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Are short primary seasons a thing of the past? From the Iowa Caucuses on 3rd January to the South Dakota and Montana primaries on June 3rd, the five months of official campaigning in the Democratic primaries constituted the final act of choosing a nominee for President of the United States. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had announced their candidacies a year or so before Iowa, and their exploratory committees had been laying the groundwork as far back as Autumn…

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Who ever thought it would get this far? It feels as though decades have passed since Hillary Clinton formally announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States on January 22nd, 2007. Barack Obama formally entered the contest on February 10th, 2007. Over sixteen months and $335m later, the final two states in this mammoth contest will cast their votes, and likely hand Barack Obama his party’s nomination to face John McCain in November. On…

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Wikimedia Commons What role will Puerto Rico play in 2008 and in the future? With respect to the electoral battle being waged by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, no-one could have imagined back in January that the Puerto Rico primary would be anything other than the chance for the people of this Caribbean island to feel involved in the process of selecting the Democratic nominee. Whilst the nomination is substantially decided, the sheer size of the Puerto Rican electorate could…

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How will the RBC vote on Michigan and Florida? On Saturday, May 31st 2008, the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel (pictured), the largest hotel in Washington D.C., will play host to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC). This is the body that will, in the first instance at least, vote on whether to uphold the penalties it meted out to Michigan and Florida – stripping them of all delegates (Pledged and Super-) at the Convention as punishment for bringing their…

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Which, if any, endorsements made a difference for the Democrats? One of the major features of explaining the primary victories of either candidate in any given state or territory, alongside demographics or previous voting history, has been the litany of endorsements that are collected along the way. However, when we compare the geographical and chronological spread of these endorsements, we see that they frequently appear to be entirely independent of their chosen candidate’s success in that state. I wanted to…

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Will the “dream ticket” happen whether Obama likes it or not? An interesting scenario on what could happen at the Democratic Convention in August over the party’s V-P choice is set out in this piece from Huffington Post. Jason Linkins puts it like this: “You imagine being on the floor in Denver. Hillary’s delegates, NEARLY HALF THE DELEGATES, are demanding she be on the ticket. These are true believers who have stuck with Clinton through thick and thin. To them,…

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Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin is predicting a big announcement tonight. Could it be that John Edwards has come off the fence and is going to endorse Barack? Or could this be the start of something bigger – an Obama-Edwards ticket? The website Political Insider is making a strong case for Edwards who was , of course, the V-P nominee in 2004. We shall see. Mike Smithson