After spousal introductions at conference, could debates be next? One of the novelties of this week in British politics was seeing the Prime Minister introduced at the Labour Party Conference by his wife, Sarah Brown. In a short introductory address, she was chosen to help her husband connect with voters and to put ‘a human face on government’. I think the consensus was that she did very well in an unfamiliar role, and her decision drew plaudits from across the…
Which candidate will be happier with their performance? Given the spectacle presented for our delectation only a couple of hours ago, I cannot have been alone in wishing Senators McCain and Obama had resolved to stay in Washington, rather than attend the first Presidential debate at Ole Miss. In retrospect, I would actually have preferred that the negotiations over the Congressional bailout had been televised instead. The clear consensus on PB.com was that this was a boring affair, peppered with…
Could this be the make or break moment? Well it seems as though the first presidential debate is going ahead after all and a huge TV audience is expected for the Obama-McCain clash from Oxford, Mississippi. It’s due to start at 0200 UK time and will last for ninety minutes. Live White House Race betting odds Mike Smithson
The Guardian’s monthly ICM poll is just out and produces vote shares very much in the same ball-park as the YouGov poll earlier in the week. Fieldwork for the latter was taken on Tuesday and Wednesday while the former was carried out on Wednesday and Thursday. Labour will feel encouraged and the Tories will still be pleased to be above the 40% mark even though they have been almost totally out of the headlines for weeks. The timing of the…
What if McCain just doesn’t show? With the first of the presidential debates due to start at 2am UK time there’s still a lot of confusion over whether or not the GOP nominee, John McCain will actually show up. The Irish bookmakers, Intrade, have been running a market on whether or not this will happen. The venue is in Oxford Mississippi where something like $5m has been spent on organising the event and everything looked fine until McCain’s call on…
Aren’t Votes are votes whatever the motivation? In the Times today Peter Riddell is arguing that the latest Populus poll suggests that the prospective Conservative vote at the next general election is “soft” because a large proportion say it’s because they are anti-Labour rather than being pro-Tory. The figures show that of the Tory voters in the poll just 56% said they would do so because they are pro-Tory while 44% are just anti-Labour This compares with Labour supporters where…
How dangerous is such a widespread media perception? Two days the Labour conference in Manchester and time for more reflection and analysis of what is right and what is wrong with the party as its leader he seeks to hold onto office. There’s one term that features in much of the coverage which is highly damaging to Brown – “Downing Street Dysfunctionality”. This is said to have embodied in the farcical circumstances surrounding the 3am press conference in a hotel…
Is he planning to reject the President’s bail-out plan? Ever since this picture was taken at a rally six months ago it has proved to be a major embarrassment to the McCain campaign which has been desperate to detach itself from the man who has become the most unpopular president in American polling history, George Bush. But a striking image is worth so much more than even the most power set of words and the picture has been used time…