FOR UPDATED US ELECTION RESULTS: NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Change, hope, dialogue and a dream
Updated 20:50 Visit the GenevaLunch US 2008 election photo gallery: images from the American International Club, Democrats Abroad and Webster University parties.
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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Euphoria for many, quietness for a few: the election of Barack Obama as the next US president was marked Wednesday morning in Geneva by four words, repeated at all the events where election-watchers gathered: change, hope, dialogue and a dream.
updated 18:45 (We almost forget to send you to the Huffington Post, the heartbeat of American political writing)
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Too much election news to wade through, but you’re enough of a news junky to want to see and read more? GenevaLunch offers you a helping hand, with some last-minute election coverage, from Switzerland and elsewhere. See also: “The best of today’s election coverage, elsewhere,” 3 November, GenevaLunch.
- “Obama’s campaign kicked off in my kitchen!” Quincy Jones tells Swiss news magazine l’Hebdo (Fre) this week. Once a Clinton fan, now an Obama supporter, he explains why he switched, in a lengthy interview.
The tiny town of Dixville Notch in northeastern New Hampshire cast its votes shortly after midnight, thus becoming the first town in the US to complete voting in the US presidential election. Barack Obama won, with 15 of 21 votes. CNN
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - GenevaLunch, in the two days before the US presidential election, brings you its selection of world media coverage of particular interest to English-speaking people in the Lake Geneva region, including what media in some of our many countries are saying.
Best cartoon: “Obama ahead” by Patrick Chappatte, published in NZZ and GenevaLunch (homepage) 3 November 2008. Note that Chappatte has a collection on the US election, as well as one on the current financial crisis.
Best explanation of the electoral process: “Ne Croyez Pas Que Les Américains Elisent Leur Président Demain,” by Andy Sundberg, founder-member of the non-partisan American Citizens Abroad, in the print version of Le Temps, 3 November 20080. Ed. note: Sundberg, who ran for president from Geneva in 19, was honoured 4 October by ACA with its Eugene Abrams Award for outstanding service to the Americans overseas community. (ne-croyez-pas-que-les-americains, PDF reprinted with permission of the author)
Best article on overseas voters and voting, “Making the Expat Vote Count,” by Jessica Leval, The American, 2 November 2008.
Australian outlook, “Don’t write off the US” looks at whether this is the election of the great American decline, The Australian, 4 November 2008
Two men who met on the Internet a month ago, described by Reuters as skinhead white supremacists, have been arrested in Tennessee over a plot to go on a shooting spree, then kill US presidential candidate Barack Obama. Reuters
Barack Obama is leaving the presidential campaign trail from Thursday to Saturday to fly to Hawaii to visit his mother’s 85-year-old mother, whose health has been deteriorating in recent weeks. Reuters
Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell Sunday endorsed Barack Obama for US president, calling him a “transformational figure” and the leader of a new generation. Obama announced that he raised a record $150 million in September, dealing what Reuters calls a “double blow” to John McCain’s candidacy.
Reactions to Wednesday night’s final debate between US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are still coming in, but one of the more forceful moments, says CNN, was when McCain told Obama, who has tried to identify McCain with President George Bush, “”If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I’m going to give a new direction to this economy and this country.”Obama’s lead nevertheless appears to be growing.
Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain appears to be widening significantly in the US presidential election, with an ABC and Washington Post poll showing him having a 10-point lead in the results published 13 October, 53% to 43%. Reuters
Andy Sundberg of American Citizens Abroad, left, and Jerry Hagstrom, political commentator, right, with Albert Gallatin on the wall between them, at the Swiss Press Club in Geneva. Gallatin, from a Swiss family, was appointed US Treasury Secretary by President Thomas Jefferson in 1801. He fought for greater accountability of the Treasury to Congress.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Observers and voters outside the United States are missing a crucial part of the US presidential election process despite heavy media coverage: they are not exposed to the political television ads that sway Americans. Jerry Hagstrom, a noted commentator on US politics, told a group in Geneva this week that the ads “show how dangerous it is in American politics to say anything - between the media and Google, anything you’ve ever said can be found” and come back to haunt.
He played several advertisements for the Swiss Press Club and guests of the US Mission in Geneva, one showing how socially conservative Mitt Romney was pushed out of the Republican race after ads made it clear that he had earlier been a social liberal, supporting, for example, gay rights.
An investigation into whether Sarah Palin, US vice-presidential candidate, abused her power as governor of Alaska, is expected to make its report to the state legislature Friday, in a case possibly linked to the acrimonious divorce of a state trooper and Palin’s sister. The state’s Supreme Court refused to stop the investigation, becoming known as “troopergate.” BBC, CNN
News analysts and the pollsters in the US who follow presidential election campaigns closely were quick to say that while Sarah Palin did better than expected in the vice-presidential debate, Biden came across more strongly, with the result that the evening was not a disaster for the Republicans, nor was it a great success. CNN, New York Times
The Thursday night debate on US television between vice-presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden could pull more viewers to their TV sets than last week’s presidential candidate debate, Reuters reports, with a growing number of voteres saying they don’t believe Palin has enough experience for the job.
Title: US election night party, American Int. Club of Geneva
Location: Ramada Park Hotel
Description: Watch the elections!
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2008-11-04
Republican candidate for the US presidency John McCain has ordered a halt to his campaign, calling for the first political debate with Barack Obama to be cancelled in order to spend time helping resolve the crisis on Wall Street, a move Democratic candidate Barack Obama has rejected. Reuters
The coup by presidential candidate John McCain in taking on Sarah Palin as his running mate is turning into a struggle for both McCain and Barack Obama, in the US elections, as they try to work out what American voters are really interested in, besides celebrity appearances. International Herald Tribune
The US presidential election campaign has taken a sharp turn since Sarah Palin joined the stage as the Republicans choice for vice-president. The economy is no longer the focal point despite failing banks and the mortgage crisis: the vote is now all about the culture war, and “Suddenly all anyone talks about is faith, family and female voters,” according to Reuters
