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Mapping the key battlegrounds
Sunday Jul 27, 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain met Friday in Colorado with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. After the meeting, Mr. McCain called on China to address concerns about human rights and to release prisoners detained during the recent uprising in Tibet. Mr. McCain also said that Beijing must engage in meaningful dialogue on genuine autonomy for Tibet. The uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet in March left more than 200 people dead. China blamed the Dalai Lama for fermenting the dissent, a charge he denies.
Saturday 21 June 2008 McCain backs Khadr's return
Senator John McCain says he would favour returning Toronto-born Omar Khadr to Canada from Guantanamo Bay if Prime Minister Stephen Harper requested it.
Campaign Conversations: Barack Obama
John Harwood of The New York Times and CNBC interviews Senator Barack Obama about gas prices, taxes, housing and other economic issues
OTTAWA: U.S. CANDIDATE DEFENDS FREE-TRADE PACT
Republican Sen. John McCain, in all likelihood his party presidential candidate, has rushed to the defence of his country's free-trade accord with Canada and Mexico. In an unusual foreign venture for a U.S. presidential candidate, he said before an audience of business leaders and policy makers that the idea of demanding unilateral changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement amounts to protectionism. The remark was an apparent shot at Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party candidate, who has pledged that if elected the U.S. would demand the negotiation of stronger labour and environmental protection within the framework of NAFTA. For his part, Sen. McCain said that if elected he would honour his country's international commitments and expect others to do the same. Some voters in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania where manufacturing jobs have been lost blame NAFTA for that misfortune.
Wednesday 21 May 2008
One cannot look at the 2008 presidential race and not be reminded of 1976. Then, as now, a conservative surge seemed to have been broken on the rocks of a tired and scandal-ridden Republican Party, beset with domestic decline and a failed land war in Asia. One parallel that is often forgotten is the way in which persistent divisions within the Democratic Party, between its sometimes-arrogant leading political dynasty and the inexperienced upstart that pushed them to the margins, continually hampered the Democratic administration that came out of the Bicentennial election with such promise. The 1976 election put Jimmy Carter in the White House ahead of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who spent much of his time successfully harrying Carter, and whose unsuccessful 1980 primary challenge to the sitting president left the wounded Democrat to go down to defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan.
This time around, of course, the Clintons are the affronted dynasts, Barack Obama the insurgent (coming from the antiwar left this time, and not from the pro-business right as Carter did), and Ted Kennedy now a revered elder statesman. The last surviving member of a tragic quartet of brothers, Kennedy faces his most difficult challenge yet. After a seizure over the weekend, he has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in his left parietal lobe, and the prognosis for sufferers of glioma is not good. The news shocked colleagues for whom Kennedy formed part of the landscape; both of the broadcasts show the ailing West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, the only person alive who has served in the Senate longer than Kennedy, hunched over his desk and weeping in prayer for his old colleague. Kennedy’s surprise endorsement of Obama in February may turn out to have been his last hurrah. As one of the first establishment Democrats to endorse Obama over the Clintons, Kennedy’s endorsement speech set the family mantle upon the shoulders of the silver-tongued senator from Chicago and marked the decline of Hillary Clinton’s fortunes. Yesterday’s primaries in Kentucky and Oregon seem to have marked their nadir, as Obama has now captured a majority of elected Democratic delegates and is within seventy of the 2,026 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Speaking in front of a huge American flag on a street in Iowa, Obama held back from explicitly claiming victory, out of respect for Kennedy and reluctance to alienate the die-hard Clinton supporters he will need to win in November’s general election. Clinton, for her part, is trumpeting her victory in Kentucky to raise doubts about Obama’s ability to win over working-class white voters, and her campaign team continues to suggest that procedural wrangling over the disputed Michigan and Florida primaries could still give her a majority of delegates or popular votes.
U.S. Primaries: West Virginia, Kentucky & Oregon a must read
West Virginia Primary May 6
Kentucky and Oregon Primaries May 20
Monday 19 May 2008 McCain and Obama Squabble Over Iran
John McCain said Barack Obama is downplaying the threat of Iran. Mr. Obama responded that the failed policies of President Bush have emboldened Iran.
