Barack Obama

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.

McCain, Obama, and their equally offensive pastors

Julien — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:33:21 +0200

Posted on Flickr by "corn1971"

While Barack Obama was in danger of being forced out of the democratic race for supporting his "anti-America" pastor Jeremiah Wright, John McCain seems to have escaped scrutiny even though he endorses a pastor who refers to the Catholic Church as the "great whore" and the New Orleans catastrophe as God’s punishment for homosexuals.

Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, chose McCain over Republican candidate Mike Huckabee and declared his endorsement on stage with McCain on February 27. Questions have been raised about statements made by Hagee such as "what happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God", linking the event with a "homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came". But the biggest criticism has come from members of the Catholic community, who said he has compared the church’s methods with those of Hitler. Despite criticism, McCain accepted the endorsement and said that Hagee “supports what I stand for and believe in”. But when questioned about this later, he replied that "It’s simply not accurate to say that because someone endorses me that I therefore embrace their views".

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.

"Clinton has lost. It's over"

Julien — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:19:05 +0100

To 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.

At the same time, Barack Obama fought his way out of a popularity slump following his ties to controversial black pastor Jeremiah Wright. The turnaround in the democratic candidates' rollercoaster race sees Clinton's reputation plummet further, and along with her trailing delegate count of 1499 to Obama's 1620, calls for her to drop out of the race are not surprising.

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

McCain: "al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training"

Julien — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:09:38 +0100

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.

McCain only managed to correct his mistake at the end of the speech after receiving advice through his earpiece from Connecticut senator Joseph Lieberman. For the Republican leader, who based his campaign on his ability to be “commander in chief from day one”, the blunder could cost him dearly. Barack Obama seized the opportunity to point out that “we heard Senator McCain confuse Sunni and Shi'ite, Iran and al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al Qaeda ties”, according to the New York Times.

What Obama's "spiritual adviser" really said

Julien — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:21:00 +0100

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, along with viewpoints from our Observers on both Democrat and Republican fronts.