Is this approach really going to keep her voters on side? With just one week and one day to go before the crucial Texas and Ohio primaries Hillary Rodham Clinton has stepped up the rhetoric with this speech overnight. It look as though the strategy is to do everything she can to get her core voters, mostly elder women, out to vote. Could it be that like in New Hampshire in early January this will boost turnout. The trouble is…
But does talk of “change” work when you are bidding for a third term? With the fight the Democratic nomination hardly being off our screens during 2008 it is perhaps not surprising that Obama’s rhetoric, the phrases he uses, the way he constructs sentences and most of all the words themselves should start to have an influence in UK politics. Just take the following high-blown quote from a statement that a group of Labour supporting academics, writers and artists, have…
Will Obama be able to outspend him by three or four to one? One statistic that came out of Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary was that in the TV advertising war in the state Barack Obama spent five times as much as the cash-starved Clinton campaign. That’s a massive difference and might have had an impact on the outcome. Looking forward to a McCain-Obama contest in November could the Democratic campaign have a similar overwhelming advantage? And if it does could the…
Will this be the shot we’ll be seeing on January 20th 2009? A couple of weeks ago Madame Tussauds produced the above display showing a wax life-size model of Barack Obama in a mocked up Oval Office. Maybe it’s a bit premature to feature this and even if he gets the nomination he still has John McCain to beat. But there’s a list of good news stories for the young senator this morning Washington Post columnist, Al Kamen, declares “Let’s…
Was the Texas debate her valedictory? The overnight debate in Texas between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama certainly lived up to its billing with both contenders performing very well. There wasn’t a victor and Hillary did not get in the knock-out blow in that many were suggesting she needed. One of the critical moments came right at the end. The huge audience rose to a standing ovation as Hillary shook Barack’s hand and said “I am honoured to be here…
Are there lessons for the UK in this NON-AD for Hillary? Under US campaign funding rules the maximum that anyone can donate is $2300. This is one of the reasons why the Clinton campaign has found it hard to compete with Obama who has built up a mass fundraising base. But there are not the same limitations if you give to other organisations and some big Clinton supporters are said to be behind the latest initiative. The above ad, reported…
One “poll” that we haven’t yet covered was one by Harris in the Financial Times yesterday where interviewees in several European countries were asked about who they would “vote” for in the Democratic race if they had a chance – Hillary or Obama. A total of 5,000 people were asked across five countries with Obama coming out the decisive winner in four of them. The French, Italians, Spanish and Germans all gave it to the black Senator by quite big…
Does he regret snubbing Barack back in the summer? A story in the Times overnight has it that Brown is desperately trying to build relations with Barack Obama after snubbing the now Democratic front-runner during the summer. According to the paper a meeting had been tentatively fixed but then Downing Street “got the willies” and the possible future President of the United States was offered a drop by private meeting instead. President Sarkozy of France, by contrast, offered Mr Obama…