Tuesday 15 April 2008
May the Bitter Candidate Win
Visit the all-new MediaScout.ca
Barack Obama has developed an innovative rhetorical style unlike anything else in North American politics. In his speeches, he combines risky novelties (such as an unprecedented frankness about his misbegotten youth) and a depth and complexity almost never seen in politicians these days (see, for example, his thorough, nearly hour-long speeches on race in America or religion in politics). Until recently, the presidential candidate navigated this new oratorical terrain mostly without error; the major controversies of his campaign had resulted from the mistakes, or at least the unfortunate views, of a staffer (in the case of “NAFTA-gate”) and a religious mentor. Or so it was until last week, when Obama made his now-notorious comments about “bitter” voters who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” John Ibbitson describes the quote in the Globe as a bad “stumble” and promises that Obama will “have to pay the price.” Certainly Hillary Clinton will do all she can to make sure that he does; since Obama’s comments went public on Friday, Clinton has tirelessly called attention to them, positing his words as an indication that he is “elitist” and “out of touch.” In response, Obama has criticized Clinton’s campaign for using holdover tactics from an unbecoming “old politics,” of taking his words out of context and mischaracterizing his views. The two candidates for the Democratic nomination for president appear to have entered a new phase of their protracted campaign, one in which personal barbs are at last permissible.
Richard Foot in the Citizen situates the candidates’ war of words in a history of political verbal insults, including some timeless epigrams from Winston Churchill (of a Labour rival: “A modest man, who has much to be modest about”) and Abraham Lincoln (of a political opponent: “He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know”). In comparison, Clinton’s claim that Obama is “out of touch” and Obama’s response that Clinton is “talking like she’s Annie Oakley” are mild and uninspired. For his part, the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, is content to let Clinton do all the heavy mudslinging on this issue. His only contribution to the anti-Obama broadside has been to echo Clinton’s claim that the Illinois senator’s statements about small-town voters were “elitist.” With each candidate now making fundamental criticisms of the other, no one is benefiting more than McCain, who, without a Republican rival, can simply sit back and let the two Democrats damage each other in view of the American electorate. While Clinton and Obama might not be as funny as Churchill or Lincoln, the candidates’ exchange of epithets could have McCain laughing all the way to the White House.
Wednesday Mar 5, 2008 'Senator Hothead' carries scars of battle and politics
John McCain secured the Republican presidential nomination as the ultimate survivor - winning it eight
 Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
Biography
Full Name: William Blaine Richardson III
Party: Democratic
Political Office: Governor of New Mexico; elected 2002; U.S. Representative from NM, 1983-1997
Business/Professional Experience: Staff, U.S. House of Representatives, 1971-72; Staff, U.S. Department of State, 1973-75; Staff, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, 1975-78; Executive Director, NM Democratic Party, 1978; Executive Director, Bernalillo County Democratic Committee, 1978; President, Richardson Trade Group, 1978-82; U.S. Ambassador to U.N., 1997-98; Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, 1998-2000; Senior Managing Director, Kissinger McLarty, Washington, 2001-2002
Date of Birth: Nov. 15, 1947
Place of Birth: Pasadena, Calif.
Education: B.A., Tufts University, 1970; M.A., Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1971
Spouse: Barbara Flavin; married 1972.
Children: None
Religion: Roman Catholic
Home: Santa Fe, N.M.
Campaign Web Site: richardsonforpresident.com
Friday 22 February 2008 This takes you to all posts on the U.S. presidential campaign
February 17, 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign — the Vice President? (National Post) Clinton, Obama a Democrat dream ticket? Maybe, maybe not
Sheldon Alberts, Canwest News Washington Correspondent
The idea that Clinton and Obama might team up to form a ‘dream ticket’ in the 2008 election has captivated pundits and party activists in recent weeks,
Political Cartoons
Friday 15 February 2008 Barack Obama rolled to victory by large margins in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, extending his winning streak over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to eight Democratic nominating contests. onmouseout="return nd();" target="_new" > Obama and McCain Sweep 3 Primaries
Thursday 14 February 2008 A Fight About What?
Except in this primary season. Yes, there has been some effort by Hillary Clinton and her supporters to sharpen the distinction with Barack Obama over the differences in the two candidates’ health care plans. And certainly many supporters of Senator Obama have pointed to his opposition to the Iraq war in 2002 as a key difference with Senator Clinton. But the first of these differences has gotten very little attention of late, and the latter is more often cited as a difference in judgment rather than a current policy difference: both candidates have similar positions about what to do in Iraq now.
Thursday Feb 14, 2008 a class="t2" href="http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=372f5996-3268-481d-9251-e808553f6cf1" onmouseover="return overlib('click to /montrealgazette/', LEFT);" onmouseout="return nd();" target="_new" > McCain has to prove credentials
Poor old John McCain. There's something almost pathetic about seeing a genuine war hero reduced to stumping around the United States trying to convince his countrymen that he is, indeed, a conservative.
Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 The Internet and YouTube have changed the face of politics
It was just a four-minute riff at the end of Barack Obama's concession speech on Jan. 8, the night he lost the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton.
U.S. Primaries: Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C.
A fantastically simple primary, with 63 winner-take-all delegates
Thursday 07 February 2008
So Super Tuesday is over—and while the Democrats now face a long mucky war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the Republicans seem finally to have plumped for John McCain. The independently minded Arizona senator could still be ousted, but that would require spectacular intervention by the Almighty on behalf of those who claim most often to be doing His work. We accept that Mr McCain is not a perfect nominee (and still a long way from being our choice for president); but we think the fact that the Republicans seem to have learnt from their mistakes enough to line up behind a
sensible candidate is an enormously positive sign for America—and for the world.
Here are some other pieces from this week's issue you might also be interested in. You can click straight through to each one and read it online at Economist.com
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DEMOCRATIC DEADLOCK
It’s a tricky dance to simultaneously claim glorious victory and
declare yourself the underdog, but both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
are attempting to pull it off as they spin the results of Super Tuesday.
The
National, CTV
News, the
Globe, the Star,
La
Presse and the
Citizen all go inside with a look, mostly through Obama-tinted glasses,
at the results of Tuesday’s inconclusive vote. With the ballots
counted, Clinton is using her victories in California and the northeast to
argue that she has the strength to carry Democratic strongholds, while
Obama says his higher tallies of states and delegates make him the man
with a wide enough appeal to win the White House. Still, neither wants to
cede the possibility of being seen as the underdog because, as this race
has proven time and time again, everyone loves a comeback kid. There is a
real possibility that Clinton may succeed in this respect, as she reveals
that she had to lend her own campaign $5 million to keep it afloat until
the convention. Meanwhile, Obama is rolling in the dough—he took in
$35 million in January, more than twice as much as Clinton did. But the
Citizen’s Sheldon Alberts reminds us that money isn’t
everything; Clinton currently has the pivotal support of the bulk of
Democratic “super-delegates,” party insiders and lawmakers who
automatically get to cast a ballot. Increasingly, it seems that this will
all lead to a fractious convention that pits the party elite against the
grassroots—a bad way to start a race for the presidency. In fact, as
former presidential hopeful Howard Dean points out in the Post, divided
Democratic conventions tend to be followed shortly by general election
defeats.
Meanwhile, across the field, John McCain has all but clinched the
Republican nomination—and the ire of social conservatives. Tim
Harper in the Star writes that McCain’s ascendancy may mean the
end of the “dittohead” era—that is, the dominance of
Rush Limbaugh and his ilk. Chided for his supposedly fuzzy positions on
global warming and illegal immigration, McCain will now likely have to
spend much of the remaining race borrowing from a Molson commercial,
assuring the Republican base that “I am conservative.”
At least one Canadian source, the Globe, pats
McCain on the back in an editorial for not pandering to the
extreme right, while noting that by our standards he’s as
conservative as they come.
Thursday 07 February 2008 Romney Drops Out of Presidential Race
By JOHN SULLIVAN and MICHAEL LUO
Mitt Romney, who sought to position himself as the true conservative choice for the Republican nomination, announced Thursday that he had ended his campaign.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who sought to position himself as the true conservative choice for the Republican presidential nomination, announced Thursday afternoon that he had ended his campaign.
His chief rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona, congratulated Mr. Romney on his efforts and reached out to conservative voters who had thrown their support to the former governor and whose support, Mr. McCain said, was “indispensable to the success of our party.”
The first (and maybe most decisive) ...
Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 Clinton and Obama split vote
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled to a split decision in Super Tuesday primaries across the United...
Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 McCain inches closer to securing nomination
Senator John McCain inched closer to securing the Republican presidential nomination last night, scoring..
Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 Big changes coming after U.S. election, Charest says
Premier Jean Charest says he is paying close attention to the U.S. presidential race, predicting a 180...
Tuesday 05 February 2008 Voices From the Polls
Tuesday 05 February 2008 US Super Tuesday votes under way
Voters in 24 US states choose their candidates for the presidency in the Super Tuesday nominating contests.
Tuesday Feb 5, 2008
52 per cent of Democratic delegates and 41 per cent of Republican delegates are at stake.
