campaigning

In an attempt to stop Barack Obama from getting into the White House, a rightwing radio presenter has been encouraging Republican supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries in the hope of getting the supposedly weaker candidate nominated to face John McCain. Read more...

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While Barack Obama was in danger of being pushed out of the democratic race for the support of "anti-America" pastor Jeremiah Wright, John McCain seems to have escaped scrutiny from the endorsement of a pastor who calls the Catholic Church the "great whore" and the New Orleans catastrophe as god’s punishment for homosexuals. Read more...

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A polling station in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Photo by Sandra Miller, a farmer who's following the primaries for the Observers.

Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania yesterday, throwing her back into the nomination race. Rather than speculate the details of the results, we give the account of Mike Ruddy, a young blacksmith and one of the much-talked- about "blue-collar workers", who voted for the first time yesterday. Read more...

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Campaigning for the American presidency just got nastier in the run-up to the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday. The only candidate to keep out of the campaign video catfight is Republican candidate John McCain... although the ageing conservative hasn't managed to avert attacks fired in his direction. Here's our selection of below-the-belt campaign videos.

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A group of Indian campaigners is singing and dancing their way to the glorification of condom use. It's a crucial fight in their region, where two percent of the population is HIV positive. And the result - a Bollywood style video clip - is hilarious. Read more...

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For our Observer Joe Sudbay, Clinton has lost. This weekend, the candidate's already flailing popularity took another hit when her account of a life-endangering trip to Bosnia was refuted. Footage from the trip shows school children greeting her plane and a sing-along with Sheryl Crow. Read more...

UPDATE (27.03.08 - 17h Paris time): See the parody of the "Clinton in Bosnia" video at the bottom of the page.

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John McCain arrived in Israel on Tuesday as part of a trip to the Middle East. Is the White House hopeful really interested in helping with a peace process in the region as he says, or just looking to please the pro-Israeli electorate in the US? Our Observers for the country pose the question. Read more...

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In a speech in Amman, Jordan on Tuesday, John McCain declared that "al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training". The statement will certainly not help the republican candidate make it to the White House, seeing as al Qaeda, a Sunni terrorist movement, is unlikely to be supported by the Iranian Shiite regime... See the video.

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Since Barack Obama's close ties to black pastor Jeremiah Wright emerged in the mainstream media last week, comments deemed anti-patriotic and racist from the democratic candidate's "spiritual adviser" have dominated the news. See some of these infamous remarks straight from the horse's mouth, notably about September 11^th, along with viewpoints from our Observers on both Democrat and Republican fronts. Read more...

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If you have a long-lens camera, more then one mobile phone or a peculiar home life then you could be branded a terrorist in London. The Metropolitan Police have just stepped up their campaign against terrorist activity by increasing “stop and search” powers and reminding the public to keep their eyes peeled for “odd” people. Our Observer in London is apparently one of them. Read more…

One of the campaign posters

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