THE WORLD AFTER BUSH

As the Washington clocks strike twelve on 20th January 2009, listen carefully and you might just hear a swooshing sigh of relief travel around the world.
But a critique of what should have been done differently since 2001 is not enough.
This blog is about the new ideas that can change our world and how a 'new multilateralism' can tackle the global challenges of our age.
Change the World, Reports from the Fabian new year conference



Thursday, February 7, 2008

Seven million all

'Clinton and Obama trade victories' was the apt Washington Post headline. While it is delegates that count, where it is looking very even in the end, the most fascinating statistic from Karen Tumulty of Time aggregates the nationwide votes (not the final totals) to show both Clinton and Obama won almost seven and a half million votes each, and were very close to tied among voters choosing either one of the frontrunners.


Clinton: 50.2% (7,427,942)
Obama: 49.8% (7,370,023)


I took part in an interesting post-Super Tuesday panel debate at the House of Commons organised by Progress.

McCain will be the Republican nominee: he is the most electable Republican in a post-Bush age, and the party didn't quite hate him enough not to recognise that. So that will be tough for the Democrats. There are gains: on issues like climate change and torture, the debate will be on Democrat-friendly territory. And there are still huge differences between the parties - on Iraq, national security, healthcare and the economy.

There were different views about whether the Clinton and Obama camps could fight a close race without knocking lumps out of each other. I felt they could: not just because of the party's interest, but because the Bill Clinton-led attacks on Obama ahead of South Carolina suggested this may be a year when 'the politics of personal destruction' will backfire.

There was an interesting discussion about why money and negative advertising have declined in impact. Is it due to particular factors like the inauthenticity of Mitt Romney, or about a shift in media and political communication?

A few other interesting nuggets
* More Democrats voted in London yesterday in just one location of the international Democrats Abroad primary than in the Alaska caucus. Democrats Abroad, including in London, have voted strongly for Obama over Clinton.
* John McCain isn't going to choose Mike Huckabee as Vice-President, thankfully.
* None of the panel wanted to make predictions, though there was a general sense that Hillary Clinton could just edge the Democrat nomination, with mixed views as to what would happen in a knife-edge Clinton/McCain race.



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The World After Bush

As the Washington clocks strike twelve on 20th January 2009, listen carefully and you might just hear a swooshing sigh of relief travel around the world. The Bush Presidency will not leave the legacy its architects intended. But a critique of what should have been done differently since 2001 is not enough. This blog is about the new ideas which can create a 'new multilateralism' to tackle the global challenges we face.