There’s no doubt she’d know what she was talking about, and I’m not sure I agree with Michael Tomasky’s pre-requisite of a close relationship with the president. Although the logic of keeping your friends close and enemies closer might seem apt for Hillary, who was Obama’s only truly effective nemesis in the election process, I’m not sure I buy the rumours either that she and Bill are already preparing the groundwork to attack Obama within the next two years; it’s just too fanciful. I suspect he’s going to have political capital which will last for a considerable time, and doesn’t need to placate her. She may be owed a great deal from the campaigning which by many accounts affected the outcomes in the Appalachian states, but to give...

Barack Obama is the first politician to harness the power of the Internet. He - and his team - realised the power of YouTube, when other politicians still regarded it as a medium for people to upload drunken videos of themselves. Many others had never heard of it. Obama understands the power of the small donation.  It is far better to get a hundred donations of $10, than to get one donation of $1000. This way, you have one hundred people who feel as if they are shareholders in your campaign. They will work for you and work hard to make sure their money has not gone to waste. In addition, those who donate small sums tend to value money more than those who donate larger sums. The rich can afford to speculate more; the less affluent are not in this enviable position.These two points help...

One of the most famous New Yorker cartoons of all time shows two men in 19th-century garb, one sitting behind a desk and clearly a boss of some sort, the other in the boss's guest chair leaning anxiously forward. The boss is speaking. Caption: "I wish you would make up your mind, Mr Dickens. Was it the best of times or was it the worst of times? It could scarcely have been both."The cartoon is memorable because it skewers the pedantry behind the demand for neat categories. Life, as Dickens suggested, is always both. And so is politics. Without further ado then, some nominees for the best and worst of the campaign just concluded.Best speechOthers may be better known, but Barack Obama's thunderous oration at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner on November 10 2007 was a turning point. He...

Point to Barack Obama and ask the nearest available four-year-old: is he black? Well no, they’ll say, more a sort of soft umber. But it’s a question that’s driving half the world mad. First up is Toby Young, who manages to mistake racial heritage for having a tan in his illuminating piece in the Spectator, before saying: “If America had elected a guy who looked like Robert Mugabe to become President, then I’d be impressed”. Well, by Young’s standards you’d have to be created from the blackest black on earth before you’re a truly black president. But at what point, I wonder, would his scale of blackness tip into “acceptably black”? So while Young’s getting himself in knots over pigmentation, we cruise over to Rod...

FOUR years of Joe Biden. Bring on the...

(via Daily Kos)       ...

DON’T bet against John McCain winning, not if Adolf Hitler’s got anything to do with it. A US President needs two things: a death cult and a fan to mock him up as Adolf Hitler McCain has a death cult. Sarah Palin has a death cult. Even her children have a death cult. And Obama, well, he has not so much death cult as a base. Joe Biden has no death cult, and given his absence from the debate, he shows few signs of life let alone death. So the McCain-Palin ticket is ahead. And now we learn that McCain is Hitler. Obama came close to being Hitler. He went to Germany and wowed the locals into a state of euphoria. Locals climbed lamp posts designed by Albert Speer to catch a glimpse of the man. Obama was by the Victory Column. Hands up for Obama. Higher. Higher. Make the sign. Anorak invited...

10:53: Well good evening. It's nearly 6PM on the US East Coast, nearly 3PM on the US West Coast and we are about to witness one of the most historic US Presidential elections in history. By tomorrow (hopefully), America shall see that it's about to have it's first black President or it's first female Vice President.The campaign has been going for two years, has had more spent on it than any other election in US history and is one where, at the time of writing, has witnessed a 66% turnout of voters, one of the highest on record I understand.The state to watch this evening though is not Florida (the scene of the 2000 debacle), or even Ohio (which has voted for the winner for the past 100 years, save in 1944 and 1976). It's actually the state of Virginia, where the declaration of surrender...

