The Canadian Election has finally reached its final weekend (Tuesday vote) with all the usual campaign he said/she said stops along the way to polling day and strangely featuring an episode of duellingplagiarists, one which drew our very own former PM John Howard into the campaign.
As expected the early Conservative lead in the polls has narrowed, to the point where the Liberals may be in a position to pull off a surprise win; or it’s gonna be a Groundhog Day minority Govt all over again.
As it currently stands the Conservatives sit in the lead just outside of the MoE on 32, Liberals 27, NDP 19, Greens 12 and Bloc Quebecois 8.
Here they go again! Televised, streamed, etc. in all the usual places. Comment and link as you will. Recycling of partisan talking points strongly discouraged.
Are John McCain’s negative attacks succeeding in eating into some of Barack Obama’s support? They certainly aren’t yet. In fact, Barack Obama has had perhaps his strongest individual polling day of the year.
And my favourite blogger evah (well, up there anyway!), Michael Bérubé:
The McCain campaign has gone into full on negative smear mode, with Governor Sarah Palin playing the traditional attack role of the Vice-Presidential candidate.
Apparently Obama has been consorting with terrorists, because he once knew a member of the Weathermen (long afterwards and when Bill Ayers had become an educator and a Distinguished Professor at the University of Chicago). All these allegations were aired during the primaries - and no doubt the Rev. Wright stuff is being readied for an encore. Reading this article on the campaign in Florida really does show how much dissemination the loathsome “Muslim sleeper” stuff is getting as well, and Palin’s attack on Obama as some sort of terrorist sympathiser will reinforce that theme among those disposed to believe it, or to have doubts.
The New Zealand election is still in a phoney campaign, with the parties only just beginning to launch their campaigns. Which gives me more time to fill in the background. Deborah has already done an excellent beginner’s guide to MMP, so I thought I’d follow up with what MMP naturally results in: coalitions. Continue reading ‘A beginner’s guide to coalitions (NZ election)’
Earlier on tonight, the indications were that the US House of Representatives would be voting around 2am AEST on the revised version of the TARP bailout bill (with extra billions of dollars in pork to attract lawmakers’ votes - added in the Senate amendment which John “Against Earmarks and Wasteful Spending” the Maverick McCain duly voted for). It doesn’t look like that’s the case because a lot of Congressthings want to go on record for their constituents by speaking on the House floor (and/or because they have to ask questions now because the bill has never been subjected to legislative hearings, as is normal in the US Congress).
Anyway, I’m off to bed. But you can follow what’s going on via this liveblog from Catherine Rampell at the NYT’s Economix.
NB: Previous discussion and commentary at LP on the bailout, the financial markets crisis and the ramifications can be accessed here.
1:25 p.m. | Bill passes: The bill passed 263 to 171. The vast majority of Democrats voted in favor (172 yeas to 63 nays), while a slighter majority of Republicans voted against (91 yeas to 108 nays).
Jennifer Schuessler at the New York Times has been boosting the “turn the Veep debate into a poetry slam” movement. Two poems selected from her Paper Cuts blog post:
Haiku’s not the form
For Senator Joe Biden
Because the last line may come out slightly longer than is absolutely necessary due to the subject’s ability to analogize all topics to a seminal moment in the history of this great nation of ours, America, the UNITED states of America
-Henry Alford
So jobs, they … you know,
Health care’s really …. it’s — Katie,
That bridge? I said no.
As everyone probably knows, the Veep debate will be televised live at 11am AEST on both ABC1 and SBS (which also has live streaming online if you’re not near a tv).
Any links to liveblogging of the debate appreciated.
One point of view that’s been expressed about the financial markets crisis can be summed up by something I read at Crooks & Liars today:
Have you noticed that every person suddenly knows everything there is to know about how the economy works? Wow, it’s all so simple.
Maybe there’s a point there, but not the one John Amato thinks he’s making. I’ve consistently been of the view that the economy should be a subject for civic and political discussion, and that we shouldn’t hold back because of the “not an economist!” cries that sometimes echo around the place. If one of the continuing problems with the US financial sector is the lack of transparency which is causing the crisis of solvency - because no one still knows where all the securitised bodies are buried - so too a bit of transparency in demystifying the fiscal arcana whose complexity was part of the reason for this mess should be welcomed.
So, with that in mind, I wanted to share some links (from econobloggers and non-economists both) I’ve found particularly insightful and interesting over the last few days.
