Us politics

Thursday

Freddy Gray

The Obamacare battle is far from won

The US Supreme Court’s decision to uphold ‘Obamacare’ and the so-called ‘individual mandate’ will have brought a little relief to President Obama. If his administration’s hardest-fought legislative victory had been struck down by the high court, the president’s admirers would have started to wonder whether he had achieved anything at all. But Obama and the Democrats will know that their healthcare battle is far from won. Republicans have pledged to carry on trying to repeal ‘Obamacare’ in its entirety. And there are bound to be all sorts of complicated and tedious state-by-state legal challenges over various technicalities before the most of the law is brought into force in 2014.  And

Saturday

Patrick Allitt

Right thinking

David Frum has spoken for American conservatism for a generation – now he despairs of it David Frum has been a major force in American conservatism for more than 20 years. He was a speechwriter in President George W. Bush’s first administration and is said to have coined the phrase ‘axis of evil’. In the last few years, however, he has fallen out with the leading conservative magazine, National Review, the leading conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, and the leading conservative TV network, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. He is an active political blogger at Newsweek and The Daily Beast, where he regularly deplores Republican intransigence and bloody-mindedness. Rather

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Romney’s Donald Trump problem

When Obama brilliantly skewered Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last year, you might’ve thought the billionaire would slink off the political field. But, to the great glee of Team Obama, ‘The Donald’ is still keen to keep playing. Ever since Trump’s endorsement of Mitt Romney back in February, the Democrats have been attacking Romney by association (‘They both like firing people’, they said, tying Romney’s ‘I like being able to fire people’ gaffe to Trump’s famous Apprentice catchphrase).   And yesterday, the Obama campaign put out an ad attacking Romney for not denouncing Trump’s claims that the President wasn’t born in the US, contrasting it with the

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Obama vs Balls

What do Ed Balls and Mitt Romney have in common? They both want you to think that Barack Obama is spending government money like never before. For Mitt Romney, it’s an attack: he wants to make Obama a Big Government bogeyman who’s failing to tackle America’s deficit. ‘I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno,’ the Republican nominee promises. For Ed Balls, it’s an example for Britain to follow: ‘I will lead us into this debt and spending inferno’, the shadow chancellor promises. Well, essentially. But the Obama camp is pushing back hard against such claims, highlighting a Wall Street Journal article yesterday titled ‘Obama spending binge

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Iran and oil are still on the agenda

For all the talk about Greece and France and the Eurozone, it’s telling just how much our politicians are focusing on Iran. Indeed, some of the most concrete political settlements of the past few days have concerned that turbulent state. On Friday, the US Congress approved a Bill which included the blunt reminder that, ‘It shall be the policy of the United States to take all necessary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies or Iran’s neighbours with a nuclear weapon.’ And the G8 subsequently put out a statement about oil reserves that clearly had Iran in mind. ‘Looking ahead to

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Romney seeks ‘incredibly boring white guy’

With just over three months to go to the Republican convention, what sort of vice presidential nominee is Mitt Romney looking for? Well, a Republican official ‘familiar with the campaign’s thinking’ tells Politico that what they want is an ‘incredibly boring white guy’. You see, the Romney campaign is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the 2008 McCain campaign — including his choice of Sarah Palin as his candidate for the vice presidency. So they’re looking for a much safer — and more conventional — pick who won’t do any damage to Romney’s chances. This approach would rule out Florida Senator Marco Rubio (not boring or white enough), who

Friday

Fraser Nelson

The folly of Cameron’s gay marriage culture war

For some time now, a growing number of Tory MPs have been quietly informing the whips that they will not be voting to support gay marriage. They’ve been getting letters from their constituents, and even those in favour of the idea know that they can’t afford to support it. When a cabinet member spoke to the whips office recently, he was given a startling reply: don’t worry, it will never come to a vote. The consultation is ongoing, but the agenda is being dropped. The effect it’s having on the morale of the Tory grassroots is calamitous. I look at this fiasco in my Daily Telegraph column today, and here

Thursday

Jonathan Jones

Obama comes out for gay marriage

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player It isn’t just this side of the Atlantic where same-sex marriage is very much on the political agenda. Here, the Prime Minister gave it his support in his October conference speech, and the government is pressing ahead with plans to legislate for it before the next election, under the leadership of Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone. Meanwhile, across the pond, Barack Obama gave his support for equal marriage last night. In an interview with ABC News (above), he said: ‘At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same

Tuesday

Jonathan Mirsky

Chen Guangcheng: a blind, Chinese Houdini

Even in a Beijing Spring of ceaseless surprises, the escape of the blind dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng from rural house arrest into American protection was a sensation. The sensation soon turned into a catastrophe for him and humiliation for the United States. After his astounding escape 2 weeks ago from 18 months of house arrest and arrival at the US embassy in Beijing, Chen stated he had no intention of leaving China. Six days later he was assured by his American hosts, who now say he had cancer, that he must go to a Chinese hospital for treatment and be reunited with his and then would be free, perhaps to

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

Obama’s words meet with the Taliban’s bombs

Political theatre, that’s what Barack Obama delivered in Afghanistan last night. A year on from the death of Osama Bin Laden, and with the US elections fast approaching, here was the President reheating his existing timetable for withdrawal — and offering it up as reassurance for weary Afghans and Americans alike. There were some new details, courtesy of an ‘Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement’ signed with Hamid Karzai, but this was mostly about the symbolism and rhetoric. As Obama put it himself, ‘We can see the light of a new day on the horizon.’ Except this ‘new day’ quickly slipped back into night. A couple of hours after Obama had left

