Press plane touchdown in DC

A few final thoughts from a weary Washington correspondent -- apart from those awaiting you in tomorrow morning's edition, which features the full heft of the Star team's reportage and analysis on The Visit. Maybe they're all getting punchy after a day that began, what, 18 hours ago, but the Washington press corps still can't get over the fact that some people skate to work in Ottawa. "National Geographic should come do a documentary on it," said one. They also seem to be discounting Obama's mutual love-affair with Canada as a sort of been-there, done-that angle -- an expected follow-through on campaign promises to reach out to allies. America's afterglow, after all, has faded noticably in the month since the inauguration, and images of adulation abroad may be all well and good, but not so easy a sell to a home front anxious for Obama to deliver change they can feel. -- Mitch Potter