In the absence of any more “game changing” impulsive madness from Walnuts, all eyes will probably be on the Veeps debate on Friday - although our friends in the House Republicans or more spectacular crashes on Wall Street might diminish the focus a tad. Sarah Palin won’t be able to pull a McCain though, and “suspend” her campaign, after that trick spectacularly failed as Walnuts slunk out of Washington calling for bipartisanship on one hand while slagging off Obama on the other, after fairly poor reviews of whatever contribution he may have made to the crisis from his fellow Republicans. Nor will Palin be dropped from the ticket - I think (presuming there’s any rationality to the McCain strategy). As Nate Silver observes, there are at least three good reasons why it would be dumb (but again, I’m thinking dumb is the name of the McCain game). And the last time a Veep candidate was dumped - Thomas Eagleton in 72 - McGovern dropped 7 points in the polls.
Anyway, that’s that for the moment, but in this increasingly bizarre campaign which in true postmodern style seems to have as fictive a relationship to the real world as all that fictitious capital swirling around Wall Street waiting for the government to buy it, who knows what lies ahead, or even what lies lie ahead. My main purpose in posting was to draw attention to two excellent pieces from two of my favourite Stateside online writers on the bizarre phenomenon that is the Palin pick, something I continue to believe deserves more analysis than just political calculation or the desire to diss implies.
We like things complicated in New Zealand. I think that’s why we opted for MMP, or Mixed Member Proportional Representation, though it’s possibly not as complicated as the STV system here in Australia, which I have yet to get my head around. We also think that if something is good, then more is better, which is why we have a system where we all get two votes each, one electorate vote, and one party vote.
The question’s in the air at the moment. In the Australian blogosphere, John Quiggin thinks the financial markets crisis has killed it off, while Nicholas Gruen is (rightly in my view) more skeptical. [In response to commenters, Quiggin goes on in another post to define what he means by neoliberalism.]
From my (sociological) point of view, the shorter answer to the question is - no.
Joe Conason has a devastating critique on McCain’s “bipartisan” “here to help” “campaign suspended” play at Salon:
His attempts to game this dangerous situation, his waffling between bipartisanship and ideological rigidity, his shiftiness on the real issues and his obvious lack of concentration on the problems that must be resolved — suggest that he is in fact unfit to serve in the office he desires. Once again he has proved that his claim to put country first is hollow. He was more than willing to take America down as he gambled for that prize.
Do feel free to use this thread to reflect on the debate as well.
None of this is about the economy. It’s about rescuing McCain’s campaign, not Wall Street. But reportedly McCain’s “help” comes down to supporting a proposal by House Republican Leader John Boehner:
That proposal reportedly includes even more deregulation and further tax breaks to the financial sector, plus a prayer that Wall Street can rescue itself if the restraints are removed.
The $700 billion bail out is wildly unpopular in the States, to put it mildly. But not because the American people are taking a stand against regulation.
Update: Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings on how the deal was scuttled. McCain’s lying about his part in it, as is now routine.
I’m still scratching my head over this bit of political crazy.
John McCain has launched his second Hail Mary pass in a month. On Wednesday he called for a suspension of the presidential campaign—no events, no ads, and no debate Friday—so that he and Barack Obama can head to Washington to forge a bipartisan solution. Even more than his selection of Sarah Palin as running mate, this gambit feels like a wild improvisation someone in the McCain team mapped out on his chest: OK, you run to the fire hydrant, cut left, and then when he gets to the Buick, John, you heave it.
First John McCain picks one of the least qualified people in American political history as his VP running mate, now this.
It’s not looking like solid decision making by a supposedly serious Presidential candidate and what’s worse is that he now wants to postpone the debates of the VP candidates into the hazy future. Why? Because it’s becoming increasingly obvious that his handpicked running mate just isn’t up to handling the pressures and rigors of a campaign.
Today’s events call into question his decision making capabilities. John McCain is looking like a befuddled old man, unable to start a task and finish it; attempting to short circuit the hard work required of an issue or event with a stunt that garners nothing but short term political mileage.
Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
One point of view that’s been expressed about the financial markets crisis can be summed up by something I read at 
Recent comments
jane, Geoff Russell, klaus k, Jane, klaus k, klaus k [...]
Jack Hackett, Mark, Fine, zorronsky, Fine, danny [...]
Paulus, Mercurius, Jack Hackett, David Jackmanson, Paulus, Lefty E [...]
Jack Hackett, Sam Clifford, Mark, Maugrim, GB, Mark [...]
Jack Hackett, Paul Burns, professor rat
Andyc, Jane, professor rat, David, Ambigulous, Andos [...]
steve, steve, danny, steve, steve, steve [...]
TimT, Darlene, Jane, boynton, Helen, Greg [...]
paul walter, pH, Paul Burns, emmjay, tigtog, yeti [...]
Jane, Paul Norton, Andos, Robert Merkel, Paul Burns, Ambigulous [...]
Graham Bell, Graham Bell, Dave, crankynick, paul walter, tigtog [...]
Ambigulous, Wind_Sur, Patrick B, Ambigulous, Bingo Bango Boingo, Patrick B [...]