The decision by USA Republican Senator Arlen Specter to switch to the Democrats is a huge fillip for President Obama, and indeed for everyone who was worried that legislation that could be crucial to the futures of all of us relating to climate change, the economy or other important international matters might be stalled by Republican [...]

I have been a big fan of Obama since before the first contests the Democrat’s nomination in Iowa and New Hampshire. I am not suggesting I predicted he would triumph, but I closely followed the fascinating contests, quietly hoping that would be the outcome – (maybe not so quietly for people who had to suffer [...]

A belated contest for a House of Representatives Congressional seat in the USA has delivered a result against the trend.  A Republican challenger with no political experience defeating a Democrat incumbent with decades of experience in the current electoral climate is significant in itself.  In addition, the winner is someone who came to the US [...]

Barack Obama’s extensive use of the internet and other social media during his campaign has been well canvassed – although no doubt there are plenty more studies still to be done on this. As he makes the shift from candidate to President, attention is now focusing on some of the ways he might use the internet [...]

Back in August, I noted Ms Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim woman of Palistinian descent, had just won the primary contest to be the Democratic nominee for a Detroit based state seat.  In the elections held this week, she won that seat, polling 90 per cent to the Republican candidate’s 10 per cent, and in the [...]

The provision in the US Constitution prohibiting a person from being President unless they are “natural born” sits strangely for a country who’s economic and political might owes so much to immigration.  Presumably it made sense when the US Constitution was adopted in 1787, but it is simply unjust now.* This provision obviously means no [...]

Given some of the other toxic lines of attack that have been used during the US election, perhaps it is a blessing of sorts that the immigration debate has barely featured in the campaign. If immigration had become the hot-button issue it looked like being twelve months ago, the campaign could have been even uglier [...]

The DemConWatch website is a US blog which has provided a wealth of information on the Presidential campaign, focusing initially on the Democrat nomination and since then on the Presidential and Congressional contests. It is run by partisan Democrats, and doesn’t hide its bias in that sense, but it none the less provides solid, well [...]

The Supreme Court of Connecticut has ruled that it is unconstitutional in that state to deny same sex couples the right to marry, making it the third state in the USA, after Massachusetts and California, to provide equal recognition for same sex relationships.  All of those states are now more advanced than anywhere in Australia when [...]

The US Presidential election campaign has been going on for what seems like an eternity.  In many ways the US election result could more impact on the future of Australians than the Australian election result, so I suppose its good they give voters lots of time to think about it.  Polling day is now less [...]