For your reading pleasure there is much more at: U.S. Primaries: Super Tuesday and U.S. Presidential Campaign: views and reviews
Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 Some questions for the American presidential candidates
America's bizarre presidential primary system has again done its job well and produced four strong candidates for president. They might be whittled down to two by midnight tonight, once this Super Tuesday's ballots are cast. Still, each candidate has weaknesses. Watching the debates - which, Canadian debate planners take note, are more cordial when the candidates are sitting down, close to each other - you hanker to ask a few questions yourself.
Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 History
The phrase "Super Tuesday" has been used to refer to presidential primary elections since at least 1984
A Super Tuesday showdown in 24 states
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in 24 states make their choices in an unpredictable U.S. presidential campaign on Tuesday, with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a close fight and Republican John McCain aiming for a knockout blow against Mitt Romney.
Monday Feb 4, 2008 World is watching U.S. race
As the New York Times recently stated, it's as if outsiders are pining as much for change in the United...
Saturday Feb 2, 2008 Latest crop of presidential hopefuls look like they came from central casting
This is the start of a super week in the United States - and I don't mean just tomorrow's Super Bowl...
Edwards to quit White House race
Democrat John Edwards is to leave the White House race after failing to win a contest, his aides say.
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3326255.stm"> Profile: John Edwards
Webb blog: A tricky decision
Tuesday 29 January 2008 Acrimony Reigns in G.O.P. on Eve of Florida Vote
By JOHN M. BRODER and MICHAEL LUO
Mitt Romney and John McCain traded attacks in a state that could produce a Republican front-runner before a virtual national primary next week.
TAMPA, Fla. — The Republican contest for Florida ended in acrimony on Monday as the two leading candidates traded attacks, aggressively courting voters across the Florida peninsula in a primary battle that could produce a clear front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination before a virtual national primary next week.
The sparring, between Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain of Arizona, came as polls showed the race a statistical tie between them, with Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, lagging. Mr. Giuliani, former New York mayor, pledged that he would participate in a Republican presidential debate in California on Wednesday regardless of where he finished in Tuesday’s voting here.
Campaigning in the South slide show
January 28, 2008 When Bill Clinton was president, he and his wife sailed with the Kennedys off Cape Cod. In this 1997 outing, the former president is at the helm, Hillary Rodham Clinton is second from left and Senator Edward M. Kennedy is to her right.
Kennedy Chooses Obama, Spurning Plea by Clintons | Hillary Clinton
Monday 28 January 2008 Races Entering Complex Phase Over Delegates
MIAMI — The presidential campaign is entering a new phase as Democratic and Republican candidates move beyond state-by-state competition and into a potentially protracted scramble for delegates Congressional district by Congressional district.
For Republicans, this means, for example, turning to approximately 10 heavily Democratic Congressional districts in California where there are relatively few registered Republicans, making it easier, and less expensive, to win a district and its three delegates. Both Senator John McCain of Arizona and Mr. Romney are heading there on Wednesday.
For Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Mr. Obama, it means investing resources — mailings, telephone banks and candidate visits — in Congressional districts where there are an odd number of delegates at stake, creating an opportunity to pick up an extra delegate.
Sunday 27 January 2008 Win fires up Obama supporters' belief
lots of links
Sunday Jan 27, 2008 Obama victory Triumphs over Clinton in S. Carolina's Democratic presidential primary Obama calls his win a rejection of race-based politics that seeped into the campaign.
Saturday 26 January 2008 U.S. Primaries: South Carolina 2008 great pages on Diana's site
Barack Obama Wins South Carolina Primary
Excerpt of Senator Obama’s victory speech:
I did not travel around this state over the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina. I saw South Carolina. I saw crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children. I saw shuttered mills and homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from all walks of life, and men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. I saw what America is, and I believe in what this country can be.
That is the country I see. That is the country you see. But now it is up to us to help the entire nation embrace this vision. Because in the end, we are not just up against the ingrained and destructive habits of Washington, we are also struggling against our own doubts, our own fears, and our own cynicism. The change we seek has always required great struggle and sacrifice. And so this is a battle in our own hearts and minds about what kind of country we want and how hard we’re willing to work for it.
So let me remind you tonight that change will not be easy. That change will take time. There will be setbacks, and false starts, and sometimes we will make mistakes. But as hard as it may seem, we cannot lose hope. Because there are people all across this country who are counting us; who can’t afford another four years without health care or good schools or decent wages because our leaders couldn’t come together and get it done.
Theirs are the stories and voices we carry on from South Carolina.
