Norfolk Blogger

Now for America to beccome the "good guys" again

2008-11-05T20:43:00.002Z

When I was a child, the Americans were always the good guys, the hero was always American, Americans were greeted as friends, they appeared (and I know history tells us otherwise when you look at places like Chile) to be on the right side of the argument.

In recent years though America (as opposed to Americans) has become the country that everyone dislikes. Led by an joke, a stolen election, an unjustifiable war, no action on global warming, detention without trial, and a sense that the USA was itself putting two fingers up to the world. Now, with the election of Obama, this can change.

I heard a US political pundit on the radio earlier talking about how today in London people were congratulating her upon hearing her accent. She talked about a warmth towards her she had not felt in London for many years as soon as people heard her accent. Another journalist, a veteran of many campaigns, himself commented that foreign friends had phoned him up to say that they would be his friends again now. He was joking, but the point was clear. Obama, a man of Kenyan descent, a man who lived in Indonesia, a leader with knowledge of the two great religions of the world, indeed a president who seems ready to work with the world can win America back its friends and can return America to the status of "good guys".

When I was on my honeymoon a little over two years ago in Mexico, our accents stood out amongst the Americans , so people often chose to talk to us out of curiosity. One day, we were chatting two a couple of Americans who were both US service personnel on leave. This husband and wife couple told us that they were proud to be American, but never admitted it when they were abroad because they were embarrassed by Bush, they were totally against the war in Iraq and they couldn't believe what a laughing stock the country had become. These two Americans from Utah would tell people they were from Canada to avoid embarrassment.

I hope they can both hold their heads high today and proudly say they are American because the voters of the United States did their country proud yesterday.

MSNBC Reports "Obama Tsunami"

2008-11-04T23:55:00.002Z

A Republican Party official in Indiana has described the Democrat turnout in North Carolina and Indiana as a "Obama Tsunami".

Of all the channels I am surfing, MSNBC seems to have the best in depth coverage.

The shameless bias of Fox News

2008-11-03T22:15:00.007Z

Having just seen on ITV news that Barack Obama's grandmother had died, I thought I'd flick through the news channels on SKY to see what they were reporting.

SKY News : Lead Story - Obama's Grandmother dying 2nd Item - The candidates final day
BBC News : Lead Story - Obama's Grandmother dying 2nd Item - The candidates final day
ITV News : Lead Story - Obama's Grandmother dying 2nd Item - The candidates final day
CNN : Lead Story - Obama's Grandmother dying 2nd Item - The candidates final day

And from the internet
CBS News - Lead Story - Obama's Grandmother dying 2nd Item - Latest polls
NBC News - Lead Story - The candidates final day - 2nd Item - Obama's grandmother dying

And then there is FOX News, who report as their main story a republican press released of a Obama quote about Coal which has been taken out of context, with a ticker tape of Republican quotes along the bottom. There second story is excerpts from McCain and Palin speeches (not Obama or Biden), and a 3rd Story questioning Obama's tax plans.

Yes, good old Fox news, as biased as hell and ignoring the breaking stories.

Why every decent person has to hope the polls in America are right

2008-11-03T19:16:00.004Z

I know the title of this posting will get the backs up of everyone hoping that McCain and his fruit loop of a VP candidate are elected, but stick with me. I'm not going to argue the merits of Obama over McCain or the Democrats over the Republicans. Instead I want to look at what the polls tell us about America, and what the result will confirm.

All the latest polls show Obama with an average lead of around 6%. Taking in to account the margin of error, this means that Obama should be elected. That in itself is staggering, given his ethnicity and the negative, sometimes racist overtones of the efforts to stop him. But it tells us much about how America has changed.

An America which a few decades ago set dogs on black voters at the polls, a United States that just 8 years ago blocked roads in black areas of Florida in order to make voting harder for them to vote, should elect a black president. What an historic moment that would be. It would underline that the USA has changed, not its politics, but its demographics.

The growth of the latino vote has been talked of for some years, but this would end the dominance of white north European Americans, and show that the USA truly is a land where any immigrant can aspire to be what they want to be.

So why should we all hope the polls are right ? Because if they are wrong, if "The Bradley Effect" repeats itself where voters tell the pollsters that they will vote for a black man, but cannot actually bring themselves to do it, it will show that America has not yet matured and has not let go of its prejudices from the past.

I am not saying that Republicans who believe in John McCain's messages and beliefs have to vote for Obama to prove this. What I am saying is that the polls indicate McCain is behind and if people can tell the pollsters this, they are saying that the US has changed but they must follow through with it at the polls if we are to really know that it is true.

