example of one of America's most potent fears: the enemy within.
He was born, raised and educated in America, a citizen of America who turned against the country he knew best.
20:22 UK time, Wednesday, 28 September 2011
I meet Jesse Jackson in the auditorium of his offices, a converted synagogue. It is an impressive building with sweeping pews and huge stained glass windows.
He's rather stately, too: a Chicago institution still trying to stir things up, still a radical.
22:49 UK time, Monday, 26 September 2011
I'm humming Elvis Costello's (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes as I watch the latest congressional carry-on.
Political reporters, by their very nature, enjoy politics, like its cut and thrust, and above all the rows and arguments that are the lifeblood of any democracy.
19:54 UK time, Thursday, 22 September 2011
When the dramatic becomes wearisomely familiar, maybe it is time to panic.
With the IMF meeting in Washington we again have a parade of world leaders issuing dire warnings about the state of the economy. Again, they exhort their colleagues to take firm political action, to prevent what is already bad from getting worse.
23:41 UK time, Wednesday, 21 September 2011
"Do you remember when, things were really hummin'?" sang Chubby Checker in his 1960s hit.
Not really, no.
17:36 UK time, Wednesday, 21 September 2011
It could be a trailer for a movie. The earth devastated by an alien invasion, maybe, and then salvation and rescue led by an all-American hero.
In fact, it is the slickest, strongest ad so far in the 2012 election campaign. It is from Rick Perry.
03:57 UK time, Thursday, 15 September 2011
You might think President Obama has enough on his plate without worrying about the European crisis. But you'd be wrong.
The White House may not really care too much about the fate of the euro itself, but it does care about European banks and the sense of impending economic doom.
15:31 UK time, Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Maybe we have a new political rule: never photograph yourself in underpants lest it leads to the questioning of your leaders' foreign policy. Maybe not.
Still, the Democrats got a thumping in the New York by-election in the seat left vacant when Congressman Anthony Weiner resigned after THAT photo went viral.
23:42 UK time, Tuesday, 13 September 2011
In his speech to Congress the other day, President Obama sounded like an old-time preacher with his thumping refrain "pass this bill". Today, in Ohio, his call got a response.
"Pass this bill," chanted the crowd right on cue.
Covered British politics from the fall of Thatcher to Blair’s last election victory as political correspondent, Newsnight Political editor, BBC Chief Political Correspondent and diarist for This Week.
The BBC’s first Europe editor covering the impact of EU laws on people in and beyond the European Union’s 27 countries, from illegal immigration to Poland to environmental change in Spain.
Grew up in Surrey, educated at Kent University in Canterbury, worked in commercial radio on Teesside Leeds and London before joining the BBC.
Katty Kay
Washington Correspondent, BBC World News America
The power plays in Washington and beyond
Andrew Harding
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The people, power and politics of China
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