Republican Fred Thompson withdraws from the US presidential race, after poor results in early ballots.
Monday 21 January 2008 Primary Season Election Results
Thursday 17 January 2008 Bloomberg Warns of Spending Cuts on the Horizon
In his State of the City address, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also called for DNA samples to be taken from every person arrested in New York City.
Thursday 17 January 2008 Mitt Romney scored his first major presidential primary victory Tuesday in his native Michigan. The win sets the stage for a wide-open Republican showdown in South Carolina in just four days. Mr. Romney was the third Republican victor in the first four states to vote in the 2008 primary season. He defeated Arizona Senator John McCain, who won the state in 2000. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee placed third. Mr. Romney won about 39 per cent support, Mr. McCain had 30 per cent and Mr. Huckabee had 16 per cent. Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the Democratic winner in Michigan, but it was a victory of little consequence. Ms. Clinton was the Democrats' only major candidate entered in a state where party officials defied the Democratic National Committee by holding the primary so early in the campaign season. Ms. Clinton's main competition was from the "uncommitted" line on the ballot, an option that some supporters of John Edwards and Barack Obama advocated to embarrass the former first lady.
Wednesday 16 January 2008 Democrats set aside race dispute
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seek to set aside a row over civil rights in their fight for the US Democratic ticket.
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Romney's Michigan comeback
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After winning silver in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mitt Romney finally got a gold in Michigan. It was a win he desperately needed.
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Mitt Romney has struck gold in his home state
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There were growing questions as to whether he could sustain his campaign without a victory here. This, after all, was his "home state".
His father served as Michigan's governor for three terms. Mitt Romney claimed that the state was in his "DNA", that the automobile industry - that was once the engine of the economy - was "in his blood".
The Romney campaign had invested high hopes - and a lot of money in Michigan - and it finally paid off.
Wednesday 16 January 2008 The candidates for the leadership of their respective parties are now heading to the northern state of New Hampshire for the next (primary) contest, Tuesday, on the road to the presidency. In Iowa, Thursday, the first round in a series of caucuses and primaries went to Barack Obama for the Democratic Party and to Mike Huckabee for the Republican Party. Mr. Obama is vying to become the first African American president. He handed a stinging defeat to national front-runner Hillary Clinton. She finished second in a virtual tie with John Edwards. Republican Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister turned politician, finished almost ten points ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Monday 14 January 2008 A spat between the Democrats
The Democratic nomination process sours as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spar over race
Wed1350 The U.S. presidential primaries continue to fascinate (we read that Europeans are watching with interest and we know that the British media are following avidly); and the more unpredictable, the more we shall watch and attempt to record the better informed (or more outrageous) commentaries - “U.S. primaries 2008“. U.S. Race 2008
While few of us are hazarding guesses as to outcomes, one early Wednesday Night punter hypothesizes: “If McCain can derail Huckabee in N.H.and Obama continues to win, McCain (fatherly, presidential looking) might take it. If it turns out to be Clinton vs. McCain after all, I would bet on Clinton. My most likely scenario is still Obama vs. Huckabee.”
Thursday 10 January 2008 American presidential races are always fascinating: this one, however, is exceptional. Like many magazines and newspapers, we had expected to put Barack Obama on our cover after the New Hampshire primary. Instead Hillary Clinton staged a remarkable comeback—and the Republicans have found new hope with John McCain, who consistently beats both the leading Democrats in head-to-head polls. Why is the race so open? It is partly because each candidate has such obvious flaws; but it is also because America is undecided. The voters want change; they just can't work out what sort of
change.
Biography
Full Name: William Blaine Richardson III
Party: Democratic
Political Office: Governor of New Mexico; elected 2002; U.S. Representative from NM, 1983-1997
Business/Professional Experience: Staff, U.S. House of Representatives, 1971-72; Staff, U.S. Department of State, 1973-75; Staff, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, 1975-78; Executive Director, NM Democratic Party, 1978; Executive Director, Bernalillo County Democratic Committee, 1978; President, Richardson Trade Group, 1978-82; U.S. Ambassador to U.N., 1997-98; Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, 1998-2000; Senior Managing Director, Kissinger McLarty, Washington, 2001-2002
Date of Birth: Nov. 15, 1947
Education: B.A., Tufts University, 1970; M.A., Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1971
Spouse: Barbara Flavin; married 1972.
Children: None
Religion: Roman Catholic
Home: Santa Fe, N.M.
