Day 2 - Washington, DC

So we woke up, first full day on the road and in DC, to the news that George Bush had invited both John McCain and Barack Obama to town today to discuss the ongoing financial crisis. Though exactly how much of this discussing would be done by old George is up for debate.
Never did we expect to be so close to either candidate so early into our drive! With Obama and McCain both meeting in the White House this morning and our hostel being a mere 5 minutes down the road it would seem churlish for us not to wander down and try and at least say “hey mates”.
So via a cheeky coffee we went and sat just far enough outside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave to satisfy the secret service but close enough see catch and comings and goings. Turns out after an hour and in-between various phone calls about the most exciting thing to go past were the various tour groups on Segways.


Proof that at least one of us was making calls


and that hordes of people really to drive around DC on these rather lazy and hideous contraptions…

Thinking that was the end of our brief attempts to at least spy the candidates on their stint in DC we moved on from the White House to The Capitol for a guided tour and to sit and watch the Senate try and settle the impasse over arguably one of the most important pieces of financial legislation of the last 10 years, the $700 billion financial recovery package.
By the way did you ever wonder how the figure of $700 billion was decided upon? Apparently according to a treasury spokesperson “It’s not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number.” Makes you almost want to give Paulson the complete lack of accountability he asked for doesn’t it.
Anyway we arrived at the Capitol and started out tour, all completely standard. But after 5 minutes as we stood underneath the giant dome in the centre of the legislative wing of government learning about The Apotheosis of George Washington there was an increased amount of chatter coming from down the hall towards the Senate. This was followed by a rather large security contingent who came and cordoned off entrances and exits to the dome sections of the building and a few seconds later came John McCain followed fervently by the press gaggle eager to ask him why he had decided to suspend his campaign.


Now I know Alex likes to think of himself as somewhat of a wordsmith but it turns out that with a camera, in a high pressure situation, the man fails miserably, still there is McCain in all his blurry glory... If he does the same thing with Obama its going to be really awkward.