As my plane slowly made it’s decent into Sarajevo I was awestruck by the beauty of the surrounding mountains.  The haze and late day rays of sun embraced the sprawling peaks and their vast meadows, casting a mesmerizing image of a set of mighty waves in the ocean making their way to shore as the mountain tops peaked in and out of the blanket of haze that had settled in for the day.  Sarajevo and those off us on the plane, were the lucky benefactors of natures paintbrush on this day.

Throughout the campaign MIrsad and I have spoken via Skype as thousands of miles has kept us separated.  Today that all changed as I was fortunate enough to travel to Bosnia, thanks to the generosity of the Echo Foundaiton, and sit down face-to-face with him on the patio of a local restaurant in Sarajevo.  Mirsad had time for a quick bite of food, the occasional puff on a cigar and some conversation between debates and hitting the road for yet another rally on this final week of the presidential campaign.  I of course had to ask him about this so-called “eighty seconds heard around Bosnia” following a recent televised presidential debate.