May 1, 2008
An election video
This may be the laziest blog I have ever done. But I heartily recommend this splendid seven-minute video from Slate, summarising the Democratic presidential race so far.
And just to add a teensy bit of value of my own. I met a long-time Clinton adviser at an event in London today. His private take is that Obama has now locked up the nomination. Yes, the Reverend Wright stuff is incredibly damaging. But it’s too late to de-rail Obama now. He said that: “The Democratic elite decided a few weeks ago that Obama will be the nominee. And he will be. The trouble is that he can’t finish Clinton off. And that show’s he a weak candidate.”
I ran this past an Obama adviser whose reaction was - “We don’t think it’s over yet. We’ve thought that so many times. And we’ve been wrong.”
Not so splendid. Typical American mass culture production. Racy, shiny, with shallow humour and otherwise little depth. The British media offers much more than this (and with the right accent).
If Obama clinches the nomination then the whole process is a big hoax . If true, then nothing matters (except for screen appeal) and everything is acceptable in the video-game world which is America today.
Posted by: RCS | May 1st, 2008 at 6:29 pm | Report this commentYes it is splendid! Thank You GR …I am not a regular reader of Slate and would have missed this! I have 2 sites that I believe do the best job at covering US politics
Real Clear Politics :http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
and Bill Bradley’s New West Notes
http://pajamasmedia.com/billbradley/
(if you read him I suggest you consider ignoring his host “Pajama Media” as it is full of ideolgical rants and disinformation trying to pass as news)
Obama’s campaign is correct. It is not over, and I say that as an Obama supporter.
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | May 1st, 2008 at 6:32 pm | Report this commentSpeaking of elections…. what’s happening in LONDON! If I lived in London,… I would back Boris!..
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | May 1st, 2008 at 10:12 pm | Report this commentThe other interpretation of Clinton’s persistence in the contest is that the Democrats have two strong candidates. In most years, either of them would have wrapped up the nomination ages ago.
The system is designed — however badly — so that two evenly matched candidates will inevitably be unable to reach a majority without the superdelegates.
Posted by: Lance Knobel | May 2nd, 2008 at 5:35 am | Report this commentIm not so sure obama has locked it up. The US media attack against him, led by Fox News, has been relentless and shameful but it is starting to pay off much to the pleasure of the Israeli lobby which views Obama as the least pro-expansion, pro-settlement, anti-iran candidate
Posted by: Reza | May 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 am | Report this commentI am sitting in my favorite cafe with my delicious latte and it is a very pretty morning in California and I was just forced to call friends in London because there is so little news about the London Mayor race!…although a blog The Times speculated that Boris won it anywhere from from 4-8 percentage points…Geesh! US cable and networks would have called this long ago!
On US DEM race…like many people I am sick of it…I know politicians don’t go into smoked filled rooms anymore and fix these sort of messes..but Gore, Nancy and whoever should go into some room with organic brownies and end this after Tuesday….personaly I would hate to see Clinton win…in foreign policy she is tweedle dee to McCain’s tweedle dum….
Well I am going back to look for info about London results and order another latte, as Mr. Rachman is obviously off to a long lunch with someone again! what other explanation is there for his missing in action here!
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | May 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm | Report this commentHi L-H L,
Boris is a dumb blond if there ever was one! Why are you interested in London’s local government?
Hope you don’t overdo it on caffeine but if you do, go somewhere where they use fair-trade coffee and they are not Starbucks!
Best,
P
Posted by: Pacifist | May 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm | Report this commentWell “P” this is not a chat room and I am risking Damian Carrington showing up here and scolding us for going off topic etc…I shall reply… first of all, if I could live and work anywhere it would be London! I had the best Christmas and New Year 08 of my life there a few months ago! Except for going to the New Year fireworks at Big Ben…the London police did a TERRIBLE job at crowd control and during our exiting did not pull down barriers timely causing all sorts of thuggy things to happen…it’s the first thing Boris must fix in my opinion …training his police on crowd control!…anyway, on Boris and Labour losses…what can I say …I think leadership/party changes are healthy…even for the losing party…losing political parties must keep in mind that being in the opposition is a noble role in a democracy…and again on Boris…my father of blessed memory whom I adored and still adore was a dissheveled journalist (sportswriter) …I have a weakness for them! So, I hope he won!…maybe there is some news in the Iran papers! The British papers are useless in providing any news on this race at the moment!
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | May 2nd, 2008 at 4:03 pm | Report this comment“P” are you still there? I wonder if Mr. Rachman is circling London in a helicopter!…or if he is having a late lunch …maybe it is with Boris! Or maybe he stayed up too late at covering all the Tory victory parties and he is still sleeping!
And of course I am drinking Fair Trade …I am a free trade fair trade girl!!!
Cathch you later! going back to googling Boris’s name to see what comes up!
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | May 2nd, 2008 at 4:21 pm | Report this commentWell, it seems that Labour have lost across the board so Boris will probably get in. I suspect that would be the semi-final straw for London with the 2012 Olympics completely breaking the camel’s back!
Posted by: Pacifist | May 2nd, 2008 at 4:39 pm | Report this commentBIG DAY!!! I am very nervous! The Clinton cheerleaders are on TV ..Terry something…he is shouting she is going to win both IN and NC …Yuck!
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | May 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm | Report this commentI really need my latte now!
Well so much for all the crowing thet this Terry whatever his name did this morning on Cable shows….Big win in NC for Obama and at best a very barrow win in IN for Hillary! She should leave the race now!….Enough already!
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | May 7th, 2008 at 2:10 am | Report this comment