Gavin's Blog

I have uploaded some initial photos into a Flickr set you can see here. I had access to the press gallery so was able to take some reasonably good shots. I took some of the press corps themselves, including some of BBC journalist Jon Sopel, who was doing a live broadcast for the BBC 9 o’clock news.

Here he is just before the broadcast;

And the man himself:

And here was a fighter jet passing in the distance, with what looks like a press helicopter hovering.

I have some videos too, will upload them once I get some sleep.

This morning myself and Conor Ryan, from the Irish Examiner, head over to an Obama rally in Virginia Beach. It starts at about 5pm and I will be updating my Twitter status while there. You can follow me on Twitter here. I will try and take some pics and maybe do a video or two and take lots of photos. Will update the blog when I get back.

Well following a weekend off from blogging, I had a look around Arlington Cemetery today, where I watched the changing of the guard at the memoral of the unknown soldier. I took a good few photos, I hope they turn out ok.

Tomorrow I plan to attend an Obama rally in Virginia Beach, outdoor and by all accounts it should be huge. Saturday, McCain has a rally just south of DC, so I might try and get to that too.

General Lee’s house:

View from the upstairs bedroom in Lee’s house:

Robert Kennedy grave:

John F Kennedy’s grave:

Tomb of the unknown soldier:

Changing the guard at the tomb:

Tomorrow I head off to the US for a couple of weeks, and it is certainly an interesting time to be going (and an interesting contrast to Georgia two weeks ago). I will be in Washington DC for the majority of the trip, but will be calling to New York and do a quick jaunt to Canada while I’m there. I will be shacking up with the Examiner’s US correspondent and intrepid traveller Conor Ryan (he’s not blogging, yet).

Hopefully I will be able to catch up with old friends of the blog, Steve Clemons and Jonathan Smith (former blogger and a reader). And who knows who I else I might meet…

I have been to Washington before, and managed to get in many of the sights. On this trip I will finally get out to Arlington Cemetery and visit the enormous Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for my time in Washington during the election? Any people I should meet?

FP ask some questions of Colin Powell’s chief of staff on Powell’s endorsement of Obama.

I like these two:

FP: What’s your take on the tone of the campaign?

LW: I was fully expecting the grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan to arrive from Maryland and endorse McCain. I was becoming frightened that we were returning to 1968, when they assassinated Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Those were bad times.

One of the most dramatic moments for me was when I was watching McCain on television, and I thought I saw in McCain’s eyes himself, when someone yelled something out, a recognition of, ‘Oh, God, what have I done?’ This is not McCain; he doesn’t cater to this. But for the first time in his political life, I think he realized that there are some strange people in the Republican tent. My father used to say, ‘Larry beware of the left because they will bankrupt you; beware of the right because they will kill you.’

And (my emphasis)

FP: How much progress can the next president make in restoring America’s reputation in the world, and how should he do so?

LW: That’s an easy question to answer, but hard to do. On Inauguration Day in my inauguration speech, I would do two things: I would ban torture and I would direct the closure of Guantánamo. And then I would do other things in the first 100 days: I would take a look at negotiations with Iran and at the six-party talks with [North] Korea. I would take a look at U.S.-Cuba relations. Those are actions that would indicate that America is back.