American week

It was a strange week in the United States.

• George Bush got a rousing welcome in a European country, namely Albania. The man looked surprised and took quite some time off his official schedule to wave to the cheering crowd. It must have been an unusual experience for him, and has only one precedent that I recall in his presidency, namely Tbilisi, in Georgia. This says a lot about the way in which Europe looks at the current Administration. Nevertheless, it is also symptomatic of the fact that some of the more economically-derelict parts of the former Warsaw Pact provide fertile ground for American hegemony. It was interesting to see how the Albania story dragged for some days because of Mr Bush's missing watch, which some claimed was stolen during his dip in the crowd. The White House later denied this and said the President had just removed his watch and handed it over to security.

• Twelve million Americans tuned in to HBO to follow the finale of The Sopranos, only to get a "cut-to-black" ending in the middle of what seemed to be destined to become yet another mafia shooting scene. This unorthodox ending fuelled an almost philosophical debate in the US media. Some dismissed it as a stunt, paving the way for a movie that could be in the offing. Others said that the "blacking out" of the final scene, just as the tension had culminated to incredible levels, was a depiction of a phrase that was used often during the long-running series: "You do not see death coming". Whatever the case, this broadcast has become of the most widely followed events in US television history.

• Let us remain in the States. If Ronald Reagan was an actor turned politician, Fred Thompson is a politician, turned actor, turned politician. At the same time, another former actor and politician. The former senator is coming back big time in politics after a spell playing a prosecutor in Law And Order. One might have expected him to take a sidekick role in the Republican primaries. This is not so. All polls indicate that Mr Thompson has scooped the carpet from beneath the feet of people such as John McCain and Mitt Romney. He is virtually head-to-head with former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The most interesting part is that Mr Thompson has not yet formally entered the race for the hottest seat in the world.

• On the Democrat front, Hillary Clinton remains the frontrunner, followed by Barack Obama and John Edwards. The entry of Al Gore into the fray would reshuffle the figures. Nevertheless, Mr Gore is being sensible enough to stay out of the whole thing.

• The most interesting statistics from last week's US polls confirmed the trend that while Mrs Clinton is likely to win the primaries, she would lose the big race to a Mr Giuliani. Furthermore, the only Democrat who, at this point, can garner more national support than any of the three top GOP candidates is Mr Obama. It might well be the case that the Dems will have to make some strategic choices if they want a better chance to change the course of the most powerful country on earth.

Mr Muscat is a Labour member of the European Parliament.

www.josephmuscat.com