Campaign Web Site: richardsonforpresident.com
Biography
Full Name: John Sidney McCain III
Party: Republican
Political Office: U.S. Senator from Arizona, elected 1986; reelected 1992, 1998, 2004; U.S. Representative from AZ, 1983-1987
Military Service: Pilot, U.S. Navy 1958-1981, retiring as captain; POW in Vietnam, 1967-1973
Date of Birth: August 29, 1936
Place of Birth: Panama Canal Zone
Education: B.S., United States Naval Academy, 1958; grad., the National War College, 1974
Spouse: married (2d) Cindy Hensley, 1980
Children: adopted sons Douglas and Andrew of first wife, Carol (m. 1965; div. 1980); daughter Sidney (with wife Carol), born 1980; daughters Meghan and Bridget (born and adopted, 1991); sons John IV and James
Religion: Episcopalian
Home: Phoenix, AZ
Campaign Web Site: www.johnmccain.com
Tuesday 08 January 2008 MANCHESTER: CANADIAN HEALTH CARE MAKES US DEBATE
Canada's public health-care system came under criticism in Manchester, New Hampshire during a debate involving the candidates for the US Republican presidential nomination on Saturday. Rudy Giuliani, who favours the US system of private insurance while denouncing universal public health-care, asked if the US "goes in the direction of socialized medicine, where will Canadians come for health-care?" The ex-New York City mayor was referring to those Canadians who go to the US for medical treatment to avoid long waiting lists in Canada. Mr. Giuliani said poor Americans who don't have health-care should receive vouchers so they can get coverage. Candidate John McCain told the debate some people in New Hampshire have been to neighbouring Canada, adding he doesn't think they want the Canadian system of public health-care. Candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination favour universal health-care, saying it would cover the estimated 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance.
Tuesday 08 January 2008 Energy Costs a Top Concern for New Hampshire Voters
HILLSBOROUGH, N.H. — People here treasure their rugged surroundings and relative isolation in the hills of southwestern New Hampshire. They welcome winter, and consider their distance from urban sprawl a clear advantage.
ALL EYES ON NEW HAMPSHIRE
by Daniel Casey
January 7, 2008
All throughout 2007, the Canadian media paid only intermittent
attention to the US presidential contest as the US media devoted more and
more resources to it. With an astonishingly large crop of competitive
Republican and Democratic candidates, dozens of televised debates, and the
din of thousands of bloggers, the campaigns have generated an unprecedented
volume of coverage south of the border. Now, after Democrat Barack Obama
upset Hillary Clinton and Republican Mike Huckabee trounced Mitt Romney in
last week’s Iowa caucuses—where the first votes are
traditionally cast in the long process by which the major parties pick
their candidates—the Canadian media have woken up to the titanic
struggle, and started to devote serious efforts to covering the contest as
it turns to the New Hampshire primary. And they’re enjoying it,
perceptibly reveling in the scale and sway of it all.
With the stories on offer, who could blame them? Barack Obama’s
stunning rise from obscure state senator to household name was sparked by
a rousing speech delivered to the 2004 Democratic convention, and he now
seems poised to ride a wave of passionate support from young people and
political independents to be the first black person to capture a major
party’s nomination. The Star calls it “Obama
fever,” while CTV News calls it “Obamarama”
on last night’s broadcast, hopefully for the last time, and the
Globe’s Doug Saunders reports that the ascendancy of the unlikely
candidate has come
to fascinate the European media. After months of relying on the support
of key Democratic fundraisers and power brokers to put her over the top,
Hillary Clinton has been forced to highlight her experience and raise
doubts about Obama, as she did during a testy exchange in Saturday’s
debate that the Post calls
“confrontational” and that the Globe contrasts
with the even more heated Republican matchup. La Presse’s Richard
Hétu profiles the sudden slump
in Clinton’s fortunes as she faces defeat in another primary, and
finds
out the hard way that New Hampshire voters consider their
straightforward open primary—and not Iowa’s elaborate
caucuses—the first real vote in the nation. Alexandre Sirois joins
the reliable Hétu in providing a
look at the excitement that suddenly surrounds the resurgent and
eternally irascible Republican John McCain. Christie
Blatchford agrees in the Globe that McCain is “riding some kind
of wave of his own,” and is amazed by the openness and
approachability of old-fashioned retail campaigning. It’s high drama
all around; Star columnist Chantal Hébert
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BBC
![[Super Tuesday]](http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/canwest/111/supermini.jpg)
MULTIMEDIA: Endorsements of All Shapes and Sizes
Romney's reaction
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