Crossing the red and blue lines that divide America

AT 6am yesterday, a good hour before dawn, George W Bush was already up and about.

At Wilmington in Ohio he gave a throng of Republican supporters the reheated porridge that is his stump speech, exhorting them to galvanise support in this key swing state.

Bush promised a "safer and stronger America" and gave the standard diss of his 'liberal' rival from the east coast.