Advertise
-
Books
-
O’Toole’s New Republic – unfinished business or just a dream?
More as a trailer than a review – as it’s out on Thursday– I draw attention to Fintan O’Toole’s latest polemic “Enough is Enough – how to build a new Republic“. Fintan has been promoting the book vigorously on this side of the water, on Radio 4’s Start the Week and here at greater length [...] read our review »
-
Is Fianna Fail the new Woolworths of Irish politics?
It’s not published until 3rd March, but one book I recommend you place an advance order for from Slugger’s Bookstore is James Harkin’s Niche. Belfast émigré Harkin examines a number of stories from business, culture and politics and comes to a single insight: everywhere the broad middle is collapsing. He offers Woolworths as an iconic exemplar [...] read our review »
-
What has The Third Man got to say about Northern Ireland?
Short answer: very little, other than he enjoyed the environs of Hillsborough Castle, enjoyed working with the local politicians, and has Gerry Adams to thank for Bobby his dog. Peter Mandelson’s book The Third Man has captured media headlines in recent weeks as the Times serialised the most juicy bits. But what did he have [...] read our review »
-
A large crowd is now gathering outside the White House to celebrate the O’Bama victory, I hope Bush can hear them. Parties and celebrations are taking place all over the country, people on the streets, enthusiastic celebrations. O’Bama speak soon.
Does not look like the Democrats will hit the sweet spot of 60 Senate seats, but they are very close with around 56, I think they might get one more in Oregon.
Oregon and Alaska should both come good, USA.
Now listening to another great speech from Barack with a glass of champagne and a Pratargas cigar. Seems appropriate. Magnanimity returned to John McCain in spades.
Indiana looking good for Barack, MO, MT and NC still too close to call.
I’m watching Obama give his acceptance speech and feeling very proud to be an American, proud that the politics of hate and division was defeated by intelligence and compassion. A truely historic and uplifting moment. Obama will have many challanges ahead of him and I hope that partisianship can be put aside for the betterment of the country.
The boos from the crowd at McCain’s rally when he was trying to be a graceful loser were absolutely disgraceful, I’ve never heard such hostility at a concession speech before.
No doubt the better man won. May America now move forward in the world…
Yes Sammy, I forgot about Alaska. I think the Republican incumbent up there was recently found guilty in a court of law for accepting “gifts”.
Obama going on a bit mind…..
Bush broke the contract between the government and the governed, we now once again have restored “Government of the people, by the people and for the people”.
America may be great again yet.
Crowd chanting “Yes we can” at O’Bama speech, although he does not appear as dynamic as usual, McCain may have given the better speech tonight. O’Bama sounds like he is still on the campaign trail.
Oh he is very, very good.
O’Bama is warming to the occasion, talking about the power of America’s ideas not the power of her bombs, civil rights, equality, freedom. He’s back on his game, tears in the crowd.
“Out of many we are one”
Speech over.
Not his best speech but he set the bar so high on previous occasions. Still a large crowd outside the White House celebrating the victory. Very embarrasing for Bush.
Jesse Jackson in tears in Chicago.
USA – are you in Philly or DC? Or neither?
Joe “Irish” Biden has just brought his mother on stage after the O’Bama speech. Her maiden name is Catherine Finnegan, hence Biden’s growing up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in Scranton PA.
He once spoke of Wolfe Tone being one of his political role models.
Estimated 125,000 in Grant Park for speech.
Sammy,
Chester county PA, very near Philadelphia. Where are you?
Where’s Harry Flashman now we need him?
I’m in sunny North Belfast, on the beautiful slopes of the Cave Hill. (see pic.)
I always thought the suburban soccer moms of Chester County (and Bucks County) would deliver a big win for Obama in Penna. Waited for a train there a few months ago…
Yes, been up there Sammy. Magnificent views from McArtt’s Fort, on a nice day I could see all the way down to the mountains of Mourne.
Here is a good overview of how the individual states are voting on the propositions which are included on the election ballots.
Sorry about that, too late. Going to bed.
Looks like Obama has won all the swing states he seriously targeted with the possible exception of Missouri where McCain has a lead of 12,000 or so after 94% of the votes counted.
Biden is on record as having read and admired Wolfe Tone…
Been a bit heavy on the libations here myself but will try to get through this…RI/my campus, at least, are RIDICULOUSLY happy. Notice how I went missing around the time CNN projected for Obama. Literally the entire room FREAKED OUT really loudly. Feeling is really high and excited here.
I really, really hope he lives up to it.
Can I just say guys, it’s been a pleasure working with you all. Thanks for your diligence, hard work, good company and good humour.
