I find it unsettling that the whole of the USA is encharged with selecting its Commander in Chief, yet the elections of recent memory have all come down to a state or two.

Gore lost in 2000 due to Florida. (Who can forget the ‘hanging chads’?) Four years later it was Ohio that lost it for Kerry. Tomorrow in America Hillary Clinton will lose in Ohio and Texas. She is under pressure to accept defeat and cede the nomination to Barrack Obama.

I returned to America after a ten year absence in 1999. Then Gore lost and Bush started and 9/11 ‘happened’ (is there a better verb here?). Six years later I left a nation that was divided and bitter.

The politics of diviseveness was an awful invention of Karl Rove, Bush’s senior political advisor. His strategy was to fuel dissent between the left and the right. It got so foul you couldn’t even raise the issue of politics - what if the other person disagreed? You wouldn’t be sparking a debate - you’d be on the receiving end of vitriol. My own brother votes Republican consistently. I had to point out the reason for our migration to Australia was the rancour we faced - and the institutionalised discrimination against same-sex bi-national couples.

So now Rove’s legacy is slowly fading. Republicans are as marginalised as chain smokers. Bush made many kick the habit - and those who still can’t quit are demonised. (Rove’s legacy lives?)

Yet tomorrow it’s polling day in Texas and Ohio. And after dozens of states and millions of votes, it will come down to the decisions of people in one or two states.

Goodbye Hillary - perhaps todays article in The Australian is right. Chelsea Clinton may be the next Clinton in the White House. Hopefully the Obamas will leave good policies in place for her to build on.