Fred Thompson President elect - the Fred 'n' Chuck show in Iowa

Readers will know how Rep. Chuck Grassley is our favourite Senator , especially for asking those damned ornery, too, too difficult questions that pesky guys who represent the rural farming vote ask.

Well on Friday he took Fred Thompson the next President of the United States around Iowa State Fair -

"I am unabashedly pro-life," he told the state fair's political "soapbox" where numerous other candidates have appeared in recent days. "I am pro-Second Amendment. And I don't apologize for the United States of America. This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined."

He may, as the pundits on the Beltway keep telling us be running late, but his views on pigs are as sound as Lord Emwsorth's . Asked to comment on the prize boar by a TV presenter, all teeth, tits and hair lacqueur, he paused, he rubbed his chin the way folksy farmers do - or at least guys acting like folksy farmers do...

The pressing media crowd waited...

"It's big" he said viewing the 1,089 lb behemoth.

Washington here we come.