Powell for Obama! (Gosh-darn)

So Colin Powell can't have thought much of Sarah Palin's cameo as herself on Saturday Night Live. Word was he'd been waiting for the veep contender to mess up before endorsing Barrack Obama. Babieswhobrunch readers will know the former Secretary of State had hoped to back him after the vice-presidential debate but Palin somehow scraped through. Seven weeks of listening to the Alaskan Governor's controversial campaigning, however, and Powell finally cracked, much to the excitement of our young news puppy who is claiming the story as his first scoop. (We'll gloss over the fact that there may have been one or two other rumours in the blogosphere about the potential Powell endorsement.)

Whether Powell's backing will be the knock-out blow that delivers Obama the White House will not be clear for another two weeks but there is no denying its value. Not least because his rival, John McCain, is clearly losing the battle for big endorsements.

Louis thinks McCain has only himself to blame for running a poor campaign. And no he's not referring to the hostile tone that it's adopted. Rather, our young newshound thinks McCain missed a trick by failing to court the vital youth vote: DC is swimming with Obama onesies (one today said "Babies for Obama because yes it is time for a change") but there are no McCain ones to be had for love nor money. Phew! Otherwise in the interest of BBC dependents' impartiality he might have had to wear one! 

Yoga-ga

In Britain, stressed out babies are lucky if they get given a dummy but over here it is quite a different story. When the world all gets a little bit too much, DC tots can realign their chakras at one of the capital's baby-and-me yoga classes. Given how much yoga Louis got up to in utero, it's no surprise that he's taken to it well. Thursday's class at Tranquil Space is the highlight of his (or should that be Mom's?) week. 

You can see him here getting in a cheeky cobra before the teacher arrived. His latest girlfriend, Sophie, is practicing her corpse pose on the mat just behind him. So far, his favourite position is upward dog, although his child's pose is pretty good too. He's very excited because there's talk of a yoga retreat next month at Great Falls, a park just outside Washington where the Potomac River plunges through a deep gorge. 

I know Louis's Grandma is worried that he'll turn into Bertie, the 5-year-old protagonist in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series, who deeply resents being dragged to yoga of a Saturday by his pushy Mum, but for now he is relishing the chance to broaden his social circle beyond his Bermondsey NCT baby chums. 

The real credit conundrum

Forget the interbank lending lockdown. The real crisis facing the US is how to convince Americans to keep shopping. Given that debt has underpinned the American economy like no other during the past eight years - Bush inherited a budget surplus but will leave a country nearly half a TRILLION dollars in the red - the prospect of a nationwide spending strike is fuelling the Dow's tailspin. What to do? 

Well, worry not, because the admen are already on the case. When the airwaves aren't screening a negative presidential campaign ad they are bulging with ways that canny consumers can spend money to save money. Sounds crazy but recession advertising is the hot buzzphrase on Madison Avenue. From soup to at-home gyms, plastic surgery to milk, companies are trying to persuade shoppers that they can't afford to stop splashing out. 

Retailers here are desperate to tout their wallet-bolstering credentials. Even Wholefoods, hardly renowned as the bastion of cash-strapped shoppers, has got in on the act. Its ads claim its customers get, "More of the Good Stuff. For less." Stores are brimming with "offers" to help shoppers save money (although shoppers should be warned that Wholefoods current two-for-$5 offer on bagged salad is less than generous when you consider that a single bag sets you back $2.50). 

So far, shoppers are resisting the bait. September's retail sales figures were the worst in the past three years, helping further to unnerve investors. The past week's freakishly warm weather, on the east coast at least, will have piled yet more pain on a struggling retail sector despairing of ever shifting any winter stock. But there is some light at the end of the shopping tunnel. With temperatures set to plummet here in DC by the weekend, one little chap decided there was no time like the present to invest in his first ever winter coat. What with that, a pair of trousers, a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, a long-sleeved T-shirt, a country music star onesie, a St Louis Cardinals t-shirt, a hat and two Obama onesies that he's bought since arriving in the States three weeks ago, Louis's shopping splurges could just help to head off a recession - in babies' stores at least. 

McCainiac

Monday's Washington Post made grim reading for Republicans. A new poll put Obama 10 points ahead of McCain, which means the Illinois Senator is starting to look like he might actually be the next leader of the free world. (I know 10 points may look like he has it sewn up, but the Wilder effect states that he needs to be up by at least double digits even to stand a chance - L. Douglas Wilder becoming the nation's first black governor in Virginia in 1989 by just one-tenth of a percentage point despite polls suggesting beforehand that he would win easily.)

The prospect of a Democratic win means passions are running high in towns across America. Not least in Annapolis, MD, the site of John McCain's alma mater, the US Naval Academy, and where the HQ of the Maryland Republican Party is the first thing you see on leaving the state capital's visitors' centre. We got the chance to witness that heightened passion at first hand on  Sunday when we were accosted in the street by Mrs Disgusted of Annapolis herself. The reasons? Louis's Obama '08 logo-ed change bag (as in "it's time for a change in Washington" and other diaper-related puns), which I was carrying. She stopped us and demanded to know if I knew anything about Obama. Well, yes, actually. I'm not entirely clueless. And then proceeded to harangue us for the next 15 minutes about the evils of a socialist way of life. 

From higher taxes to big government, she was convinced that social Armageddon would follow an Obama win. Rather than take responsibility for her fellow man, she insisted that poor people should be glad for the trickle down hand-outs from their rich superiors. Christ, they should probably pay her for the honour of cutting her grass! America, she said, was the greatest country on earth because it was a democracy. Er, yes, and one that as things stand is keen to elect an African-American Democrat as president, I pointed out. Only if you believe in the fallacies printed by the lying liberal mainstream media, she countered. 

What shocked us most about the McCainiac's ambush was that Americans are generally so friendly. It seemed unconstitutionally nasty to corner a couple with a small baby on the street and attack them like that. But then look what happened during a pro-McCain rally in Manhattan's Upper West Side.  

That's not to excuse the mean Republican witch in Annapolis. Poor Louis was so upset that he started to cry. God knows what she would have done if he had been wearing his Obama onesie. It was a relief to get back to the latte-sipping liberals of Dupont Circle. We'll clearly have to think carefully before venturing out of the District again. 

Grannies' corner

Bonus Louis video...