Capitol thoughts

Just back from a swing through Washington, D.C., where old friends Betsy and Charlie Rackley held a reception to celebrate the launch of my book in the U.S. The food was international: Georgia peaches, North Carolina shrimp and Quebec cheese. In addition to bookstores in the District, I also checked out stock in northern Virginia and found BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research In Motion to be widely available and well displayed.

No one, not even Democrats, thought President Obama did well in his Oval Office speech about BP and the Gulf of Mexico. I thought he was all angles and elbows. He even looked too small for his desk. While some people are already saying that Obama is a one-term president, others still have hope. Larry O’Brien, son of the chairman of the Democratic Party during Watergate (it was his phone the plumbers were sent to tap) put it succinctly. After listing the possible presidential candidates for the Republican Party (Palin, Romney, McCain, etc.) he said, “You can’t fight somebody with nobody.”