I missed the speeches, but I have no doubt this has been a very, very good day for the US. I have also no doubt that he will disappoint, but that’s only to be expected to one degree or another.
It does mark an end to those hideous culture wars that have scarred a generation.
Underneath it all John McCain always seemed to me to be a fundamentally good man with an impossible task. He had to represent a break with a fractious past, whilst having his campaign handled by the same ruthless men who wrecked his own 2000 primary run with baseless and unfounded rumour.
The bottom line is that US politics is red in tooth and claw and as a result it doesn’t get too many moments like this where there is for a moment at least a modicum of political generosity between the two men.
And for a time it will put the those hoary old anti Americans on the back foot. It’s what he does with it that matters.
As the old saying goes: tús maith leath na hoibre!
And for a time it will put the those hoary old anti Americans on the back foot.
About time, too.
They’ve been killing people and destroying economies for too long now, those damned anti-americans.
Congratulations Obama!
Congratulations the American people!
Congratulations the Republic of the United States of America!
“Where’s Harry Flashman now we need him?”
I remember Harry Flashman saying that McCain would win as Obama’s popularity was only media hype!
Harry – Is the USA forever doomed now that a ‘socialist non-WASP’ has been elected as president? Go on, tell us!
BTW, I don’t think Obama can do any more worse than G.W.
“Massachussets has voted to decriminalise pot possession.”
Just for you, Sammy:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4XWYefe9EzI
Thanks Mick, Michael in Massachussets, Eunice, USA, Yank in Ulster, Dewi and all other contributors. I never thought I would live to see this day. If only Paul Robeson could have witnessed it. Now there was a black American political figure who really was a socialist.
Pity KieranJ and Harry F, who, if they think Obama is a socialist, wouldn’t recognise a real Red if one jumped up and debagged and buggered them over the deli counter in Safeway, never got a taste of the Real McCoy.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DVLOOgPJ498
‘Underneath it all John McCain always seemed to me to be a fundamentally good man with an impossible task. ‘
True . His concession speech gave us a glimpse of the ‘real ‘ John McCain .
‘He had to represent a break with a fractious past’
Not easy as he needed the same ‘fractious ‘ shower to support his candidacy .
‘whilst having his campaign handled by the same ruthless men who wrecked his own 2000 primary run with baseless and unfounded rumour.’
The lies did’nt work this time .
Well done the USA and her people .
Congrats Obama & Biden .
But will yiz ever have a look at shortening these election campaigns . I used to think Nortern Ireland’s perpetual squabbles were eternal until I tuned in to an American Presidential campaign .
Just got to work here in Cincy – couldn’t post last night as home computer was on the blink.
Congratulations to our new president elect. I truly witnessed history being made last night & am delighted to see America finally elect an African-American. Would have been happier with Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, JC Watts or even David Palmer from 24… : )
But I have only good wishes for Senator Obama & his family. He has many, many challenges ahead both here & overseas as he leads this land that I now call home. I hope he can lead America as effectively as he steered his campaign. A truly impressive ground-game indeed.
I will leave the post-mortems on the rest of the race for another time (I have work!) but thanks to all here for making slugger the great place it is.
Cheers
David
Happy days. Barack O’Bama and Joe O’Biden may have taken on a poison chalice but hopefully people will recognise such and give them breathing space accordingly. Lets hope the donkeys have control of Capitol Hill for many a year to come.
Too early to talk about what kind of cabinet he’ll assemble? I imagine more than a few hands being stretched across the politcal divide.
Congratulations to president-elect Obama on a sound victory. I wish him well, and hope that he will turn out to be a good president. There is nothing like a little bit of responsibility to keep your feet on the ground.
The one positive outcome out of the election is that liberals have been saved from the mental trauma and psychological problems that they would have suffered had another ‘hideous’ culture warrior gained the highest office in the world.
“As the old saying goes: tús maith leath na hoibre!”
Indeed! We’ll see…
One comment on this thread has quite annoyed me. (by Mick Fealty on Nov 05, 2008 @ 09:20 AM)
Mick said: ‘It does mark an end to those hideous culture wars that have scarred a generation.’
To what ‘hideous culture wars’ do you refer? The pro-life, pro-family movement, perhaps?
If so, I would love to know what is so hideous about trying to protect unborn children from being butchered or poisoned in their mother’s womb, or what is so hideous about trying to protect a child who has survived an abortion attempt.
The only scarred generation are the tens of millions of children who have been refused the right to life.
An end to the culture wars, dream on, Mike. If you think that the fight for the rights of the unborn is over, think again.
