Wednesday, March 17, 2004

CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Apart from "watching" the Budget, I spent lunchtime catching up on news of the US Presidential race (as if I'd be interested in any other Presidential race).

So, Kerry thinks that foreign leaders would be happy to see the back of Bush. Kerry won't name names. Of course, you wouldn't expect him to do so, but I think he did his campaign no favours whatsoever by this statement. Do you think your average voter in Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin or California (key swing states) cares whether Schroeder or Ahearne would vote Kerry?

There was a piece a week or so ago on BBC Online about the lack of contact between No.10 and the Kerry team. The author seemed surprised.

This week something odd happened. A left-of-centre party chose its candidate to challenge for the presidency of the world's last remaining superpower. That superpower's closest ally happens to be led by the leader of another centre-left party. You might imagine he would be the first on the phone to congratulate the newly elected candidate and wish him well in the forthcoming election. Yet this close ally did nothing, said nothing, and sent no message of congratulation.

I don't find it odd at all. Heads of Government do not and should not get involved in the electoral process of another country. Yes, there were close links between Blair and Clinton and there were exchanges between Labour and the Democrats. But, those took place when Labour was in Opposition and when Clinton was in office, the exchange was one way and there was no question of the Democrats taking sides in the UK election. (Ahem! Of course, theirs is a long history of the US Government influencing elections behind the scenes - probably most recently in Georgia.)

Bears Will Attack helps out with a link to the CBS/New York Times poll that puts Bush back on track. The Guardian blames Nader - but fails to provide a hyperlink. The numbers look a bit wonky in places.

The poll found that 39% of those asked saw Mr Kerry as a liberal

Yet,

Fifty-seven per cent said "most of the time he says what he thinks people want to hear", while only a third thought he stayed true to his beliefs.

Hmm, some inconsistency there.

:: Posted by pete @ 14:15