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.
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:
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
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.
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,
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;
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
Last night may well have been the moment Rick Perry’s hopes of winning the Republican nomination finally ended. Having already seen his polling surge rapidly reverse – largely because of poor performances in the last two debates – he put in another poor performance as the candidates clashed in New Hampshire. Worse, he followed up the debate with an American history gaffe, saying: “actually the reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown if you will”. As a result, he was subjected to merciless Twitter mockery, via the hashtag #perryhistory. It’s taken him a month to go from
Yesterday — as Pete pointed out earlier — the Obama administration filed criminal charges against two individuals, Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, claiming that they worked with Mexican criminals and for the Iranian government on orders to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The plot has met with denials from Tehran, which “categorically and in the strongest terms condemn this shameful allegation.” But, if true, the plot would only be the latest in a long-standing feud between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The struggle between Riyadh and Tehran has become the Middle East’s central conflict, overshadowing even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The countries are divided by a Shiite-Sunni
It’s been quite a week for Republicans deciding they’re not interested in entering the White House in 2013. First, Christie closed the door on a presidential bid on Tuesday. Last night, Sarah Palin followed suit, saying: “After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States… My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s
The broad narrative of the Republican primaries has essentially been “the search for an alternative to Mitt Romney”. And that search looks set to continue with another potential candidate, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, set against running for president. Romney has been the favourite to win the nomination pretty much since the 2008 election. But he does not generate much enthusiasm among the Republican base: only 14 per cent of Republicans have a “strongly favourable” view of him (according to Gallup) and he’s polling at just 24 per cent: pretty low for such a well-known frontrunner. As a result, many in the Grand Old Party have been looking elsewhere. This has
A couple of weeks ago Mitt Romney used Winston Churchill – or his bust, at least – to attack Obama. This week, he used the former Prime Minister to defend his flip-flopping. Or at least, he thought he did. Here’s what he told a town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday: ‘In the private sector, if you don’t change your view when the facts change, well you’ll get fired for being stubborn and stupid. Winston Chuchill said, “When the facts change, I change too, Madam”.’ Unfortunately, as NBC have pointed out, the line wasn’t Churchill’s at all. It is usually attributed to John Maynard Keynes, but even that may be aprocryphal. So
