With regard to the previous post, indefatigable commenter NDM has this to say: John Galt’s The Member and The Radical, available in a handy combined edition from Canongate, are also interesting on this topic. Talking of Galt, I was once driving along one of America’s more boring interstates when I saw a bumper sticker with
You betcha! According to Fox News’ Carl Cameron Sarah Palin wasn’t aware of this. Nor, he says, could she name the countries that signed NAFTA. Clue: there are only three. This latter problem alone must, one supposes, have horrified the campaign (though of course they only had themselves to blame), the former something that though
Hope has a short half-life. Right now most of the world is simply happy to see an end to the Bush years. Even so, there’s no denying that Obama generates much more excitement internationally than, say, Hillary Clinton would have had she been elected President. Much, though not all, of this excitement is generated by
I’m glad Trixy reminded me about the startlingly daft speech Hazel Blears, the Communities Minister (whatever that means), gave to the Hansard Society the other day. Though the irrepressible Mrs Blears was correct to bemoan the rise of a political class with no hinterland beyond Westminster (this also applies to the media classes, of course),
Are you interested in technology and technology policy and politics? If so then you should zip on over to Julian Sanchez’s new blog, Law & Disorder at Ars Technica. Goodness assured.
I’d wondered how Melanie Philips – Britain’s pop-eyed, vein-bulging answer to Andy McCarthy and Stanley Kurtz – might react to the election of Barack Obama. Happily, she doesn’t disappoint: Those of us who have looked on appalled during this most frightening of presidential elections – at the suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery
There’s a rather odd notion in some circles that black people voting for Barack Obama on the grounds that he is black is itself somewhat racist. Here’s Iain Dale for instance: I could hardly believe my ears this morning, listening to my old mucker Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on 5 Live, talking about the US election. Shelagh
You will see that I’m sticking my neck out and suggesting Barack Hussein Obama could be the next President of the United States. I thought about honouring Missouri’s reputation as a bell-weather and putting that in his column. Or, to put it another way, I think Obama will win at least one of Missouri, Indiana
An early start for Democratic volunteers in the Buckeye State. A friend emails to report: Woke up this morning at 4am with my cell phone ringing and Bill Clinton’s voice on the other end, “Wake up Ohio volunteer, this is Bill Clinton, the last Democratic President, telling you to get out of bed and go
As voting gets underway across the United States, have a look at this TV ad from a Congressional race in Virginia. I do wish we had stuff like this in Britain. This has an authentically salty disgust to it that makes it all seem very pleasingly 19th century. You were allowed to go negative back
My friend Fraser Nelson waits until the last-minute before hopping aboard the Obama express and does so largely because he thinks Obama is likely to do some good in terms of how America is perceived around the world and, let’s be honest, because Obama’s election might make the sanctimonious left rethink, at least for a
So, readers, how has your election day been so far? What are you seeing out there? Cool stuff? Depressing revelations? Reassuring experiences? You can email me here. Also, I’m pondering a marathon live-blog tonight. Good idea or not?
The results from Guam are in and seem to indicate good times for two parties. That’s to say the Democrats have turned things around in the Pacific, winning nearly 62% of the vote (did Howard Dean’s 50 State Strategy also include Guam?). More importantly, as Dave Weigel reveals, Bob Barr’s 97 votes constitute a “mini-surge”
Channel 4 News’ anchor, Jon Snow, has just been talking about how electing Barack Obama means “America has come of constitutional age”. Yes, really. Apparently none of those previous elections were legitimate. Now of course Snow’s program tilts even further to the left than the BBC so you might expect him to say something like
So this is where it all ends campers. That being the case it’s only seemly to see out this marathon campaign with another live blog and chat extravaganza. That being so, everything will kick off here around 6.30EST/11.30GMT. It will, hopefully, be, like fun. There’s history to be made, folks!
There’s something awful about a bad review. By which I mean, one can sometimes feel rather sorry for the poor writer suffering under a prolonged and vicious barrage (one thinks of some of Dale Peck’s screeds in the New Republic for instance) that leaves him – and by its end, the reader too – shell-shocked.
Some thoughts on the campaign in advance of the last day of voting tomorrow… Timing matters and, as any sports coach will tell you, it can’t be taught. You have it or, alas, you don’t. The same might be said for good fortune. That’s to say, success in political campaigns rarely has a monocausal explanation.
Meanwhile, super-secret Democratic operative “Josh Lyman” emails this update from Ohio: Calls are being made to some of our voters in Toledo warning voters of long lines at the polls and if they wanted to vote over the phone by expressing their preference on the key pad they can.
Commenting on this post, a very astute reader makes these excellent points: Two more thoughts on timing 1) Obama is the luckiest loser in history. Had he won the House race vs. Bobby Rush in 02 he’d probably be lost in Jesse Jackson Jr’s shadow and relegated to a life of obscurity. 2) The key