If you get bored of the mainstream coverage tonight, Comedy Central’s Indecision 2008 blog comes highly recommended. Currently staying out of a friendly argument about whether to watch CNN or Sky News…
Archive for November 4th, 2008
Greetings from the Manchester Conservatives election night HQ, live from the Green Quarter!
A quick straw poll reveals that those present are fairly evenly split in terms of whom they want to win - 5 McCain supporters, 4 Obama backers (including me) and 1 who isn’t really that bothered either way.
I’ll try to make a couple of updates through the night but no promises. David Ottewell is holding the fort for Manchester bloggers and is live blogging through the night.
If I Had A Vote Today, It Would Be For Obama
Earlier in the year, I spent a weekend in the east end of Glasgow campaigning for Davena Rankin in the Glasgow East by-election. I’ve tried to get to all the by-elections – it’s a good chance to see how politics affects local communities in different parts of the country – but unfortunately Thursday’s by-election in Glenrothes has been a journey too far and I’ve just not had the time to spend a weekend there. I wish our candidate Maurice Golden all the best for a good result.
Of course with the greatest respect to all the candidates in Fife in what is a genuinely important by-election, the eyes of the world will not be on Glenrothes this week but rather across the Atlantic as the United States of America chooses a new President. I don’t of course have a vote, and my opinion rightly counts for nowt in a US election, but if I was given the opportunity to cast a ballot in today’s Presidential election it would be for Barack Obama.
I don’t believe you can transpose British politicians into the US system and I certainly don’t subscribe to the view that as the right-of-centre grouping in British politics Conservatives should find a natural home in the Republican Party. Indeed I find I have little in common with what seems from afar to be a pork-barrelling, big spending, socially conservative Republican Party. I would have preferred Kerry in 2004 and Gore in 2000 and I prefer Obama here in 2008.
Of course, the important thing from a British perspective is that our Government is able to working constructively with whoever gets sworn into the White House on inauguration day in January. I am sure that Britain will work well with either candidate - although Sarah Palin leaves me cold – but that won’t stop me raising a glass to Barack Obama if he can pull off a historic victory today.