The biggest question facing America today is clear from any news bulletin you watch here. What was Kanye West thinking when he interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV awards? It has been a bad week for one of the great sins of American society- impolite behaviour.  Serena Williams is in the gun for threatening to stuff a ….ing tennis ball down the throat of an umpire he called her on a foot fault at a critical moment, and Rep Joe Wilson, a Republican who shouted ” You Lie” at Barack Obama during his speech on healthcare reform to the joint session of Congress.

Had Wilson been a Democrat yelling similar language at George Bush, Fox News would have been screaming about his lack of patriotism.  Instead he is being put forward by them and others as the poster child of a resurgent right wing.  Today as my group walked through Congressional offices a number had I Support Joe Wilson signs on the doors. He has been rebuked by the Congress, but will have a slot on Fox for the rest of his life if he wants it.

The Republicans, aided by a wacky collection of talkshow hosts, fundamentalists Christians and libertarians think now is the time to shatter the Obama image. It is true that his approval ratings are in decline.  Judging from conversations with Americans there is concern that he is getting very bogged down in the healthcare debate, and that their hopes that the bold vision articulated in the campaign can not be delivered on.

Republicans are rallying around healthcare- and the tens of thousands who marched on Sunday here were strident that America is on the slippery path to socialism.  Hard to see how a mixed public private healthcare model that the National Party would be happy with is going to do that.  But it is simply a rallying point.  The Republican strategists are using guilt by association. The funding and other woes of ACORN a non-profit who supported Obama are now leading the news. A global climate change deal is being presented as world government coming to take your job.

These are testing times for Obama who is going to have to use all his political and organising skill to come through unscathed. But it is also giving a nasty tone to politics in Washington, and some Democrats are keen to join in as well.

It even played out in the hotel gym this morning.  The battle between two retirees for the remote  to watch the news on Fox or, well, anywhere else threatened to get out of hand today.   The lines are being drawn here.  Hold onto your tennis balls.