LOS ANGELES TIMES: The leader of the minor-party Liberal Democrats has soared in popularity after recent televised debates. A traditionally two-horse race is suddenly unpredictable.
Reporting from London
He is an avowed atheist who famously claimed to have slept with "no more than 30" women. He has criticized British governments for their "slavish" relationship with Washington.
And he may be the most popular politician in the country.
Nick Clegg, the leader of the perennial also-ran Liberal Democrats, is suddenly being compared by the more breathless British media to President Obama and Winston Churchill. Millions of voters will be watching as he takes the stage Thursday night for the last of three televised debates between the men hoping to emerge as Britain's prime minister after elections May 6.
Clegg, 43, has upended the usual narrative of such elections here by turning a traditional two-horse race between the Labor and Conservative parties into an unpredictable and potentially historic three-way heat. Running on a platform of targeted spending cuts, a tax on big banks and clean government, Clegg's left-of-center party is poised for its best-ever showing in a general election.
Credit for that goes almost entirely to the Cambridge-educated Clegg — and the power of television.
Until the first debate two weeks ago by Clegg, David Cameron of the Conservative Party and Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown, British voters had never seen their prospective leaders spar on national television during an election campaign.
As standard-bearers of the two major parties, Brown and Cameron were guaranteed extensive media coverage. But the first live face-off offered Clegg a national platform he never would have had otherwise.
He stole the show. >>> Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times | Wednesday, April 28, 2010
An amazingly frank interview >>> | Monday, March 31, 2008
