Hillary clinton

Tuesday

Steerpike

Clinton on Corbyn: ‘the maddest person in the room’

Although Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers is rooting for Donald Trump tonight, it’s widely thought that — out of the two — the Labour leader is Team Hillary. Alas in the event of a Hillary Clinton presidency, the future for UK Labour and the US doesn’t look so bright. Wikileaks have leaked a transcript of a speech by Bill Clinton in which the former American president takes aim at Corbyn. In the aftermath of Ed Miliband’s general election defeat, Hillary’s husband says Labour ‘practically got a guy off the street’ to replace him. ‘If you look all over the world – the British Labour Party disposed of its most [inaudible] leader, David Miliband,

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne turns his attention to the special relationship

Although George Osborne is now a backbencher, the former Chancellor still harbours leadership ambitions. On that note, it’s not gone unnoticed that since his sacking, Osborne has been doing his bit to keep close ties with America — joining Tina Brown for a Manhattan soiree to show that — despite the Leave vote — there was still hope for Britain and the US. Now he’s back again. Steerpike has been passed a photo of Osborne strolling in San Francisco. When asked what he was doing across the pond, he said he was there for the election. Given that Osborne has pledged his support for Hillary Clinton — suggesting Trump was ‘odd’

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

‘Vote for the one you dislike least’: What the US papers are saying on election day

Americans will finally head to the polls today after one of the most fractious Presidential contests in the country’s history. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been criss-crossing the US overnight in a final dash for votes. But how has their last-ditch campaigning gone down with the American press? Here’s what the US newspapers are saying about the election: Hillary Clinton stuck with her message of sunny optimism while Donald Trump opted for a dose of darkness on the final leg of their campaigns, the New York Times said. But the paper said that while the candidates were largely trying to repeat the messages they’ve parroted all along, Trump sounded uncharacteristically

Rob Crilly

Trump vs Clinton: What to watch out for on election night

The most divisive American election in living memory is almost over. By the end of the day an estimated 130 million people will have cast their ballots and we will be well on the way to knowing which candidate has done enough to win the necessary 270 electoral college votes. Here are the key things to watch today and through the night: Polling conduct – the first test will be whether or not voting is trouble free. It might be tempting to assume American democracy is the sort of well-developed exercise that has banished fraud. Not so. Democrats have complained of intimidation during early polling, both sides have filed complaints

Mathieu Vaillancourt

Would Donald Trump build a wall along the Canadian border?

We’ve heard a lot about what a Trump victory tomorrow night means for Mexico, little of which seems good. He’s accused Mexicans of bringing ‘drugs, crime and rapists’ to the US, and the less said about his famous wall, the better. Yet for all the fighting talk aimed at Mexico, it’s not so clear what President Trump would do about America’s neighbours to the north. With Trump and Clinton now almost neck-and-neck in the polls, many Canadians are waking up to the thought of a Trump win. And people in Canada are starting to think – and panic – about how the Donald’s presidency would shape relations. It’s fair to

Ed West Ed West

Liberal ideology created Donald Trump

Dear Democrat voters, You are probably the most influential and powerful segment of the human race today. In terms of cultural reach, you are supreme; politically you are masters of the universe; you have the ability to shape our world for good or evil, and for most of the past century you and your forebears have done a pretty good job of it. I’m addressing this to Democrats in particular because in the US, as in Britain, liberalism is the prestige faith; the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in American academia is now five to one, and up to forty to one in some social sciences. Eight of the ten richest

Monday

Nick Hilton

Will the immigrant vote risk everything to take on Donald Trump?

Since 1996, federal law has prevented non-citizen US residents, like myself, from voting in elections. We pay taxes, hold down jobs and own property, but don’t get a say in the leadership of the nation. This isn’t uncommon: in the UK, only Irish and Commonwealth citizens get to vote in the general election, on top of those already qualifying as British. But in the US, the discourse is polarised between citizens and illegal immigrants, with little discussion spared for the people caught somewhere in the middle. And with just a day left in the race, President Obama has created another small furore – in certain circles – with his ambiguous

Alex Massie Alex Massie

America, what has become of you?