Thursday

Freddy Gray

Blooper reels won’t dethrone Obama

This compilation of President Obama’s gaffes is going viral, as they say.     Quite amusing. There’s something satisfying about seeing that ‘President Cool’  isn’t such a smooth operator. Obama is good with teleprompters, but he blunders when extemporising. It’s mostly forgotten that, in the 2008 debates against Hillary Clinton, he often looked and sounded out of his depth.   Still, it is a bit hysterical — and humourless — for Gary L Bauer to call his video ’53 seconds that should end the Obama presidency’, in reference to Rick Perry’s infamous disaster answer in a debate.   Voters don’t really care about presidential bloopers. And is it wise for

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

America’s version of the ‘tax the rich’ debate

While the battle continues to rage over the government’s plan to cap tax relief, on the other side of the Atlantic the US bill that inspired it has been killed. The ‘Paying a Fair Share Act 2012’ — more commonly known as the ‘Buffett Rule’ after billionaire Warren Buffett — failed to get the votes it needed to be debated in the Senate. It was backed by a majority of senators, with 51 voting ‘Yea’ to 45 ‘Nay’s, but fell short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Fraser explained on Friday how Obama’s efforts to ensure that — as the President puts it — ‘If you make

Friday

Fraser Nelson

How Mitt Romney inspired the British charity tax debacle

How is Mitt Romney linked to the charity tax debacle? I thought I’d pass on to CoffeeHousers an explanation which passed on to me about the origins of this latest mess. It dates back to the point in the Budget negotiations where Nick Clegg had finally persuaded Osborne to introduce a Mansion Tax. A major coup for his party — but Cameron vetoed, thinking it’d hurt Boris in London. Clegg is annoyed, tells Osborne he can’t have his 40p tax, but he still has a problem. A Lib Dem spring conference is coming up — so what will he announce? He hunts for a new idea. The Thursday before the

Jonathan Jones

Romney’s pivot to the centre will be tough

As Freddy reported on Tuesday night, Rick Santorum has dropped out of the race for this year’s Republican nomination, making Mitt Romney virtually certain to be the nominee. Sure, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are still hanging in there — just as Mike Huckabee and, erm, Ron Paul did in 2008. Back then, as he continued campaigning even once John McCain was the clear winner, Huckabee said: ‘I know the pundits and I know what they say: well the math doesn’t work out. Folks, I didn’t major in math; I majored in miracles, and I still believe in those too.’ But the miracle didn’t come for Huckabee four years ago,

Wednesday

Freddy Gray

Mitt speaks human

Gawker, the American news gossip site, is very pleased with itself. They’ve hired a Fox News ‘mole’, and he or she has already given them their first scoop: off-air footage of Mitt Romney chatting away amicably with Fox News presenter Sean Hannity before an interview. This is meant to be an insight into the sleazy world the American right, and inevitably the clip is going viral. But what Gawker and the mole might not realise is that they may have given the Romney campaign a surprise boost. I’ve seen many Romney interviews and speeches, far too many. But this is the only time I’ve seen him come across as a human being.

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

Santorum drops out

So, Rick Santorum has called it quits and abandoned his quest for the nomination. The decision effectively makes Romney the 2012 Republican nominee. Finally. Republican Party chiefs will feel a sense of relief after an exhaustive and bruising primary season in which the party seemed to be beating itself up for months on end. But they must also reckon that a candidate who took so long to defeat his adversaries for the nomination – despite his advantage in terms of campaign funding – can’t stand much of chance against the might of the Democratic machine and as talented a campaigner as President Obama. The immediate question for Team Mitt is

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Who’ll be Romney’s running mate?

As I said earlier, it now looks almost certain that Mitt Romney will clinch the nomination. The primaries may not quite be over yet, but it’s never too early to speculate about who he’ll pick to be his Vice Presidential candidate. Indeed, 2008 Republican nominee John McCain weighed in this morning. ‘I think it should be Sarah Palin,’ he chuckled. ‘We have a wealth of talent out there and I’m sure that Mitt will make the right choice,’ he added more seriously, before breaking into laughter again as he said ’Obviously, it’s a tough decision’. The favourite for the job is still Florida Senator Marco Rubio. His odds lengthened somewhat

Jonathan Jones

Moving on from the Republican primaries

So, it looks like we can finally say that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee to take on Barack Obama in November. Last night, he swept the three primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia, adding 85 delegates to his count. Romney now has now amassed around 650 of the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. That may make it seem like he’s got a lot more work to do, but in fact it means he needs to claim just 42 per cent of the remaining delegates to reach the winning line. Considering he’s won 58 per cent of the ones up for grabs so

Monday

Freddy Gray

Romney attacked from the Sixties

Mad Men may not be jumping the sharks quite yet, but the latest series is showing signs of collapsing under the weight of its own hype. The carefully built ambiguity of the first few seasons is being lost, replaced by cheesy self-awareness and standard-issue liberal correctness. In this week’s episode, which was broadcast in America last night and will be shown here tomorrow, there was even a little political swipe at Republican candidate Mitt Romney. In the scene above, the character Henry Francis, a political operator for New York mayor John Lindsay, says he doesn’t want his boss to attend an event in Michigan ‘because Romney’s a clown and I

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

Was Santorum’s tantrum phony?

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Did you see the presidential candidate Rick Santorum lose his cool with a New York Times reporter? If not, you can watch it above. It was a trivial incident, really, but we live in a trivial media age in which politicians think that embarrassing moments are something to boast about. Losing your temper shows that you are human, rather than a politician. Santorum and his spinners have tried to whip up the little row for all it’s worth ahead of his ‘last chance’ primary in Wisconsin. Santorum’s anger, they say, shows he is a ‘real Republican’ — i.e. not like the fake Mitt Romney.