European Journalist Covers US Elections from Philadelphia

by KYW's John Ostapkovich

The BBC's chief political correspondent says the American election will send ripples across the pond to Britain.

John Pienaar (above) was part of a huge BBC crew fanning out to cover the mid-term elections here, with an eye toward what the results may mean back home. 

Britain, as America's closest ally, "slipstreams" along with US foreign policy, so anything that may change that relationship is big news. 

But the nuts and bolts of relations between Capitol Hill and the White House can take some background, says Pienaar:

"We do not have the separation of powers that you have in the United States.  Our goverment sits inside the legislature, so the three-cornered relationship between Senate, House of Representatives, and the president -- we don't get that and it has to be explained."

Pienaar says, in sampling public opinion in Philadelphia, that one of the biggest chores was finding Republicans who, in his words, were as "rare as a hen with teeth or a four-eyed duck."