Us politics

Monday

Jonathan Jones

Romney’s $10,000 mistake

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player This was, by some margin, the most talked about moment of Saturday night’s Republican debate. Accused by Rick Perry of changing a passage in his book advocating an individual health care mandate, Mitt Romney stretched out his hand to the Texas Governor and said ‘I’ll tell you what, ten thousand bucks? Ten thousand dollar bet?’ For Romney’s opponents, the bizarre challenge provided the perfect clip with which to attack him. It combines Romney’s biggest negatives into one neat sound bite: his record on healthcare, his flip-flopping, and the idea that he’s an out-of-touch Wall Street millionaire. And, just as when Perry got a rise out

Saturday

Ian Thomson

Bookends: Saving JFK

Stephen King’s latest novel is a time-travel fantasy about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. At almost 750 pages, 11.22.63 is drawn-out even by blockbuster standards. Critics have bemoaned its surfeit of period detail (bobby socks, Hula Hoops, big-finned cars). I rather enjoyed it. King, now an august-looking 64, is a writer of towering cleverness, whose fiction manages to appeal to a reading public both popular and serious. Much of what passes these days for literary fiction is mere creative writing. Give me genre fiction (John le Carré, Martin Cruz Smith) any day. A fiction without a story — Kings knows — is scarcely worth its weight in paper. Before

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Four weeks to Iowa, and Newt’s looking strong

It’s less than a month until the Iowa caucuses, the first big vote of the presidential primaries. It could finish off some candidates who’ve been shuffled to the bottom of the pack, and give us a better idea of the chances of those at the top.   Right now, Newt Gingrich looks most likely to be celebrating on January 3rd. As Fraser suggested last weekend, he seems to be gaining most from Herman Cain’s withdrawal, and now leads the field both nationally and in Iowa. An average of the five polls from the past week, and reallocating Cain’s voters to their second choice candidate, reveals an 11-point lead for Gingrich:  

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Cain quits, Newt benefits?

Herman Cain has just ‘suspended‘ his campaign for the Republican nomination; the allegations about his private life have become too great. Early reports suggest that his supporters are rallying behind Newt Gingrich, who has become the latest ‘stop Romney’ candidate: all of the Republican wannabes pretty much get a turn at this title. Cain has never held elected office, so never really had the press pack scrutinising his background. I suspect even he’s amazed at what came out of the wash. It has emerged that the National Restaurant Association settled with two women who claimed he harassed them while he was its president. Another woman has told AP that he

Friday

Jonathan Jones

From the archives: The Great Communicator stumbles

It’s been 25 years since the Iran-Contra affair – the scandal about the US government selling arms to Iran and using the proceeds to fund the Nicaraguan rebels. It saw Ronald Reagan’s approval rating drop from 67 per cent to 46 per cent, and fourteen memebers of his staff were indicted. In a piece that appeared in The Spectator exactly a quarter of a century ago, Christopher Hitchens explains how the Reagan administration was unable to contain the story. The end of the line, Christopher Hitchens, 29 November 1986 If you wish to understand the fire that has broken out in the Washington zoo, and penetrate beyond the mere lowing

Jonathan Jones

‘What’s that line again?’

When Rick Perry made that horrible gaffe in a Republican debate last month, you might have expected to see it in one of his opponents’ ads. Instead, it’s Perry himself who’s just put out a video poking fun at his mistake: ‘If you want a slick debater, I’m obviously not your guy.’ Indeed. We’ll have to wait and see if this sort of thing helps Perry recover from just 4 per cent in the polls.

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Republicans use Obama’s own words against him

Mitt Romney, the clear favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination, has released the first television ad of his 2012 campaign. Even though his immediate battle is against fellow Republicans – in the latest CNN poll, he trails Newt Gingrich by four points – here Romney’s attack is aimed squarely at Obama. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3a7FC0Jkv8 The Obama campaign has pushed back, particularly against the clip of Obama saying ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose’, calling it ‘deceitful and dishonest’. You see, when Obama said that, in 2008, he was quoting John McCain’s campaign and criticising them for it. Here’s a fuller extract of Obama using that line:

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Gingrich to the fore

Yesterday saw three national polls and three different leaders in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Politico’s Battleground poll (conducted early last week) shows Herman Cain leading Mitt Romney by two points. CNN’s latest (conducted over the weekend) has Romney narrowly leading Newt Gingrich, with Cain down in third. Most eye-catching of all is the PPP poll (also conducted over the weekend), which has Gingrich in first place, followed by Cain and then Romney in third. These polls do have one thing in common: they’re good news for Newt Gingrich. Whether he’s actually in the lead or not, he’s certainly well ahead of where he was last month. He’s

Thursday

Jonathan Jones

Perry: ‘Just goes to show there are too damn many federal agencies’

Rick Perry’s doing his best to turn his excurciating “oops” moment last night to his advantage. Alex said it was the end of his campaign, but Perry certainly doesn’t see it that way. On NBC’s Today show, he quipped: ‘There are so many agencies out there, that I’m like many Americans and we would like to forget that the Department of Energy is one of those.’ And his campaign has just sent this email out to his supporters: It’s a commendable, if likely futile, attempt. Hat tip: Politico.

