Are we heading towards the point of no return?
Peter Hoskin 8:39am
The Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has a comment piece in today's FT in which he defends his decision to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by drawing parallels with the West's recognition of an independent Kosovo. But whatever the rights and wrongs on that front, it's hard to read Russia's defiance of the West on this as little more than an act of agression. Accordingly, then, there's a growing sense that the jaw-jaw just isn't working. The rhetoric has already stepped up a notch, with Medvedev claiming that "We are not afraid of anything,...
My take: Hillary did what was required of her but I saw plenty traces of a 2012 campaign in her speech. The CNN coverage (it’s all they show here in the press tent) focuses on how incredibly gracious she was – but I didn’t see it. Unsurprisingly, she told people to vote for Barack Obama but I felt she was going through the motions. It was more “hold your nose and vote Obama” plus a few mild attacks at her “friend” John McCain. As for her future, what really jumped out at me...
Hillary Clinton did what her duty compelled to do in terms of supporting Obama and attacking McCain in her speech. But it didn’t inflict lasting damage on McCain; she attacked him on the issues you would expect a Democrat to and praised Obama on the issues you would expect her to. The 3am genie she let out the bottle has not yet been put back in. There is now talk that Bill Clinton will try and do this tomorrow night but given his recent behaviour that’s hardly reassuring news if you are an...
Everything this year seems to have aligned for the Democrats. The incumbent Republican president is deeply unpopular, more than three quarters of voters think the country is on the wrong track, the economy is in trouble and the conservative coalition is fracturing. But still the presidential race is tight; there aren’t more than a couple of points in it. The explanation for this is quite simple: the election has moved from being a referendum on the Bush years to a referendum on Barack Obama. The extent to which Obama dominates the media coverage...
With French President Sarkozy having called an emergency EU summit to discuss Georgia, Europe’s finest diplomatic minds are now trying to decide what the leaders should actually talk about when they meet. 
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