What if ... Obama and McCain's traits and past were reversed

2008-10-30T16:30:00.002Z

There is a great article onthe Chicago Tribune website which highlight a series of what ifs regarding Obama and McCain.

It seems quite clear from the McCain facts that he is an absolute shit of a man.

The text below is taken from the article. Read the whole article HERE.

What If...
What if Obama had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard Law School?
What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?
What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing ....planes? (Zorn Note -- FactCheck.org clarifies the McCain piloting stories/rumors here and the bottom line is, "McCain did lose two Navy aircraft while piloting them. One crash was found to be be McCain's fault, the other due to an engine failure of undetermined cause.")
What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
What if Obama had adopted a white child?

Brilliant new pro Obama "Get Out The Vote" video

2008-10-27T16:49:00.002Z

THIS latest campaign idea in support of the Obama campaign might just get a handful of extra voters out of bed next week. Fingers crossed that this is so.

I note that it is possible to customise it for your own needs. As you can see this one was done by Duncan Borrowman, and a big hat tip to him.

Palling around with dictators

2008-10-25T11:48:00.001+01:00

As has been the case throughout the US presidential campaign, Republican tactics appear to have back fired. After accusations against Barack Obama from the Republicans, it now appears that John McCain has been found out for palling around with Dictators (General Pinochet).

As Justin Webb's blog points out, this may not be a big vote swinger but it again puts the Republicans on the back foot having to rebut accusations rather than leading the attack.

Will Colin Powell come out for Obama ?

2008-10-15T17:42:00.001+01:00

It's only a rumour as yet on the US Republican blog Red State, but it is looking increasingly likely that former US secretary of State Colin Powell, himself a Republican, may endorse Barack Obama.

I actually feel for John McCain

2008-10-11T22:13:00.002+01:00

Watching john McCanin tonight on the news having to defend Barack Obama at his campaign rallies against racist and xenophobic attacks from right wing Republicans really does make you feel for McCain in a big way.

John McCain is not a bad man. Indeed, as Republicans go he is a fair, honest, decent gut with an amazing war record and is known throughout Washington (so the reports say) as honest, intelligent and does his duty without partisan politics getting in the way.

He spoke at the beginning of his campaign how silly comments from Barack Obama's former Paster would not be used against Obama and likewise he said the issue of his son serving in Iraq would also not become a political issue. It is clear he wanted to fight on policies, not personality.

Sadly for McCain, the polls were against him, and in desperation he went for Sarah Palin, a disastrous gaffe which suddenly put in to question his judgement and also made people focus on his health (and age) in a new way. People fear a Palin presidency.

And now, with Republic party bosses pushing for McCain to be more and more negative, with hatred spewing forth from Palin and Republicans across America towards "that Arab" Barack Obama/ Palin goes on about Obama and terrorism, she also goes on about his Pastor whilst John McCain's wife now attacks Obama and brings up her son serving in Iraq. And suddenly John McCain is confronted by people who claim to be his supporters who are the very sort of people McCain has spent his whole political life fighting to oppose.

It's a sad day for McCain. A decent man trapped in a campaign not of his choosing.

Decisive win for Obama in second debate

2008-10-08T07:34:00.002+01:00

It seems clear that by a 54% to 30% margin Barack Obama has won the second debate.

With McCain's own team stating publicly that the more they talk about the economy, the more likely McCain is to lose, they will be devastated that 45 minutes (half) of the time was spent on the economy alone, but I guess that shows how serious an issue it is at the moment.

Did Sarah Palin use an earpiece in the VP debate ?

2008-10-05T21:14:00.002+01:00

It looks as though Sarah Palin's Vice Presidential performance might have had some assistance.

Click HERE to read more.

Another day, another Sarah Palin gaffe

2008-10-03T20:19:00.000+01:00

After the Republicans tried top claim some sort of success after Sarah Palin managed to get through the vice presidential debate without making any gaffes (although polls show Biden clearly won the debate), she has been forced to apologise after mistakenly saying she had met British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald in February.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee's campaign said a meeting between the two occurred at the US National Governors Association in Washington, but the British Embassy has revealed the ambassador had actually withdrawn at the last minute from this event.

Oh dear !

Pravda on Democracy in America

2008-09-28T17:19:00.000+01:00

The comedy news channel Russia Today is always worth watching for five minutes if you need to be reminded how good CNN, Sky News, BBC or even Fox News is.

