England for Obama

Huffington Post has an excellent run-down of all the reactions to Barack Obama’s recent “A More Perfect Union” speech:

The New York Times said:
Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state. Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better.

Read more here

A nomination winning speech? You bet!

Barack Obama chose today to make a keynote speech in Philadelphia on matters not just of race and recent remarks by his pastor, but of the fundamental path by which America can work together to pursue a better future. It is a speech which he wrote himself, staying up until 3am on Monday to finish it. This is that speech:

Its a while before the next round of voting kicks in so here is a brief update of how the race stands:

BARACK OBAMA: 1,617
Delegates won on 11 March: 17
Total states won: 26

HILLARY CLINTON: 1,498
Delegates won on 11 March: 11
Total states won: 16

Delegates needed to secure nomination: 2,024
Source: AP at 0800 GMT 18 March

A National CNN poll of Democrat opinion has Barack Obama winning 52% support, with Hillary Clinton trailing with just 45%.

Democrats are also more enthusiastic about a Barack Obama win (45%) than they are about Hillary Clinton taking the contest (38%).

The US primary process remains a mystery to many this side of ‘the pond’, and as this particularly long campaign continues it’s not hard to see why. Fresh from news that Texas was won by Obama and not Clinton, because it’s a delegate race and Obama won more delegates, comes news that the final tally in Iowa also looks to be favourable to Obama.

Iowa selects it’s delegates based on a caucus first - which was held in January - and then later fine tunes it with conventions. After the caucuses the results were: 16 Senator Obama; 15 Senator Clinton; 14 Senator Edwards. But Edwards has suspended his campaign since then, so there was the opportunity to convince previous Edwards’ supporters to switch to either Obama or Clinton.

Well, those conventions have just been held and it’s a stunning victory for Obama. The final pledge delegate count is now: 25 Senator Obama; 14 Senator Clinton; 6 Senator Edwards. In other words, the narrow delegate win in January is now a commanding lead for Obama, who won nine more delegates, Clinton lost one, and six still backing Edwards.

To put this into context, the ten extra delegate votes (nine plus the one lost by Clinton) is more than the number Hillary Clinton won in Iowa in her so-called ‘come back’.

Whether it’s right that Barack Obama should have to answer for the comments of his pastor or not, he has recently been forced to do so. The siren calls of the right wing media have finally been echoed by the mainstream and the result has been a feeding frenzy. One might assume this was because somebody is out to destroy any chance he has of becoming President, despite being the clear choice of Democrats, but whilst the glee the Clinton camp is nauseating, a smear such as this from McCain or a ’swift boat’ surrogate group was inevitable at some point.

Unlike Clinton’s response to Ferraro, Barack Obama has consistently acted decisively with those affiliated with his campaign who do not follow his determination to avoid attacking the character of his opponents (and there are two: Clinton and McCain). However this brings with it a problem - when the mud is being thrown the usual response would throw some back. If the words and actions of your spiritual adviser is to be measured as if they were your own, one might for instance highlight the fact that Hillary Clinton’s pastor has just been sentenced for 3 years for pedophilia and lying under oath, or that McCain’s pastor advocates a war on Islam to advance an apocalypse. But Barack is running a different campaign, one which centers on the important issues, which seeks to lift politics from out of the gutter and enthuse a new generation for a common cause. So when the mud gets thrown, and the media refuse to explain your position fairly, the only thing left is to turn to YouTube.

The international community is interdependent and the next US President will make decisions that that affect us all. Whether you live in Baghdad, Buenos Aires or Bangkok, this matters. As non-Americans, we can’t vote in the elections, but if we could we’d support Obama (here’s why). This site collects evidence of his international support and provides resources to help global citizens make their own assessments, so share your views.

Visit: www.theworldwantsobama.org for more information.

Barack once again shows he understands what the people want. Promising to deliver Internet neutrality gets my vote for sure.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign tactics came under a withering attack last night in a special comment by MSNBC’s Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann. It is the first time that Olbermann has ever used his now famous special comment monologues about a Democratic Party member, being more usually dedicated to highlighting the failings and hypocrisy of George W. Bush.

In the blistering attack on Clinton’s failure to fire Geraldine Ferraro for her repeated racist remarks directed against Barack Obama, he said:

…Your own advisers are slowly killing your chances to become president.

Senator, their words, and your own, are now slowly killing the chances for any Democrat to become president.

In your tepid response to this Ferraro disaster, you may sincerely think you are disenthralling an enchanted media and righting an unfair advance bestowed on Sen. Obama.

You may think the matter has closed with Rep. Ferraro’s bitter, almost threatening resignation.

But in fact, Senator, you are now campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican.

As Shakespeare wrote, Senator, that way madness lies.

You have missed a critical opportunity to do what was right.

Continuing he explains:

Do these advisers have Senator Clinton invoke Samantha Power, gone by sunrise after she used the word “monster” and have Senator Clinton say, “This is how I police my campaign, and this is what I stand for,” while she fires former Congresswoman Ferraro from any role in the campaign?

No.

Somebody tells her that simply disagreeing with and rejecting the remarks is sufficient.

And that she should then call them “regrettable,” a word that should make any Democrat retch.

Well. It sounds as if those advisers want their campaign to be associated with those words, and the cheap, ignorant, vile racism that underlies every syllable.

Senator Clinton: This is not a campaign strategy. This is a suicide pact.

This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign, and it is your name.

Grab the reins back from whoever has led you to this precipice, before it is too late.

Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth.

Your only reaction has been to disagree, reject, and to call it regrettable.

Her only reaction has been to brand herself as the victim, resign from your committee and insist she will continue to speak.

Unless you say something definitive, Senator, the former congresswoman is speaking with your approval.

You must remedy this.

And you must reject and denounce Geraldine Ferraro.

Today it still remains unclear whether Hillary Clinton will follow this advice from a friend, change her campaign tactics, and apologise to Barack Obama.

Analysis of yesterday’s open primary in Mississippi reveals that much of the meager support Hillary Clinton received came from registered Republicans. Indeed Republicans were Hillary Clinton’s strongest supporters, with 80% voting for her in the Democratic primary.

That there is an organised campaign by some Republicans to skew Democratic Party open primaries became apparent after the Texas contest, noted by us at the time, where there is even the suggestion that ‘Block Barack Republicans’ pushed Clinton to victory in terms of the popular vote in Texas. The issue has now also been noted by The Telegraph.

Unlike earlier primaries which saw Republicans backing Barack Obama in positive support, it’s inconceivable that hate-figure Hillary’s is anything other than a spoiling tactic designed to prolong the race by denying Obama a knock-out victory, and in the hope that it eases a passage for Clinton to be McCain’s eventual opponent in the General Election. Republicans are convinced that Clinton would be considerably easier to beat than Obama in November.

Whilst Republican votes might have been successful in Texas, the dual process of an additional caucus there ensured that Obama still emerged as the overall delegate winner. Yesterday’s vote in Mississippi was so overwhelmingly in favour of Obama that, even with large numbers of Republicans voting for Hillary Clinton, victory was also assured.

There are now six weeks of campaigning in Pennsylvania before the primary on the 22nd of April. It is a closed primary in which registered Republicans will be unable to repeat their antics.