It is said that a week can be a long time in politics. In the near future that phrase is going to be particularly fitting for the world as a superpower’s electorate heads for the polling booths.
Americans will decide whether Democrat Barack Obama is going to win a second presidential term in office, or whether Republican Mitt Romney will beat him to the keys of the White House, ushering in not only a new series of domestic policies, but also a new order for the rest of the world to deal with.
The result will have implications for us all – particularly here in terms of the so-called “Special Relationship”, which has seemed perhaps rather less special in recent years.
Before any of that can happen though, there is the question of what has been the biggest single story of the week: Hurricane Sandy.
Days before it hit the eastern coastline of the United States, virtually all news channels around the globe were carrying the developing story that New York State was lying in the path of a colossal storm, building in intensity to hurricane strength offshore and threatening devastation when it reached land.
Of course there have been hurricanes before, but this one was being painted in truly biblical terms: a 900-mile wide storm is indeed something not to take lightly.
When it finally arrived, thanks to the instant nature of news reporting that we now enjoy, we could all watch minute by minute as the winds and waters of the Atlantic crashed into one of the most built-up cities of the world, sweeping devastation across it and taking lives and livelihoods with impunity.
The strength of Mother Nature was impressive beyond human understanding and the cost of repairs could run into hundreds of billions of dollars when you consider the swathe of devastation across the USA and Canada that has been directly affected by the storm, and the incalculable costs of lost lives and businesses caught up in it.
I must admit that I had taken little notice of the developing story until last weekend, when a close friend of mine ventured towards the hurricane by flying out to Chicago.
The city is 800 miles away from New York and yet with the rumoured scale of the storm, even there there were concerns for the wellbeing of people and homes.
Lake Michigan is a vast expanse of water, but it’s not known for 30-feet waves and storm force winds.
Like millions, through social networking I was able to see the storm’s effect through individual eyes and I think it was this that gave me an altogether different appreciation of the story.
Let’s not forget either that many places where the storm hit share their names with locations here in Britain. Northampton, Massachusetts, was in the storm’s path as it made landfall.
The ramifications of the storm are almost as big as the storm itself, if not bigger.
The hurricane had begun to lose strength and was downgraded to a tropical storm as it neared the coast.
Even so, the forecasters were vindicated in their doom-saying and it will be years before the clear-up from Sandy is over.
Even before the storm had passed, political commentators were evaluating which presidential candidate’s performance had better served their parties and their election aspirations during it.
Personally I find that somewhat obscene but it’s an integral part of our 24/7 mentality.
I wonder whether whichever victorious president it is will be appealing for global support after nature’s demonstration of where real power lies.
He’ll need a little statesmanlike humility.
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