It's after 11pm GMT (6pm ET) and the first polls have to closed in parts of Indiana and Kentucky. Results are coming in, but nothing conclusive - just the first few thousand from Kentucky, a state McCain is almost certain to win. (He is on around 63% to Obama's 34% - based on just under 8,000 votes.)So, not much to say yet. But to see how the night might pan out take a look at our hour-by-hour guide, Michael Tomasky's video guide to the night and interactive map of the states to watch.US elections 2008John McCainBarack ObamaSarah PalinJoe Bidenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More...

Doesn't it seem odd that it'll soon be over -- this insane, historic, aggravating, stirring, inspiring, profoundly moving and ridiculous thing that's been a part of our lives for so many months? But the final rallies have taken place, and in a few hours, barring the completely unforeseen, it really will end, amid guaranteed scenes of intense emotion. More than enough has already been written and said about the momentous nature of the choice America faces in this election, and the decision that all the polls suggest it's going to make, so I won't add to that for now. I'll just say this: I'll be liveblogging right here in a short while (at 6pm eastern, 11pm UK time), bringing you all the presidential results and highlights of the congressional elections as they happen, along with reports...

In an election campaign this long, and this filled with memorable moments, strange things begin to happen to memory and one's sense of time: it feels like years ago now that Barack Obama, somewhat stunned, approached the podium to celebrate victory in the Iowa caucuses, and more than three weeks since Joe the Plumber ambled into our lives. Who even remembers the antics of the Republican primary debates, or the furore over Hillary Clinton's gas tax holiday proposal? To jog your memory, and to kill some time while we wait for America to vote, here are 25 key moments from the race for the White House. This post contains the first dozen, in chronological order, starting with Obama announcing his candidacy for president in February last year. Part two follows shortly...(Note: these are...

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will...

I drew this back early in 2008 when Barack Obama was battling Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and John McCain was fighting off Mitt Romney, Mike Huckerbee, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. Looking back at it now, it’s too long and done in great haste, but the music is still......

A global......

Barack Obama's team demonstrated its confidence of victory by today announcing it is to extend its campaign in the final days deep into the Republican heartland, adding to its target list even John McCain's home state Arizona.While publicly warning against complacency, Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, told reporters today he was "thrilled" by the level of support for the Democratic candidate among the millions of ballots already cast in early voting."The die is being cast as we speak," said Plouffe. "We think we have built up an advantage in all the states so that Senator McCain on election day is not just going to have to carry the day, but carry it convincingly."But McCain's camp, in defiance of Obama's poll leads and a US media that has all but written him off, claimed he was...

Last night I watched the half hour long advertisement by Barack Obama, broadcast on CBS, NBC and Fox News on Wednesday. This apparently cost the campaign $1 million a network. Was it worth the money? Yes.I admire Obama. In so many ways he has rewritten the text books on political campaigning. This advertisement was a powerful, emotional production. It will tug at the heartstrings of many voters. It will make them want change only Barack Obama can give them. His list of promises is breathtaking. If you earn under $200,000 a year, you will be better off. He will scrap tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas. He will make health care affordable for everyone. He will pay teachers more and demand higher standards. You can easily get wafted along, but I didn't. If you tax the rich more...

KEVIN Maguire is claiming in the Mirror that – get this – a vote for Barack Obama is really a vote for Gordon Brown. The Tory spin machine will claim white is black if, fingers crossed, Obama is elected US President next Tuesday. What’s black and white and red all over? Gordon’s Brown economy… Labour’s ties are with Obama’s Democrats while Cameron’s been all over his Republican chum McCain like a nasty rash. McCain was lauded a hero by Cameron at the Tory conference two years ago. And who recently declared: “I’m a huge fan of John McCain and think he’d make a great president.” Yee-haaa! Yes you, Cameron. So eat your heart out, loser. Yeah, loser. A loser like, er , Joe Biden, Obama’s choice for VeePee, who said McCain would make a good...

