Showing posts with label US elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US elections. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: President says severe losses his party suffered across the country reflect frustration at the slow pace of economic recoveryBarack Obama has expressed humility and promised to work with the Republicans after one of the worst Democratic election defeats in 70 years.
Speaking at a White House press conference, Obama acknowledged that the devastating losses suffered in races across the country reflected voters' frustration with the slow economic recovery.
He offered to sit down with Republican and Democratic leaders to see whether there were areas where they could agree. "I have been willing to compromise in the past and I am willing to compromise going forward," Obama said. >>> Ewen MacAskill in Washington | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Midterms 2010: Obama’s ability to address global challenges now in doubt – Experts across the world have been raising doubts about Barack Obama’s ability to address foreign policy challenges in the wake of the mid-term election defeat. >>> Praveen Swami, Diplomatic Editor | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: America has taken stock of Mr Obama’s presidency – and it doesn’t like what it sees, says Simon Heffer.
The extent of the kicking the Democratic party has received in the mid-term elections will be clear by the time you read this. America has been concentrating in recent days not on who would win – that seemed obvious – but on how big the Republican gains would be among the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, the 36 Senate seats, the 37 governorships and the 6,118 seats in state legislatures being contested. There is a more striking consideration, however: why has the Obama phenomenon imploded with the force it has, just two years after the President’s stunning triumph? For it is so mighty a fall that it is something of an achievement.
In recent days both the President and his rather clumsy Vice-President, Joe Biden, have been touring America trying to get the Democratic vote out. They do not appear to have been very successful. Two years ago, hundreds of thousands of people turned up for great outdoor rallies for candidate Obama. When he went to Cleveland, Ohio, on Sunday the indoor sports stadium he spoke in was a little over half-full. The media here are full of former Democratic voters voicing different degrees of disappointment with him. The greatest criticism is about his failure to improve the economy; the second greatest is about his apparent inability to modify foreign policy. In this lies the truth of what the difficulty is: a fundamental failure to manage expectations.
On the morning after Mr Obama’s election two years ago, I watched on television an Illinois woman weeping with relief at the outcome, on the grounds that her house would not now be foreclosed upon. She made it clear where she got this idea from: the Democrats had promised prosperity and, she believed, to protect the homes of those facing foreclosure on their loans. I hope that woman still has the same roof over her head, but I wouldn’t bet on it. The wild economic promises and the failure to damp down some of the inferences drawn from them have proved disastrous for the Democrats’, and the President’s, reputation and credibility.
Many states are going broke. Nevada, home of the Senate leader Harry Reid, is $3 billion in the red. The combined level of their debt is $134 billion. That is a drop in the ocean compared with America’s total debt, which is around $15 trillion, a figure incomprehensible to most people. Unemployment nationally has risen from 7.7 per cent two years ago to 9.6 per cent today. The President’s own economic advisers said it would peak at 8 per cent and Mr Biden recklessly said it would fall month-on-month. Last month, 96,000 more people joined the dole queues. Unemployment has risen disproportionately among young people, black people and the white working class, precisely the groups who supported Mr Obama two years ago. The President has a particular problem in northern rust-belt states where he was supported heavily in 2008 because he represented the last hope. He and Mr Biden have been again and again to the states around the Great Lakes trying to maintain that support. There, as elsewhere, they appear to have failed. There is no real anger against them, though: just a fog of disappointment. Read on and comment >>> Simon Heffer | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Republicans seize momentum in House of Representatives as voter disillusionment leaves Democrats facing a tough futureA conservative wave roared across the American political landscape last night, humbling President Barack Obama and instantly redrawing the landscape in Washington with a new place on the high perches of power for the flag-bearers of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement.
As night gave away to dawn in America, a huge power-shift had materialised with the Republican Party set to seize control of the House of Representatives with a significant majority. Television networks projected that the Democrats had held on to control of the US Senate.
Thus utter humiliation was averted - but barely.
“Tonight there is a Tea Party tidal wave,” declared Rand Paul, the victor of the Senate race in Kentucky and among the most high profile winners backed by the insurgent conservative movement. “They tell me that the Senate is the most deliberative body...deliberate on this: the American people are unhappy with what’s going on in Washington. >>> David Usborne, US Editor | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Republican Party has recaptured the House of Representatives from the Democrats, delivering a stunning rebuke to President Barack Obama just two years after he won the White House.
The party won a slew of Democratic seats in America's eastern time zone such as Indiana and Virginia, and were on course for an overall gain of 52-55 seats by the time votes in the rest of country had been counted.
But Republicans fell short of their ambitious target of the ten seats needed to win the Senate, which would have given them total control of Congress.
The Democrats keep a narrow lead in the Senate, which will give the party considerable leverage against what is expected to be a barrage of Republican legislation from the House designed to unpick President Barack Obama’s achievements in his first two years.
Early in the evening the Republicans celebrated as Tea Party favourites Marco Rubio and Rand Paul won in Florida and Kentucky respectively.
Mr Paul achieved the historic feat of becoming the first member of the anti-tax, small-government Tea Party member to win a Senate seat. The committed libertarian, son of Representative Ron Paul, who was a maverick 2008 presidential candidate, prevailed in Kentucky.
In his victory speech, he proclaimed that "tonight there is a Tea Party tidal wave and we are sending a message” He continued: “It's a message of fiscal sanity, limited constitutional government and balanced budgets."
Mr Rubio delivered a warning to the Republican leadership in Washington that the party had to learn from the mistakes made after it last won a majority in 1994, when it abandoned the principles of balanced budgets and small government. >>> Toby Harnden and Alex Spillius in Washington | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Friday, October 24, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: US police fear riots could break out if John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, wins the election next month.
