They always have to go one better, don’t they? The week Europe tries to recreate the Big Bang, America decides to kick off the Big Crunch. In the eye of the storm stands US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson: perhaps the world’s most powerful man, at least for this week. The kind of financial titan we’d [...]
Filed under: gambling, jonathanbirch, labour, ukpolitics, uspolitics on September 16th, 2008 | No Comments »
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 »
The debate in Myrtle Beach, SC, broke records as over 5 million Americans tuned in for a good old-fashioned mudslinging contest. But unlike the GOP candidates, there really is very little difference between the positions of Clinton, Obama and Edwards on the important issues. All want a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, all support [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized, barackobama, election2008, hillaryclinton, jameschettle, uspolitics on January 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »
More interesting exit polls over the weekend. I’m a little rushed today, so a detailed look will have to wait until later but three potentially very important points:
1. Obama won 83% of the black vote in Nevada. That’s really huge: African-Americans used to be some of the Clinton’s most loyal supports. Indeed, Bill has been [...]
Filed under: barackobama, election2008, hillaryclinton, mattclifford, uspolitics on January 21st, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Following on from yesterday’s post, the Michigan Republican exit polls also make interesting reading. However, income, class and education are no longer the important variables (though, crudely, it would seem that as you get richer you’re slightly more likely to vote Romney and slightly less likely to vote Huckabee; but that’s not exactly shocking). What’s [...]
Filed under: election2008, johnmccain, mattclifford, mittromney, uspolitics on January 16th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
For five days, commentary on American politics was little more than a “Who loves Barack the most” contest (You have to love the Independent’s leader the day after New Hampshire: “Our front page yesterday may, regrettably, have given the impression that Barack Obama had beaten Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary and was well [...]
Filed under: barackobama, election2008, hillaryclinton, mattclifford, uspolitics on January 15th, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Why did Hillary Clinton win New Hampshire? One answer is, perhaps, that the polls were wrong all along. Hillary is the candidate registered Democrat voters are embarrassed to admit they support, but support her they do. Barack Obama is the media darling; Hillary is the prosaic, sensible, tactical choice. She does not win votes with [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, hillaryclinton, uspolitics on January 15th, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Mike Huckabee’s Iowa victory last week has stirred a sleeping giant in US politics. It was a timely reminder that the Religious Right owns a large section of America’s conservative electorate. We can forget Barack Obama’s enormous grassroots appeal, his massive student following, his precinct captains and armies of volunteers. Nothing can match the pull [...]
Filed under: andrewnoakes, election2008, mikehuckabee, religion, republican, uspolitics on January 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
