A fly on the presidential wall

I've just finished two days of exhilarating meetings with colleagues from the World Evangelical Alliance and emerged to find that while we were meeting here in Washington, just a few miles away, China's Vice President, Xi Jinpin, was visiting the White House to meet President Obama. Funny that: because we were also talking about China, a country about which many nations are concerned, with regards to any number of issues - from religious liberties to economic growth.

So it was interesting to watch Obama and Xi Jinpin speaking softly about similar big issues, and offering understated cautions about the differences between their two global powers.

I would like to have been a fly on the presidential walls when the cameras were switched off. At least I'm assuming flies don't need security passes.

Did the president raise his voice to shout about the things he could only mention politely in public? Did he pace the floor and insist that things are getting out of hand in relation to their human rights record and demand that they have a serious re-think on their response to the atrocities taking place in Syria? And did the Vice President smile inscrutably and accuse Obama of getting paranoid about China's rising influence in the world and its stabilizing impact on the Euro-zone crisis?

We'll never know. If only flies could talk!

For the time being all of us have to hope and pray that positive things will emerge to help the world become a better place. If that happens it will improve what we have to say about politicians when we talk about them behind closed doors.