The story Russia Today is running with today is how undemocratic the US is for not giving Ralph Nader equal coverage with Obama and McCain, with the under current of the story being that the US is not a good democracy because it does not allow candidates equal access to the news media.

The hypocrisy of this reporting, especially given the international recognised bias in the Russia elections when opposition candidates were almost completely blocked from news media, shows just what an utter hypocrisy it is for a one party state owned news channel especially like the one quote they got from an American voter, who said "it shows what a sham democracy we live in".

You couldn't make it up. Pravda never went away.

Ignore what the British press say, US voters say Obama won the first presidential debate

2008-09-27T08:14:00.002+01:00

Despite the BBC and other UK news sources cliaming that the first presidential debate was a draw, the people who really matter, US voters, are clear that Barack Obama won.

See the CBS poll if you don't believe me.

John McCain is running scared

2008-09-25T19:39:00.003+01:00

John McCain is quite clearly running scared from Barack Obama. He's not rated highly for economic competence, his team of advisors are in trouble for dodgy donations and now he is trying to duck out of a presidential debate because he is scared that face to face Barack Obama will make him look second rate.

Now I expect every Tory to take my comments as being partisan, but don't just take my word for it. The excellent Letters from a Tory does it much better and would make even the most hardened of Tories see the holes in McCain's campaign rhetoric.

Sarah Palin does not care about young mothers

2008-09-04T12:32:00.002+01:00

Duncan Borrowman has everything you need to know about Sarah Palin and her attitude to young mothers HERE.

Hardly Vice Presidential material.

Iain Dale might like it, but doesn't it make McCain look old ?

2008-08-29T16:12:00.004+01:00

Iain Dale has highlighted John McCain's latest advert on US TV. Having seen it on Youtube and Sky News today I am not so impressed.

You get the impression throughout the advert that McCain is blinking too often to read the cue card which has obviously been placed just to the left of the camera as he looks at it (our right), and due to his age he seems to squint and not look directly in to the lens.

It might have been the right message, but if I were running McCain's ad campaign I'd drop the close up shots and anything which involves McCain speaking for long periods of time when he cannot learn the lines.

You have to ask how he will cope in a debate if he cannot remember 30 words for an advert.

The unsavoury and unsuitable Hillary Clinton

2008-05-24T10:08:00.002+01:00

The Democratic nomination race has seen two very contrasting campaigns from its front runners. Obama's campaign appears more about aspiration whilst Clinton's campaign has become more and more about desperation.

Take for example Hillary's campaign team criticising Barack Obama's wife. Once might have expected that Hillary, herself the subject of lots of attacks whilst her husband was in office in the White House, would have realised that this type of campaigning is hurtful and pretty irrelevant, would have stepped away from such campaign methods. But no, her desperation was clear.

But by raising the spectre that someone could assassinate Barack Obama as her reason for continuing to campaign on when all appears lost, she really has show how utterly unsuitable she is for public office. It's a shame. i rather liked Bill Clinton and thought another Clinton could be quite good. Now, like many others, I am keeping my fingers crossed for Obama.

Obama ahead in three of the four latest polls in Texas

2008-03-01T21:36:00.002Z

The latest polls from Texas are perhaps the clearest sign yet of the end of the road for Hillary Clinton's bid to win the Democratic nomination.

Three polls, published yesterday have Barack Obama ahead , with only one poll showing Hillary Clinton still in the lead. This confirms earlier polls done a few days ago that showed Obama eating in to Hillary Clinton's once formidable lead in this key state.

In Ohio the news remains better for Clinton, but her 10% poll lead in this state too have evaporated. The average of the four latest polls only have her 4.25% ahead of Obama, which is well within range of the statistical margin of error.

If I bet on US politics, I'd now be betting heavily on Obama, but then again I bet on the Lib Dems to win the Hartlepool by-election, so what do I know ?

Why are the polls under reflecting Barack Obama's appeal ?

2008-02-20T20:08:00.002Z

All the polls carried out in the last seven days in Wisconsin, scene of barack Obama's latest victory in the Democratic primaries showed, with one exception, a small Obama lead, but in each and every case they undervalued Obama's support. So does this have a messge for what will happen in Texas and Ohio next week ?

The Wisonsim Polls showed, on average, 52% for Obama, and 42% for Clinton, with about 6% undecideds.

Yet in the real primary in Wisconsin Obama polled 59% to Clinton's 41%. So the opinion polls under represent Obama by 7% and over rate Clinton by 1%.

