The Los Angeles Times’ Don Frederick claims Barack Obama has “disrespected” Kentucky by declining to campaign in the Bluegrass State. Does this mean he disrespected Guam too? More interestingly – if no more usefully – Frederick asks what might have happened if Clinton had, as her then deputy campaign manager Mike Henry urged, simply skipped
Jim Henley looks forward to the Libertarian Party convention this weekend. After a (very) brief trawl through the candidates he writes: That leaves Bob Barr, who could become the first candidate ever to make the leap from my blogroll to the presidential nomination of an established political party. I suspected my blogroll needed work, now
Looks as though I’m going to have to get Joseph O’Neill’s new novel Netherland. The NYT explains: The idea of publishing a novel in the United States about cricket gave him commercial qualms but not artistic ones, Mr. O’Neill said in an e-mail message. “You want a novel to tap as directly as possible into
As I always say, Scoop isn’t really fiction. From John Gaskell’s obituary in the Telegraph today: Plagued by ill-health, Gaskell reduced his commitments to working half a week so that he could write a novel about obituaries. Unfortunately, he mentioned this to a man he was interviewing, and the man then sold the
Blimey. Barack Obama addresses a crowd of 75,000 people in Oregon yesterday. Caveat: Remember all those stories about Howard Dean and the enthusiastic crowds he drew in the summer of 2003? How did that work out? Still, 75,000 ain’t exactly chopped liver is it? The point being, of course, how does John McCain compete against
More polling! This time it’s Setting the Woods on Fire who wants you to list your ten favourite country music artists. My off-the-top-of-my-head list, then, is: 1. Gram Parsons2. Waylon Jennings3. Townes van Zandt4. Johnny Cash5. Emmylou Harris 6. Hank Williams Sr 7. Dwight Yoakam8. Gillian Welch9. Lyle Lovett10. Merle Haggard Make your vote count
That’s the latest Guardian/ICM poll. This is Labour’s lowest level of support since the poll began in 1984. There’s no obvious way out for Labour. Sure, they could ditch Gordon but any successor would, I suspect, be compelled to call an election since I think it unlikely the public will stomach consecutive unelected Prime Ministers
So, Panmure House, Adam Smith’s former Edinburgh home, has been sold. The ASI reports: Councillors in Edinburgh have approved the sale… to Heriot-Watt University. They chose the £800,000 bid over a higher offer, on the grounds that the University would make the building more accessible to the public. The University plans to restore the house
I wasn’t quite sure what to say about this. This being the Scottish Labour party’s latest attempt to finesse their position on the matter of an independence referendum. Happily, J Arthur MacNumpty summarises Labour’s position with admirable clarity: Labour are Unionists, so don’t want an independence referendum, but aren’t afraid of the verdict of the
Say what you like about this United States Senate resolution, but it probably did less damage than most bills that make their way through Washington. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES December 6, 2007 Mr. KOHL (for himself, Mr. PRYOR, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. BROWN, and Mr. CHAMBLISS) submitted the following resolution; which
Via Ross, this map demonstrates the extent to which Obama has been crushed in Appalachia. The Redneck Arc shows the counties in which Hillary Clinton won more than 65% of the vote. When the final tallies from West Virginia and Kentucky are included, the areas currently white will be coloured pink too. As Ross says,
Matt Zeitlin says the idea that Obama “needs” to win Appalachia is “just wrong”. And, of course, he has a point when he writes that “It’s just true that Obama doesn’t need the states that the media keeps on telling the Democrats they need to focus on. If Obama can win the Kerry states and
Skipper Neil Darling and his Selkirk team-mates celebrate after Monday night’s Border League final victory over Jed-Forest, bringing the title back to Philiphaugh for the first time in 55 years. This caps the most successful season for the rugby club since 1952-53 when Selkirk were both Border League and Scottish champions (for the only time
Of course he’s off saving the world or, as Robert Harris puts it today, “He is already on to the next big thing in his career, with the premiership (in Alan Bennett’s wonderful phrase) merely a stage in his spiritual journey.” Time to give this a fresh airing then: Harris makes a serious point: the
Memo to Gordon Brown. This sot of caper explains why people are beginning to think you are in fact a fool: div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited { color:#06c; } Gordon Brown will not receive the Dalai Lama in Downing Street in an effort to avoid confrontation with China over Tibet, The Times has learnt.
Elsewhere in Britain, it’s good to see a much-hounded, misunderstood minority finally getting their due: Hundreds of Pagan worshippers locked up in British jails have been given the right to take twigs into their cells to use as magic wands. The ruling, which also allows hoodless robes and rune stones, was made to ensure the
The question itching le tout Washington is simple: why won’t Hillary Clinton do the decent thing and quit? Well, my friend Mike Crowley has a grand piece in the latest edition of the New Republic that may explain why. The Clintons have been here before and, against the city’s expectations, prevailed. Mike suggests that we
Here’s the core finding of our quest to discover the Most Over-Rated and Most Under-Rated Presidents in US history: history has pegged Herbert Hoover absolutely right. Hoover was the only 20th century president who did not receive a single vote in either category. Uniquely amongst modern presidents, Hoover draws no controversy. He is the rock*
If the race to be considered the Most Over-Rated President in American history was won at a canter by Ronald Wilson Reagan, there was a much keener contest to earn the title Most Under-Rated president. No fewer than 36 of the 42 men to have held the post received votes in this ballot. As before,
And amazingly, it has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. No, it’s Rangers’ Christian Dailly who, having seen the referee keep the Ibrox club’s SPL title ambitions alive yesterday had the effrontery, the gall, the unmitigated audacity to claim: that since arriving at Ibrox in January he has formed the impression that Rangers are more