I see others are beginning to catch on to the news I reported in this blog months ago that Mark Kirk - a socially liberal Republican with impeccable military credentials - is likely to run for Obama's Illiniois Senate seat and (it seems to me) is very well placed to win.
Which is why Obama didn't want an election in the first place - a rather cowardly refusal to do the right thing it always seemed to me. Anyhow Kirk is a strong candidate, though since we were students together (at the LSE) is highly open to blackmail from Brits...Only kidding.
Apologies for the silence recently - I have been packing up and preparing to leave the US: the sadness has left me speechless although the work I am to do back in the UK, presenting the Today Programme, is decent enough compensation.
But before going, we are at an undisclosed location (alright: Kiawah Island, South Carolina) working out the wonders of the American-designed medical technology that my son will use to control his type one diabetes when back in Britain.
Since I asked for names for the Republicans in 2012 the party has sunk further into disrepair with the Sarah Palin train wreck. I suspect that she is actually a Democrat - a creation of Rahm Emanuel perhaps.
It'll have to be Pawlenty now for the simple reason that he seems to have a little constancy about him: that is their problem; it's not the sex scandals or the dubious TV performances or the ethics investigations that have undone the Republican pretenders, it is the swivel-eyed oddness of the outfit. It can be fixed but step one is recognising the need to fix as Karl Rove seems to grasp.
The other fascinating development in recent days has been the end - or not - of the Obamas' search for a church.
I have suggested it before but let me lay it on the line here in black and white: THE MAN IS A QUAKER. He may not yet know it but that is where his search should end. There is a lovely Meeting House somewhere around Dupont Circle as well so he could get there easily.
A perfectly brilliant piece sets out the extent to which the Obama administration has shrunk from the real political combat that would bring proper change.
As the author asks: "Barack Obama, where are you?"
On healthcare, the answer, I think, is that the loss of Tom Daschle is beginning to be felt - he could have knocked heads together in a way no-one else really can.
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