Law enforcement officials say the intense public interest and historic nature of the vote could lead to violent outbreaks if people are unhappy with the results, encounter problems casting their ballots or suspect voting irregularities.
Police departments say they cannot rule out disorder and are mobilising extra forces and putting SWAT teams on standby.
In Oakland, near San Francisco, police will have tactical squads, SWAT teams and officers trained in riot control on standby.
"We always try to prepare for the worst," said Oakland police department spokesman Jeff Thomason.
"This election is going to mark in history a change in the presidency: you're going to have a woman in the presidency or an African American as president. I think everybody around here is voting for Obama, so if he gets in the White House everybody's going to be happy.
"But we'll have our SWAT teams on standby and traffic teams here, so if something goes off we'll organise and take care of the problem."
There have also been internet rumours about plans for protests or civil disobedience by supporters of Democratic candidate Barack Obama if he is beaten by Republican rival John McCain on November 4. >>> By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles | October 23, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Friday, October 17, 2008
BBC: Kenyan MPs have called for an airport in the west of the country to be upgraded for Air Force One in case Barack Obama wins the US elections.
Mr Obama's father was born in Nyanza Province and the MPs say the local Kisumu airport should be expanded in case he wants to visit.
The Illinois senator is a local hero in his father's homeland, where a local beer has been named after him.
Mr Obama has never lived in Kenya and he has visited just three times.
The MPs from Nyanza Province said it was clear that Mr Obama was going to clinch the US presidency, the private Nairobi Star newspaper reported. >>> | October 17, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Saturday, January 19, 2008
BBC: Hillary Clinton has won a fiercely contested election in the US state of Nevada, according to projections based on 88% of the vote count.
Preliminary figures show Mrs Clinton with 51% of the vote, to 45% for Barack Obama. Both candidates have fought hard to win the support of Latino voters.
US TV networks project a big win in the state for Republican Mitt Romney.
The party's contest in Nevada has been overshadowed by a closely-fought primary being held in South Carolina.
Voting continues in the first southern state to hold a primary, where Republicans John McCain and Mike Huckabee, who appear to be the frontrunners in a very tight race, have focused their efforts.
But a win in Nevada for Mr Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, could give him a useful boost going into the next primary vote in Florida. Clinto wins tight Nevada caucus >>>
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
THE TELEGRAPH: Michelle Obama, who could become America’s first black First Lady, has launched a scathing attack on her husband’s opponent Hillary Clinton, stating she represents "the same old thing over and over again".
Whereas Barack Obama preaches a message of hope and transcending differences that is more kumbaya than combative, his wife, like him a lawyer and a Harvard graduate, did not hesitate to take his main opponent on in an appearance at a Las Vegas.
On her 44th birthday, and less than 48 hours before today’s crucial Nevada caucuses, Mrs Obama spoke passionately about racial slurs against her husband and the symbolism of having a black family in the White House.
In a fiery comparison between his 2004 Senate campaign and this year’s presidential race, she said: "You know what they were saying about him then? They said he was too young. They said he was too inexperienced. They said he should wait his turn.
"They said he couldn’t build a political machine to match the might of a family in Illinois that had been running for years. They said he couldn’t raise the money. They said that he was too black. They said that he wasn’t black enough. Sound familiar?
"They said that his name was too funny. They said there was no way that white folks in downstate Illinois and vote for a man named Barack Obama. They said it because when power is confronted by change, they will say anything." Michelle Obama launches attack on Clinton >>> By Toby Harnden in Las Vegas
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
FINANCIAL TIMES: There is not a scintilla of anything to be mistaken for modesty in Barack Obama’s pitch for the White House. Stripped of rhetorical ornament, it says vote for me because I am me. Mr Obama exults in the uniqueness of his personal story. To vote for him is to imagine a changed America. That explains why he defines the nature of the contest.
I have heard advisers to Hillary Clinton call this narcissism. They have a point, though it might be said also that most successful politicians like to catch their reflection in the pond. Anyway, Mr Obama is also right. An America that chose as its commander-in-chief a 46-year-old African-American with Hussein as his middle name would be a different place. There lies his political strength; and his weakness.
Of course, we must not get overly excited any longer about the freshman senator from Illinois. At the start of the week the media had elevated Mr Obama to the status of prophet over politician. To watch the television or to read the gush, here was Jack Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King rolled into one. And when last was a candidate for the Democratic nomination so lauded by conservative commentators?
All that is yesterday’s news. After New Hampshire, the “broken” Hillary Clinton no longer looks, well, broken. The wheels on the legendary Clinton political machine are turning again. The next batch of primaries, culminating in Super Tuesday on February 5, will lock out many of the undecideds and independents from whom Mr Obama drew strength in Iowa and New Hampshire.
So the pundits may begin to turn on him with symmetrical hyperbole. Mr Obama was the chosen one; he let them down. Defeat in New Hampshire was his mistake not theirs. He could yet discover the perilously short distance between a media verdict of visionary and one of vacuous. A reflection that defines the choice for US voters >>> By Philip Stephens
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
THE GUARDIAN: He denounces it as the "Great Satan" and frequently dismisses its power, but the overtures of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the US seem to grow ever more extravagant.
Having failed to win a response with an 18-page letter to President George Bush or to a request to visit the site of the September 11 2001 attack on New York, Ahmadinejad has offered himself as an observer in next year's presidential election. >> By Robert Tait
Mark Alexander
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