we had earlier in the year a situation where the president had historically low favourability numbers in the opinion polls, and it looked as though his democratic party were going to walk into a really bad midterm election in november, which may well have left the country then more divided. there was huge division over the supreme court decision on roe vs wade, which removed the constitutional protection for abortion in america. that's a very, very divisive issue. and it was one which had huge impact both on the politics and on the lives of many people in america. and if you remember, just six months ago, there was that appalling school shooting in texas in uvalde, where19 children and two of their teachers were shot dead in their classrooms. and at that point in the summer, it felt as though this was a country that was fraying at the edges. and now we see an election where the democrats have done much better than they expected to, and that many of the candidates