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Slick Rick

Rick Perry has proved again that, despite the herculean efforts of Herman Cain, he is still the most gaffe-prone politician in the Republican race. If you haven’t seen it, do watch the embarrassing clip of the man they call ‘Bush without the brains’, above, which Alex also posted earlier. As Rod Dreher put it last night, take Perry’s recent campaign fund haul of $17 million, divide it by 53 seconds, and what you are seeing is a man burning through about $321,000 a second. We shouldn’t be too quick to condemn Perry, though. Which of us has not had a humiliating memory lapse? And despite what Alex and Rod say,

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Democrats’ strong results bolster Obama’s hopes

Things haven’t been looking particularly good for the Obama 2012 campaign of late. Half the country disapproves of his performance so far, the economy’s very weak and Mitt Romney’s grip on the Republican nomination is tightening. And the last two sets of November elections have seen the electorate move towards the Republicans. In 2009, they took over the governorships Virgnia and New Jersey. Last year, they won control of House of Representatives and increased their numbers of Senators and Governors. But this year, the story’s different: Democrats scored some important wins yesterday, making their prospects for 2012 that bit brighter. Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear won re-election by a 20-point margin;

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The trouble with e-petitions

Is the truth out there? This week, the US government has insisted it has ‘no evidence’ that extra-terrestrial life forms exist. The statement was a formal response to a petition on the White House website. In the name of ‘fostering a focused and civil conversation about how the federal government should address a range of issues’, the ‘We the People’ section of the site had promised to answer any petition which received more than 5,000 signatures, or mouse-clicks. But if you’re a conspiracy theorist who suspects the CIA has been covering up alien activity for decades, you’re hardly likely to be satisfied by an official denial. And if you’re not

Thursday

Jonathan Jones

A collision course with Iran?

Are we on the verge of war with Iran? The Guardian’s frontpage today suggests we might well be. Here’s a taster of the article: “Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned. The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government. In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

The Gingrich revival

Just a few months ago, Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign looked like it was in its death throes. His poll ratings were in free fall after his criticism of fellow Republican Paul Ryan’s plan to reform Medicare as “right-wing social engineering”, and his top staff had quit en masse. But somehow, Gingrich has managed to gradually rebuild his campaign and rehabilitate himself in the eyes of Republican voters. The chart below shows how Republican’s views of Gingrich have changed over the course of the campaign. You can clearly see his ratings sliding in May-June, but then recovering slowly since July. Although they’ve levelled off in the last couple of weeks, they’re

Monday

Jonathan Jones

Cain accused

We’ve been following Herman Cain since the start of the Republican nomination race, and seen him rise to prominence in the process. But now there’s an extra obstacle between him and a shot at the presidency — and it could be a biggie. Politico reports that at least two women accused Cain of sexual harassment when he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the 90s: “The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the

Sunday

Daniel Korski

American isolationism and its consequences

I’ve spent the last couple of days in the United States, far away from the brouhaha in Europe. What has struck me most during meetings with US officials is how low down their list of priorities Europe — and indeed Britain — comes. This is an Asian Century, and the US means to focus inwards and eastwards but not elsewhere. As an official put it to me, “we see Britain moving away from Europe and being distant to us.” There is even talk of closing down US European Command. This new focus will have a number of consequences. Take Libya, for instance. The UK and France could have fought the

Thursday

Jonathan Jones

All aboard the Herman Cain train

Herman Cain – the former CEO of Godfather’s pizza – has gone from virtual unknown to frontrunner in a matter of months. In both of the national polls realeased this week, he leads Mitt Romney by four points. Gallup’s favourability ratings are a good way of tracking the popularity of the candidates. The chart below provides a pretty good illustration of the race so far. It shows Perry’s quick rise when he entered the race in August, and his even quicker fall following his first debates in September. You can also see Cain’s gradual rise after that strong debate performance in May, and his much steeper rise in the past month.

Jonathan Jones

The American Milibands

If you thought the Labour leadership election last year was tough on the Milbands’ mother, spare a thought for the Krumnow family of Elmore, Ohio. Brothers Lowell and James are engaged in what could be an even bigger electoral contest. They’re fighting not over the leadership of the Labour party, but instead to be mayor of a 1,500-strong town. And, as with the David-Ed battle, this campaign hasn’t taken a particularly fraternal course. 54-year-old Lowell — the incumbent mayor — has taken a swipe at his older brother’s record on the council: “He has probably missed more meetings in the two years he’s been a councilmember than I have missed

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Beyond Gaddafi, America turns its attention to Pakistan

It’s hard to recall a more grisly complement of newspaper covers than those this morning. Only the FT refrains from showing either Gaddafi’s stumbling last moments or his corpse, whereas the Sun runs with the headline, big and plain: “That’s for Lockerbie”. The insides of the papers are more uncertain. There are doubts about the details, such as what has happened to Gaddafi’s infamous son Saif. And there are doubts about the general tide of events too. Several commentators, including Peter Oborne, make the point that the passing of Gaddafi is only the first phase in Libya’s struggle towards democracy — and it is a struggle that might easily be

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Republicans go all in in Vegas

Up till now the debates between the Republican presidential candidates have not thrown up much excitement. That changed last night as the main contenders stopped playing nice and started going after each other. The most notable exchange came when Rick Perry accused Mitt Romney of hiring illegal immigrants. This caused Romney to lose his usual above-it-all cool: This exchange will not have done Romney any favours, but he compensated with other strong moments and so retains the “favourite” label. What has changed, though, is the tone of the primaries: it’s going to be a more aggressive campaign as we close in on the first primaries.