And so, at long, long last, the end approaches. In fact, as millions of Americans have voted before election day, the end has begun already. Thank heavens for that. Like Paradise Lost, no-one ever wished this election longer. It has been a gruelling time, in which patience has been of the essence. For months, members of the reality-based community – in the United States and across the world – have waited and waited and waited for Donald Trump’s campaign to fizzle into deserved nothingness. That patience has been tested time and time again; with luck and the good conscience of America it will finally be rewarded tomorrow. But to think it came

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

‘Saved at the bell’: How the US press reacted to the FBI clearing Clinton (again)

Hillary Clinton is, not for the first time, in the clear. The FBI announced last night its investigation into the latest cache of emails to emerge showed no wrongdoing on the part of the Democrat nominee. Clinton’s spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said the they were glad the matter was resolved. But does the exoneration – if you can call it that – come too late for Hillary? Clinton’s poll lead is narrow: she’s currently 1.8 points ahead of Trump, according to the Real Clear Politics poll of polls. And with millions of voters having already cast their ballots, is the damage already done? The New York Post’s front page is typically rambunctious: ‘Saved

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Is Donald Trump a fascist?

The essence of Trumpism is vitalism, the belief that energy is the key political virtue. Don’t worry about my specific plans, he says, just believe that I will shake things up, even smash things up. Hillary ‘lacks energy’ he keeps saying. This should worry us. For this approach to politics was the seed of European fascism, almost exactly a century ago. The movement initially overlapped with the avant garde art movement, Futurism. Its founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti announced a punk-like attack on the arts and politics in his manifesto of 1909. Liberal democracy was sapping Italy of manly energy, he said: ‘We wish to glorify war – the sole cleanser

Sunday

Sarah Mackinlay

We’ll miss Trump when he’s gone

This weekend at the Edenbridge bonfire in Kent, near where I live, an effigy of Donald Trump will be burned. Last weekend, at Halloween, people up and down the land went out dressed up as him, or as a woman being groped by him. It is hard to imagine any American doing anything like this in homage to our own least popular political candidate in a generation, Jeremy Corbyn. And that’s caused me to wonder why, exactly — when we’re so turned off by our own politicians — we are so enthralled by the Donald across the pond. Having watched him trash Hillary, followed him on Twitter and listened to

Alec Marsh

Don’t expect Trump or Clinton to stick around for a second term

Whichever unappealing candidate wins the US Presidential election next week, one thing seems to be pretty certain: they are almost certainly going to be one-term presidents. If he’s elected, ‘the Donald’ will be a 74-year-old incumbent come 2020, so even if he turns out to be a much more effective president than most would predict at this juncture, he’ll be getting on a bit to run again. If nothing else, there’ll be significantly less bounce to his bonce. Meanwhile, President Hillary, if that’s what she becomes, will be 73 in 2020. Even if she somehow manages to get the American people to fall in love with her, she will have endured four hard years

Saturday

Rebecca Coulson

Meet the transhumanist candidate taking on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

‘I don’t actually feel attracted to robots.’ Presidential candidates have to deny all kinds of things, but only Zoltan Istvan would be compelled to clarify that he’s not interested in sleeping with robots. As the Transhumanist Party’s contender, he’s unsurprisingly enthusiastic about some pretty far-out ideas involving the crossover between people and machines. He even recently injected a rice-sized microchip into his hand, which can literally open doors. That said, with the speed of tech, his chip is almost obsolete: he knows guys working on ones that will ‘allow you to pay at Starbucks’. But it’s useful for when he’s been out running, as he has when we meet at

