Quick Comment: Comeback Kids and the Women's Vote

Michelle Obama. Image courtesy of White House flickr stream

Politico published an article this morning which discussed Bill Clinton as the Obama campaign whisperer. Anyone who is surprised by this statement only needs to look at the popularity of both men to see why it makes sense. Clinton  understands the rhetoric that the Obama campaign need to use after disappointing  many of his original supporters during his first term. The former president also apparently understands that Mitt Romney's biggest vulnerability during this race is not his media hyped reputation of ideological flip flopping but the missing support within one crucial demographic: the women's vote. Politico point out that Hispanics and moderate independents are also an important factor to the Obama campaign. However, the gap within the gender vote is significant enough to look promising for Team Obama.

Quick Comment: Not So Super Tuesday.

Image courtesy of BU Interactive News Flickr

The votes are in, and the GOP candidates are no closer to the finish line.


Mitt Romney stood victorious in Ohio, although he beat Rick Santorum by a slim margin. He won 37.9% of the vote compared to Santorum's 37.1%. The delegate numbers are solid, and mathematically speaking, Romney is speeding ahead as front runner, but this race leads me to believe that despite all the over spending and investing in the campaign, he is continuing to fail at connecting with many voters. I doubt his talk of Ann Romney's numerous Cadillacs did much to salvage his reputation with blue collar workers. In the same respect, Santorum is suffering the same predicament, as voters may feel his religion dominates his views for the Presidency and his vision for America. The clash of extreme religious views and politics is a combustible coalition, as it creates issues with groups such as women voters and the right to birth control.

Quick Comment: The Vulture Tactic - Attack Ads

It has been revealed today that ad spending for Super Tuesday alone has reached $10million. Mitt Romney has spent approximately $6.3million on negative ads, and it is estimated that $16.4million has been invested  on negative ads alone by the Restore Our Future campaign, a Super Political Action committee overseen by former Romney advisers. Super PACs have the freedom to spend an unlimited amount on advertising under the condition that they do not directly converse with the candidate. Although it has been pointed out that Clinton and Obama viciously attacked each other in the Democratic race of 2008, the harshest of comments are usually saved for the general election. The  'Restore Our Future' campaign has chosen to attack fellow Republicans, sending out messages which claim that 'Newt Gingrich has more baggage than the airport'.  The aggressive style of the Romney campaign has been on display in several made for Web videos discussing Barack Obama's leadership, it has also created trending topics on Twitter to attack Gingrich such as #grandiosenewt. 

How To.. Make Sense of Super Tuesday

As Super Tuesday looms on March 6th, the race for the Republican presidential nominee heats up as the candidates prepare for this make or break event. I have found that for a non American, big voting days can be a puzzling matter and can quite frequently result in a massive brain ache.

To understand Super Tuesday and to make sense of it's results, it's best to kick things off with the basics. You need to know who's in the race and what they stand for, you never know, it may come in handy for a pub quiz one day. Although I'm going to whip up a quick overview on the candidates, I recommend looking here for details on where the candidates place themselves on the big issues.