primaries

"I’ve got news for all of you – McCain will be the next US president"

Sophie — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:12:13 +0200

The furious outburst of this Clinton-crazy campaigner will go down as the best bit of the closing stages of the Democratic trail. Harriet Christian is fed up with being overlooked because, as "an older American woman", she's like "a second class citizen". When the final vote comes round, she'll be voting for McCain.

The Democratic National Committee met in Washington on Saturday to decide what to do with the votes from the Florida and Michigan primaries, where neither Obama nor Clinton campaigned. The committee finally opted to count each vote as half; a decision that will almost definitely see Hillary out of the race.

Harriet Christian, a pro-Clinton activist from Manhattan, travelled to Washington to protest against the commission's decision. Enraged, she said perhaps a little loudly what Clinton fans usually keep quiet about.

On the ground, legless and armless, Hillary refuses to lay down her sword

Julien — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:42:44 +0200

Hillary Clinton is trailing in the number of pledged delegates. Everyone, or nearly everyone, considers her beaten for the nomination. But the senator from New York refuses to lay down her sword. This thirst for battle, whatever the cost, has inspired one of our observers in the U.S., who compared Hillary Clinton's attitude to that of the famous “black knight” from Monty Python.

Barack Obama is now credited with 1,957 delegates, and he needs 2,025 to win the nomination. Three primaries remain between now and June 3rd and for Hillary Clinton it is mathematically impossible to catch up to her rival in terms of pledged delegates. She can only count on the possibly of a massive turn of super-delegates in her favor.

Obama the superstar

Sophie — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:02:39 +0200

Seventy-five thousand people came to see Barack Obama give a speech in Oregon on Sunday - a crowd size expected to turn up to a concert rather than a campaign rally. In a country known to be apathetic when it comes to political gatherings, how does Obama mobilise so many?

The pre-primary meeting in preparation for today's Oregon poll took place in a riverside park near Portland. Although Obama hasn't quite clinched the democratic nomination, he's comfortably ahead of rival Hillary Clinton - which allowed him to focus his speech on his future challenger: Republican John McCain.

Vote Clinton, not "Barack the Magic Negro"

Julien — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:27:33 +0200

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.

Despite a landslide 56% to 42% win in North Carolina for Barack Obama yesterday, Clinton managed to clinch the Indiana primary by 51% to his 49%. The Obama camp is blaming the results on a radio campaign, called "Operation Chaos" by talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who asked his Republican listeners to stop "Barack the Magic Negro" getting into office by voting for the supposedly weaker candidate, Clinton, in the primaries. Because Indiana was an open primary, registered Republicans were able to walk into a Democratic polling booth and vote, and according to the media, they did. The scale of this operation and the real impact, however, is impossible to estimate.

Who are these power-snatching "super" delegates?

Julien — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:52:21 +0200

Photos: Cheryl Biren-Wright and "serlingrod"

With neither Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton reaching the minimum amount of delegates to be elected presidential nominee of the Democratic party, the final decision will be left to around 800 party members known as "superdelegates". Does that mean months of campaigning, vote counting and bickering were wasted on less than one percent of the Democratic electorate? A superdelegate answers. But first, a brief explanation for those of us who are left a little confused.

American political parties uses a tiered system to elect their presidential candidate. Firstly, party supporters vote in caucuses and primaries, as they're doing in the US now. These votes turn into delegate counts, of which there are 3,253 in the Democratic party and 2,380 in the Republican party. Each delegate represents around 10,000 individual voters. A frontrunner with a great lead usually emerges during this time, but this year neither has managed to do so, meaning the dual continues to the next round.

The result of the Democratic race now relies on the ballots of the superdelegates - party members. There are around 795 of these, which makes up around a fifth of all delegates. Adding the delegates and the superdelegates together comes to 4,048, and to win the final nomination, a candidate needs over 50% of this number. This equates to over 2,025 delegate votes. Obama is currently leading with 1,723.5, while Clinton lags behind with 1,592.5.

The Republican party does not have superdelegates.

Penn primary: a blue-collar worker tells us about his first time voting

Julien — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:24:43 +0200

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, keeping her in the nomination race. Rather than speculate on the details of the results, (which you can find here), we give the account of Mike Ruddy, a mason, one of the much-talked about "blue-collar workers", who voted for the first time yesterday.

Below-the-belt campaign videos

Julien — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:25:33 +0200

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.

Obama - Clinton debate: "Boy did they skirt the rifle issue!"

Julien — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:07:57 +0200

Democrat candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton faced each other for the last time before next Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary in a televised debate last night.

It's a bitter battle for the southern blue-collar state, which will mark the final stage in the struggle for the presidential nomination. Obama has outspent Clinton five to one on the Pennsylvania airwaves, possibly in an attempt to undo harmful comments he made about the state earlier this month. "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he said at a San Francisco rally on April 6.

Obama wants to talk to Iran, but is the feeling mutual?

Julien — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:51:19 +0200

In a speech on Tuesday Barack Obama declared that he is in favour of talking to Iran - something that would constitute a huge shift in American diplomatic policy. Abolhassan Banisadr, the first ever elected Iranian president, today exiled in France, reacts to the announcement.

Did Clinton blacken Obama?

Julien — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:47:07 +0100

It all started with a post published on Tuesday on the Daily Kos- one of the country's most read political blogs. With screen copies to support the argument, a blogger said that Clinton's staff had darkened and widened images of Obama to exaggerate his African features. Since then, bloggers from each camp and even the traditional media (e.g. Fox News) have scrutinised the images to try to work it out. Conspiracy theory or racist attack? It's impossible to know. But the most interesting thing about the situation, which emerged only days after the "turban affair", is that it proves that Obama's race remains a highly sensitive subject. And if he does make it as the Democratic candidate, will Republican supporters try to exploit it?