The Best Holiday Ever

Today will be my last full day at work for quite a while. I'm taking my full set of fifteen days and going to California until the 7th November.

Late tomorrow night, I will be leaving Cardiff on a bus to begin my journey to San Francisco. This won't be the best holiday ever because I'm going alone and that will be strange. It will however be the most unusual break ever.

I'm going over really to enjoy the final two weeks of the US presidential election. I enjoy politics and I have prayed for both presidential candidates. I have been hooked for months.

This morning's third Presidential Election Debate marked a decisive turning point according to the pundits. I didn't particularly enjoy watching this morning's debate on CNN but I feel it was a paradigm moment in that McCain went on the offensive during the first twenty minutes. He may well have hoped that Obama would lose control under such pressure -he didn't.

During the early hours of this morning I thought that Obama - over three debates - had won the argument. The next two weeks will decide who wins the nation wide battle of the campaigns.

This is an American election for the American people. They alone should debate the issues with each other and the decision is theirs. I'll be over there as a foreign national and as a well behaved guest - I hope - in somebody else's home.

I'm looking forward to accompanying a nation during the final days of its own decision making. If appropriate and if asked, I'll share some of the reasons why others on the globe believe - by a ratio of some 4:1 - that Obama should be the next President.

The one thing I do know - whatever the result - history will be made on November 4th. It's going to be a very special holiday that allows a guest at someone else's table to share a special moment in history.

Whatever the result, I'll wish this nation well, and as a Christian, I'll continue to pray for those who lead it.