I admit I was sceptical that my fellow Americans would manage to kick the bums out this year, but some sort of sense has prevailed. The Dems have the House, may yet win the Senate, Rumsfeld is gone (in a UK-style post-defeat resignation), and my own congress-person, Nancy Pelosi, is the first female Speaker of the House (my last US address is in her San Francisco district — I happily made my more-or-less-useless absentee contribution to record-breaking turnout). Even Bernie Sanders, described by John Stewart as “a Jew from New York who calls himself a socialist”, managed to get elected.

So why am I still sure that they’re going to screw it up in ’08?