JOE Biden supports McCain - again: He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table - Joe Biden, speaking of John McCain during the vice presidential debate Figure of speech: metonymy (meh-TON-y-my), the scale-changing trope. From the Greek, meaning “name change.” Candidate debates give Figaro the same ennui he feels watching most Super Bowls. Everybody is just so darn careful. Last night, the cliches flew like nobody’s business. The two candidates used the tired old “kitchen table” five times, for instance. Well, Figaro is so middle-class that his kitchen is too small for a table. Still, “kitchen table” makes a legitimate, if dusty, metonymy—a trope that takes a little thing and...

As a supporter of Hillary Clinton, I confess I was sceptical about Barack Obama. I felt he was policy-lite and that he would be scuppered by the Republican attack machine. Twelve days out from the election - with many people already voting - I have to confess I underestimated his strengths. Obama has proven a resilient campaigner. His calm response to the economic crisis contrasted with the floundering of John McCain. His selection of the dull if gaffe-prone Joe Biden as his running mate has proven a wiser choice than the increasingly divisive Sarah Palin, who has become a figure of fun for independent voters as much as Democrats. In a charactertically powerful piece for Time magazine, Joe Klein explains how those qualities have been melded with a much clearer view of policies. (As Klein...

Barack Obama today for the first time began to speak openly and in detail about the post-election transition period from George Bush's presidency, opening himself up to charges of complacency.As most polls today showed the Democratic candidate's lead over his Republican rival John McCain still growing, Obama held a meeting in Richmond, Virginia to discuss with senior national security advisers the foreign policy challenges he would face as president. One poll, conducted by the Associated Press, showed McCain drawing even and putting Obama's lead at 44%-43%. Obama's comments mark a significant change in the campaign, switching from political rhetoric to a more presidential tone. Although Obama added the caveat: "I don't want to get too far ahead of myself," his comments reflected a sense...

RACE for the White House: Anorak’s look at the McCain-Palin-Obama-Biden news… It’s a slice of apple pie and spite in Michigan. A Michigan pizzeria is offering free pizza to anyone bringing in McCain-Palin campaign signs. Signs have gone missing. Yoofs are believed to be the bargain hunting culprits. Brad Edwards is “LIVE” from the eatery. Says the owner (video): “I’m the owner of Salvatore’s pizzeria – healthcare is killing us” In other US health news, the Sun’s readers learn that Obama has taken two days off from campaigning to spend time with his ill grandma, Madelyn Dunham. Her health records have not been made public, and school children will nod in a cynical appreciation of how a poorly or permanently at rest grandparent can earn a few days off, and a lack of...

Published at Channel 4......

You might call it Colin Powell’s Geoffrey Howe moment as the former Republican secretary of State for foreign affairs laid into his friend John McCain’s faltering campaign for the presidency of the United States. In the odd world of politics-speak it was pretty damning......

SARAH Palin talks about jobs. Now her Vicep president rival Joe Biden talks about J-O-B-S - Jobs… A three-letter word: Only two words for that: TV… Joe Biden’s Road Map Goes To Nowhere Joe Biden Televises Roosevelt’s Great Depression Joe Biden On How Corn Syrup Is The New Terrorism Joe Biden Is Neil Kinnock Is Robert Kennedy Sarah Palin’s Ennoia On Joe Biden Biden the Plumber...

Barack Obama cancelled; Joe Biden cancelled. But now, finally, the town of Roanoke has had a visit from an authentic Democratic...

She talked about being an outsider, and mentioned “maverick” and “actin’ mavericky” to help out any drinking games set up about how many time she’d say the word. She told government to “get out of my way” and “Stop tryin’ to impose on my right to shoot wolves from a helicopter.” Asked about global warming, she said “We don’t know if this climate change whoozie-whatzit is man made or is just a natural part of the end of days. But I’m not going to talk about that,” she said, going into something about taxes. Asked about gay marriage, she stood firm, getting the biggest reaction with: “I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers.” But she added,...