That’s torn it, Fealty. You have now become an official hate figure in the New Culture War. And this time round it has got nothing to do with your beard. I think.
Only one way to sum it up and that is to quote Danny Morrison’s famous victory speech 1981 in Fermanagh/South Tyrone: “YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
Does anybody know what is happening in North Carolina ? The State has not declared either way and Obama has a small 6,000 or so popular vote majority with 100% precincts counted ? Is there a recount in progress ?
Obama wins and stock markets across the world fall.
Set aside all the celebration and start worrying.
The battle has not been won.
Greenflag @ 07:08 PM:
The North Carolina result was so close (Obama led by just over 12,000 votes in a total poll of some four-and-a-quarter million) that the 40,000 “provisional ballots” now have to be individually checked, confirmed or rejected one-by-one. These are the votes of those whose eligibility was questioned. It seems that, on past experience, about 65% of these will pass muster. Local feeling is that these will break reasonably equal, with possibly a slight Obama bias. That’s taken largely from AP, by the way.
There are other matters outstanding:
1. Chambliss (Rep) in Georgia failed to make the 50% mark, so a special Senate election is going to be held on 4th December.
2. Al Franken has not waived his right to a recount in Minnesota. His deficit (727 votes) falls within the State’s half-of-one-per-cent rule. That recount for the Senate seat will take through the second half of this month.
3. The Alaskan Senate seat is still undecided. For a start, the outgoing Senator (Stevens, Rep) has seven felony convictions against him. Then there’s the sliver of margin between him and Begich (Dem). At the moment there are 4,000 votes between them. There are 40,000 absentee ballots, 9,000 early ballots, and thousands of provisional and questioned ballots still to be processed. There will not be a categorical “final” tally yet: that has to be reported to the State’s Elections Division within two weeks.
The Fat Lady still needs her tin of Vocalzones at hand. Or, as Yogi Berra put it: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
“The Alaskan Senate seat is still undecided. For a start, the outgoing Senator (Stevens, Rep) has seven felony convictions against him.”
He would not be allowed to vote in Florida….
A few things:
1) Obama made mistakes:
“clinging to guns and religion” – famous and daft.
2) “Change” – many slogans are short and profound (SNP – It’s Time) – “change” ain’t – it’s just trite.
3) Biggest thing was his “above my paygrade” gaffe – really can’t understand why McCain didn’t slaughter him on that. Whose paygrade is above the President?
Senator-for-life Stevens is not going to have an easy row to hoe, win or lose this election. He claims he is innocent, but hasn’t yet gone for an appeal. Were he to do so, that ties him up in the appellate court. As I understand it, he has to argue either misconduct by the prosecution or something wrong with the jury (and there are grounds there): he cannot question the facts of the case per se.
If he gets that far, next January, the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, has promised an ethics enquiry and possible explusion. Many Republicans, including John McCain are asking for a resignation.
Which raises the next question: who would the Governor (remember her?) appoint to the temporary vacancy? Who would be the Republican shoo-in at the special election within 90 days of Stevens’s departure?
“Who would be the Republican shoo-in at the special election within 90 days of Stevens’s departure? ”
Sweet Sarah herself of course….
Malcolm Redfellow ,
Thanks for the heads up . I predicted a 364 EC vote for Obama and if NC breaks for Obama I can ‘crow ‘
Seems to me that the Democrats best chance of another seat lies in Georgia with Obama the President elect rowing in behind the Democratic candidate in the run off election.
Al Franken in Minnesota looks to me like a lost cause which is a shame as the Senate could use his humour
and unless the Democratic candidate wins the early , provisional and questioned ballots in Alaska the Republicans will shoo in one of Sarah Palin’s buddies.
So no filibuster proof Senate for the Democrats which will probably slow up the Democrats legislative program .
A final thought on the result which was mentioned in passing on the BBC’s coverage by historian Simon Schama is the irony of the Republican Party’s ‘voting power ‘ being corralled back into the Old South. Although the overall USA electoral map looks almost even geographically in terms of red and blue States , in actual votes cast the Republican ‘rump ‘ is made up of Texas , Alabama , Mississipi , Arkansas , South Carolina , Tennessee, Kentucky. Virginia and Florida . Although the Northern prairie and mountain States have remained red Wyoming , Idaho , Montana , Dakotas these states have few electoral votes and small populations . Mormonic Utah is an exception as is Arizona . I wonder if Arizona would not have gone ‘blue ‘ also has the favourite son not been the GOP candidate.
I ‘d guess that Pennsylvania alone or New York probably exceeds all of these states together in population and electoral college votes ?
