In Washington D.C., there is not only inside-the-Beltway thinking -- describing the mentality of those inside the highway that circles the city -- but also inside Capitol Hill thinking, that piece of real estate that sits atop old Jenkins Hill.
Generally, if you are tangentially impacted by world political events and you breathe this rarefied air, you tend to wear your opinions like the TV detective Columbo wore his favorite, musty trench coat.
You rarely relinquish these thoughts, regardless of real-world sanity, whether you are what popular radio host Rush Limbaugh calls a "dittohead," a salutatory term, or what the same personality would call "flaming liberals," a supposedly negative connotation.
This environmental sphere extends to lobbyists, government contractors, House and Senate staff, administration officials and most others that occupy not just the Capitol Building but also the warrens of other governmental facilities. One could say it also extends to their wives, husbands, children and pets.
The good news is that each segment of collective certitude forming a critical mass of opinion is most often countered by an opposite critical mass of equally certain and ever-righteous opinion.
No real harm is done, unless one considers pond scum-like stagnation.
But sometimes - though rarely - these disparate views coincide, albeit in a rather ambivalent way. And this is pretty much the feeling about Ukraine.
In times of calm, it makes the radar screen, a mere blip, but a troubling blip.
That was the situation a little over a year ago.
The administration was howling about anti-aircraft radar being sold to the Iraqis, pieces of equipment at least as elusive as the mysterious Weapons of Mass Destruction. Maybe they are in the same place.
At that time, the West actually paid attention to Ukraine's failing report card from Transparency International. President Leonid Kuchma couldn't get a parking ticket at the fancy banquets of the European Union, much less a ticket to the party.
There was still lingering talk of the decapitated journalist, the infamous Melnychenko tapes, and all those semi-suspicious automobile accidents. Added to this was bad luck: Rockets accidentally slamming into buildings, the downing of a charter plane over the Black Sea, and the air show tragedy in L'viv, where a jet plowed into the crowd.
It didn't help that Ukraine had a former prime minister locked away in a U.S. prison awaiting trial for nearly four years, accused of money laundering, along other things.
It might have been a refrain from that country song which goes, "If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all." The buzz arrow on Ukraine was definitely pointed downward. The country's image was worse than Michael Jackson's.
What has changed?
Well, for starters, the roiling, churning, bubbling, boiling soup of world events. Ukraine has become an afterthought with body counts mounting — both allied and Iraqi — in the desert nation, as well as white-hot tensions in the Middle East.
Then there is that terror fog teetering between yellow and amber alerts, particularly around holidays. Add to this those threatening Bin Laden-type messages from Saladin wannabes and a sprinkling of just-in-the-nick-of-time collaring of possible terrorists.
It all adds up to a pretty frazzled planet we landed on. Applying Tom Ridge's color alert scale, Ukraine in Summer 2004 is a cool blue, or, more metaphorically accurate, a nondescript gray.
Perhaps this is why the father of the current U.S. president feels unencumbered in an unofficial visit to Ukraine arranged by a mega-businessman (the word oligarch is overused), who happens to be the Ukrainian president's son-in-law.
Additionally, in an act that has the subtlety of an earthquake, the U.S. administration - which was piling on two years ago — has toned down its negative Ukraine rhetoric in obvious exchange for Ukraine's participation in its coalition of the willing (trying).
Could fat U.S.-funded contracts be far behind?
These days the buzz arrow on Ukraine is at dead calm, neither up nor down. This could change, however, with the coming presidential elections, which some will see as a litmus test on whether Ukraine is reformist or Belarus Lite.
Some in the West believe the hope and the promise of Ukraine has long since been left in the dust, like roadkill in the fast lane. Others, like me, a decade in this country as of September, believe the generational change is nearly upon us. But then,
I am nearly certain every year that my Atlanta Braves will win the World Series.
In business, however, there are signs: Companies previously in the shadows that would have little to do with a transparent advertising and PR firm now are knocking on our door. Our industry is seeing a spurt in local business.
Despite the starts and stops of the past, the mood seems to be changing. There is a perceptual change in the standard of living, even if this is only marginally mirrored in actual statistics.
All this might be wishful thinking, a Pollyanna-ish view we hold until reality slaps us up the side of the head.
The one thing for certain, however, is that Ukraine is on the bubble, and its longer future could be decided in the coming months.
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