Is this all just the undecideds going for Obama at the last minute because of CLinton's attack ads ? Perhaps, but the polls were wrong in many of the other nine states Obama has won since Super Tuesday.

So what are the polls saying in Texas and Ohio ? In Texas the latest polls (an average of the previous seven polls in fact) have it as Clinton on 50% and Obama in 44%. So if the under valuing of Obama is correct, he could win here.

In Ohio Clinton looks safer, on 51.5 % to Obama's 40%, but again, with some momentum, Obama could tie it here.

I don't bet on US politics, but if Obama even comes close to winning in Texas of Ohia, hillary Clinton is dead in the water and I wouldn't bet against Obama in Taxas right now.

Did Senator McCain actually win in Washington State ?

2008-02-12T14:57:00.000Z

Reports from America suggest that a full vote count is going to be held in Washington State after the Republican Shairman in the state called the result with 12% of the votes still to be counted. he decided to call the result in favour of John McCain even though he was just 242 votes ahead.

It is a strange system they have in America that it is considered abnormal to count everyone's votes.

Is the result in Maine the end of the road for Hillary ?

2008-02-11T20:23:00.001Z

Whilst Barack Obama was having a good Saturday, winning a strong of Primaries across America, the Clinton camp hung on to the hope that they would have momentum again by wimming in Maine, where all the polls had Hillary Clinton in the lead. So the result in Main must have come as a terrible shock to the Clinton camp and the writing is surely on the wall now for her campaign.

In Maine, Clinton polled 40% to Obama's 59%. Coupled with losing a campaign manager and having to lend her own campaign $5 million, this could be the end of her campaign.

Hillary Clinton to do a Rudy Giuliani ?

2008-02-10T23:32:00.000Z

Hilary Clinton's campaign to win the Democratic nomination appears to be in freefall after a change of strategy led to a senior aide resigning in disgust.

So stretched are Hillary Clinton's campaign finances that she is taking the risky step of putting in no real campaign effort in the smaller states, and will instead bet everything on winning big in big delegate rich states of Ohio and Texas.

This is the same strategy that Rudy Giuliani tried in the Republican race when he chose to sit out the early primaries with the intention of winning big in Florida. Instead, all that happened was that he lost big in Florida and made himself look like a prize idiot.

Obviously the Clinton Campaign would not choose to do this if funds and support were going their way, but after Saturday night's clean sweep of four states for Barack Obama, all with embarrassingly large margins of victory, the tide appears to have turned decisivly in Obama's favour.

As a keen watcher of American politics who feels that America's name has become a dirty word in George W Bush, I have to say I am impressed by Obama and hope this is the decisive moment in his campaign to win the Democratic nomination.

Are you looking for a decent website that covers all the US Primary opinion polls ?

2008-02-10T14:19:00.000Z

I have been searching around in vain looking for a decent website that not only prints news about the US Primaries, but also features all the opinion polls from the various states. I have found the US TV Channels websites to be largely useless, which networks like Fox can hardly be described as a news Channel, so I reallly cannot trust a word they say. So I was very please to find THIS site.

Called 2008 USA Election Polls, it does exactly what is says on the tin, so to speak, and is well worth a look for al those interested in what is hapening in the US.

A silly comparison Mr Finkelstein

2008-02-06T23:15:00.000Z

Danny Finkelstein raises some good points about the odd caucus system employed in some states to selet their delegates to vote for the Democratic and Republican candidates for the US presidency. But then he goes and spoils it all by saying "There was so much fuss about what happened in Florida in 2000. But whatever your view of that, isn't this at least as bad?"

Actual Mr Finkelstein. No it isn't. Let me explain why.

In Florida in 2000 there was mass fraud. Firstly not everyone's votes were counted because the counting machines did not do their job properly. Then there was the issue of absentee ballots, which were accepting after polling day, at the discretion of eletion officials appoited by the Republicans. these overseas ballots, often from members of the armed forces, and overwhelmingly Republican voters should not have been counted. then there was the mass removal of htousands of names of known felons from the voting lists in Florida. There is a greater chance of poorer people voting Democrat, and likewise a greater chance of a poorer person being a known felon. this meant that thousands of Democrat voters had their vote taken away and they often did not know until they turned up to vote. They were not informed that they had to re-apply for the right to vote. And then, of course, there was the obstruction of polling stations in areas where the Democrats were expected to do well.

So in short Mr Finkelstein you make a good point about caucuses, but then spoilt it by comparing it to the situation in Florida in 2000.