Must have a look at the numbers again this evening .
And in all of the New England States there is not a single Republican Congressman following this election . Which fact speaks volumes for good ole Yankee common sense
at least in this ‘paradigm ‘ election .
Are we allowed to celebrate the removal of fear based,fundamentalist,hillbilly,shoot thy neighbour coz i was afraid,pigbutt slappin,redneck,banjo playin,flatearthin, supremist flagwavers…………..ie ulsterscotdom from Washington!
Dewi ,
‘Sweet Sarah herself of course’
Dewi you are a devious welsh devil and chief shit stirrer extraordinary
Washington and east and west coast cartoonists and tv late shows would of course be overjoyed at the prospect of a permanent Palin presence in DC .
The rest of the world likes their baked Alaska on a plate on the kitchen table ?
What McCain did wrong:
1) Palin
Belive me or not if McCain had picked Lieberman it would have been very close….Americans are not daft – it was like picking the girl next door for VP.
Money and ground game a huge difference also.
GF …watch this space!
Greenflag @ 09:16 PM:
May I also recommend a trawl through the “electoral shifts” comparison maps at the New York Times website?
The second frame along is captioned “This year, only 22 percent of the nation’s counties voted more Republican …”. It clearly displays a crescent sweeping up from the Panhandle of Texas to the Alleghenies. It feels a bit creepy to me.
Next business … somewhere down the agenda, behind the economy, healthcare, two wars, — the Supreme Court.
For the record, apart from Chief Justice Roberts (who, to general Rightist consternation, seems intent on a collegiate rather than partisan approach):
As Bill Mears of CNN put it last month
Matt ,
Now you have to believe me 
I’ll thank ye to leave my neighbors and inlaws alone:)
Dewi,
Disagree strongly on Lieberman it would have been two old men wandering aimlessly instead of one.
Greenflag,
One nil to the wee man at full time in the final
Ca bfhuil oracle Robeird agus Flash agus UMH? There’s pie to be had boys.
And Hileryites Mick Hall and Dread for that matter?
‘It feels a bit creepy to me.’
I’ve been in the Appalachian country several times and it never felt creepy . People very friendly generally but isolated from the ‘real ‘ America if you catch my drift . It’s the ‘bible belt ‘ and as we all know that in matters economic – Jesus was of course not a socialist nor a wealth distributionist and he believed not in turning the other cheek
? The day he chased the ministers /priests /pharisees from the temple was because well it was because he did’nt like the Jimmy Swaggarts of the Temple .
What caught my eye more by surprise from the frames was the Florida result which showed basically hardly any change among voting patterns for Florida whites as compared to 2004 . Obama’s victory there owed more to higher turn out from newly registered african americans and hispanic voters other than Cubans plumping for the Obama ticket .
That just underscores the great difficulty facing the Republicans as they contemplate their political future . The demographic changes which have been underway in the USA for the past 20 ? 30 ? years have finally kicked in with major effect on the non white vote and indeed on the votes of younger whites .
The Democrats look well positioned to be the natural ruling party for a generation unless of course they make a complete hames of the opportunity they have been afforded this time out .
This should have happened in 2000 of course . The vagaries of the Electoral College Vote system helped the Republicans to snatch a four year term and the events of 9/11 and the Iraq war helped them get re-elected .
Just as well
? the economy went into a tailspin in Sept instead of January 2009.
Dewi
‘Believe me or not if McCain had picked Lieberman it would have been very close’
Not so Dewi . McCain might have picked up Florida but that would have been it . Elsewhere the ‘jewish ‘ vote in the USA is too small and dispersed to have had an impact least of all in those States where there are many Jews such as the North East. As the Democrats won all of these States by margins of 65% to 35 % I don’t believe a Lieberman VP slot would have helped much other than raise the Republican popular vote a fraction. Remember there was at the end a 7 million popular vote majority for the Democrats as compared to losing to Bush by 3 million in 2004 . A 10 million vote turnaround in 4 years is a major shift in the political compass
I don’t think anybody McCain could have picked could have swung the election for him on this occassion . It was the ‘real ‘ economy that did him in in the end . Cheney’s endorsement was not beneficial either .
GF – nowt to do with the “Jewish” vote – a pile of Americans realised that Palin wasn’t capable of being President. Don’t disagree with your analysis but would have been closer….
sorry link not working Try Evan Roberts
Wrong thread and didn’t work anyway….sod it I’m off to Glenrothes….Nôs Da
Dewi
The slogan was- “Change you can believe in” which I think was quite good, actually.