The polls were right all along — America has elected Barack Obama, and proved itself not to be a hateful, bigoted nation. I hope anyone who secretly expected a racist “Bradley effect” to propel John McCain to the White House is now hanging their head in shame: McCain won an honest 47% and bowed out [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, republican, uspolitics on November 5th, 2008 | No Comments »
Photograph courtesy of Flickr user 1flatworld.
For me, the story of the U.S. election run-in has not been the story of the inevitable march to power of Barack Obama. It’s been the story of how an immeasurably more experienced candidate — John McCain — has rendered himself unelectable with a solid month of cackhanded campaigning. When [...]
Filed under: election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on October 28th, 2008 | No Comments »
Photograph courtesy of Jim Mone/Associated Press.
Monday 27th October, 8.45pm
On the back of Tuesday’s successful talk from Salim Tamari, Clare Politics brings you another must-see event, as Jodi Williams addresses the society.
As one of the first member’s of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign - a campaign which by now has reached the home straight - she helped [...]
Filed under: barackobama, clarepoliticsnews, election2008, jodiwilliams, uspolitics on October 24th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Photograph courtesy of Flickr user shazam791.
Of all the bizarre and interesting features of the 2008 US presidential election, here’s one you may not have noticed: it’s the first time both tickets have been topped by a serving senator. It guarantees that America’s 44th president will be the third to assume the job from a Senate [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on October 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
Illustration courtesy of Flickr user Ricardo Carreon.
Like a small unhappy section of society I spent most of Friday morning yawning profusely looking to all the world like I was suffering the consequences of a particularly heavy night out. But alas, I must confess to night-time pursuit far less socially acceptable and indeed more sordid and [...]
Filed under: election2008, podcasts, presidentialdebate, uspolitics on October 5th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Photograph courtesy of Army.mil
The 44th President of the United States will be a crisis president. But he won’t just have an economic disaster to deal with. He’ll also inherit twin military deployments in the region between Israel and India — an area we should perhaps think of as one massive region, one massive problem, but [...]
Filed under: afghanistan, barackobama, election2008, iraq, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on October 2nd, 2008 | No Comments »
Photograph courtesy of Flickr user ucumari.
The House of Representatives has rejected a $700bn bailout for stricken Wall Street banks. The cause? Primarily rebellious Republican congressmen, less than 50% of whom backed the Republican administration’s proposal. Why? Because they fear for their seats — approval ratings for the bill vary from 12% to 22%, depending on [...]
Filed under: election2008, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on September 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Photograph courtesy of Flickr user jmtimages
Funny how often you hear talk of the “Great American Novel”, as though the only national identity worth having is one that can be embodied in a book. In the latest much-publicised G.A.N. contender, Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland (a terrific piece of work notwithstanding the hype), America is not so much [...]
Filed under: barackobama, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on September 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
Photograph courtesy of John McCain 2008.
I am hugely enjoying John McCain’s 2008 presidential run — and it’s obvious he is too. I love the witty adverts and the non-messianic tone. I admire his gravitas, his experience, his foreign policy convictions and his efforts to clean up Washington. His astonishing gamble on a 44-year old Alaskan [...]
Filed under: election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on August 30th, 2008 | 8 Comments »
John McCain ought to have a big problem - namely that Republicans don’t actually like him very much and it’s Republicans that he has to convince to make him the party’s nominee. As I’ve argued recently, McCain’s popularity comes from a relatively small section of the Republican broad church.
So far, his saving grace is that [...]
Filed under: election2008, fredthompson, johnmccain, mattclifford, rudyriuliani, uspolitics on January 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »
