All the Presidents then

And as The Donald and The Joe go head to head in the first Presidential debate of this race… a look at how America remembers its Presidents.

Yes, with huge monuments as in the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

While for the best of them (at least when it was carved) they get their faces on the side of Mount Rushmore.

A word of two then on these and other Presidential landmarks.

George’s obelisk

Washington Monument: By George, they don’t make Presidents like him any more.

George refused to take the title of King.

And he also turned down an ostentatious statue in Washington of him astride a horse as suggested by his old pal Lafayette.

The Washington Monument, the world’s tallest obelisk at 554ft is almost due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial.

Abe, a man for all the ages

The Lincoln Memorial: And here’s a nod to the Ages with the building in the form of a Doric temple.

It has also become the focal point for the Civil Rights Movement.

The March to Washington ended here.

And it’s where Martin Luther King delivered his I Have A Dream speech.

Channel your inner Abe and make a seat in front of him.

And look out onto the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument.

Kennedy, the center

The Kennedy Center and the Eternal Flame: And among all the legacies JFK left high among them was his love of the arts.

The Kennedy Center is next door to Watergate, where his nemesis Richard Nixon was undone and is truly an inspiring building.

But while the Kennedy Center is notable for its scale.

It is the intimacy of his last resting place in Arlington Cemetery which really touches the soul.

Nixon’s library

Richard Nixon Library, California: And contrary to popular belief the Nixons and the Kennedys got on real well.

And Pat Nixon even invited Jacqui and the kids back over to their old home, the White House after John F Kennedy was killed.

The Nixons still keep in touch with all their friends.

Which is probably why your favourite Travelman got a call last year.

As the Nixon Library invited me over to mark the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing under Richard’s watch.

I couldn’t go and sent Buzz Aldrin in my stead.

Good Ol’ Ronnie

Ronald Reagan Library, California: And every library should have a bar, don’t you think?

Well Ronnie’s does… and it’s a recreation of the one he was taken to in his ancestors’ homestead in Tipperary.

Now every American President since Kennedy returned ‘home’ will take a sip of Guinness when they visit Ireland.

The Donald’s drink of choice is, of course, a Diet Coke,

Is he the real thing or will America go for Joe.

Tune in and find out.