Friday

Freddy Gray

Donald Trump’s sense of humour might win it for him

Forget your state-by-state polling; your analysis of the voting preferences of suburban mothers in Pennsylvania; never mind your understanding of America’s shifting demographics; your breakdowns of the Latino vote in swing states, or your perception of America’s anger issues. This election, like most elections, will be decided by personality. We all know that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton score very low on the likeability front. Trump is more reviled than Clinton, but in one important way he has the edge on her: he is funny and she is not. Look at this clip of him addressing the crowd in Florida: Now that, no matter how much you loathe him, is

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Secularism is wiping out Christian America. That’s why Trump could win

We’re four days away from the presidential election, and America’s evangelical Christian leaders are still supporting a thrice-married man who boasts of grabbing women’s genitals. Meanwhile, it looks as if most Catholics will be voting to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. This grotesque election has split the evangelical-Catholic alliance that claimed the credit for propelling several Republican presidents to victory. The ‘Religious Right’ is a spent force in 2016 – but is that the result of the GOP implosion or the relentless advance of secular America? In this week’s Holy Smoke podcast I’m joined by Sohrab Ahmari of the Wall Street Journal, a Muslim-born Iranian-American who created a sensation when

Thursday

Gary O’Donoghue

Diary – 3 November 2016

Polite, well-heeled New Hampshire is the last place you’d expect to see a voodoo doll. But there it was, pointed out by my producer, clutched by a woman called Mavis. This being a Trump rally, it was of course a Clinton likeness, complete with pins. Residents of the granite state pride themselves on being a sophisticated lot, but the doll sent a certain shiver up the spine.  Come to think of it, I was already shivering. It was the end of a long week traipsing through four states following the Trump campaign. The Secret Service kept us waiting outside for three quarters of an hour in the pelting New England

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Hillary Clinton’s bad luck with sex scandals

It is such bad luck for Mrs Clinton that her last-minute troubles have come upon her because of the curious 21st-century men’s habit of sending pictures of their genitals to people via social media (‘Dickileaks’, is what the New York Post calls the scandal). If only Anthony Weiner, ex-congressman and recently estranged husband of Mrs Clinton’s close assistant Huma Abedin, had refrained from this pastime, and from ‘sexting’ a 15-year-old girl, it seems unlikely that the FBI would have excavated the family computers. Then Mrs Clinton would have had a clearer run at the White House. It should be a major advantage of the woman candidate in any political race

Christopher Caldwell

What’s wrong with early voting

 Washington The outcome of America’s elections might become clear in the first minutes of vote-counting next Tuesday night. That is because Americans are as moody and fussy about voting as they are about everything else. Their elections depend on who is excited enough to show up at the polls and who is too depressed. Black voters, historically loyal to the Democrats but hard to bring to polling stations, went into paroxysms of enthusiasm over Barack Obama and in the last election voted at higher rates than white voters. Born-again Christians used to bring the Republican party victory after victory, but more recently they have decided the party doesn’t mean what

Wednesday

City Index

Trump or Clinton: how might financial markets react?

In the final week of the US Presidential campaign, City Index explore how financial markets might react to Trump and Clinton in the White House. There is potential for significant market activity, especially if Trump secures a victory, as investors worry about an unpredictable president at the helm. We may see equity markets and the US dollar drop as investors put their investments into safe havens such as yen and gold. Over the longer term, Trump may lean towards a more hawkish FED and higher interest rates, which could lead to a stronger US dollar. This in turn may weigh on the price of gold. Clinton, on the other hand, is seen by Wall St as

Bruno Kavanagh

Donald Trump is a masterpiece of American melancholy

The ‘pursuit of happiness’—an infinitely debatable formulation to describe a distinctively American activity. As Jefferson wrote the phrase as the climax to his triad of inalienable rights, ‘life’ would presumably have been a fairly non-controversial no-brainer, while the peoples of other nations had begun by 1776 to aspire to forms of quasi-democratic ‘liberty’. And then there it is in black and white quill ink: the ‘pursuit of happiness’—and a uniquely American idea is enshrined. For a large number of people, Donald J. Trump represents perhaps the ultimate incarnation of this idea. And it’s hard to argue that ‘the Donald’ is not, in his way, happy. Supremely content with himself and