Liberal Vision

How LibDem strategy needs to change in the next 48 hours

So, how to marshal this support properly with barely 400 hours to go until polls close?

As Michael Crick has pointed out, even in seats where we have a good chance of winning (he highlights Bournemouth West), the party does not have the ability to spend up to its expenses limit of about nine grand.

 This sort of cash is, of course, chicken feed to the Belize baron who funds the Tories and Charlie Whelan’s trade union.

But perhaps we should counter this by seeking to direct Obama-style fivers and tenners directly to local grassroots campaigns.

My suggestion is this. On the “donate now” section of the party’s official website, we invite candidates in the 100 or so “long shot” seats to submit a photo, 20 word biog and 30 word pitch. We link this up to paypal and promise to use every penny in those seats to combat the Ashcroft/UNITE millions directly.

We need to link small donors directly with their preferred candidate. This may or may not be their local candidate – they might pick someone they particularly agree with on a policy area.

All the cash could be used to fund a first-week-of-May leaflet (or two) in each designated constituency. Running totals of what has been raised so far could be displayed directly under each Liberal PPC’s photo.

Not only might this allow us to start to compete with the warchests of the two old parties, it would also send a very clear message – the Liberal Democrats want the people, not vested interests, to decide things.

I dont think that this is a big ask. I am sure that the brilliant Mr Pack & co over in Cowley Street could sort this is a matter of hours. Get Nick to give it a bit of publicity and it just might actually make a difference to how well we convert this support to votes on May 6th. And, as stated it would definitely “send a message” about who we are.

 

 

Tags: Barack Obama, donations, LibDem strategy, Michael Crick, party funding

Freshman Obama

Barack Obama’s first year in office has not been a resounding success. In ‘The World Today‘, Chatham House’s superb monthly, Nicholas Bouchet rounds up Obama’s “First Year Blues”.

Let’s start at the opinion polls. Obama ranks midway between his two democratic predecessors. At similar stages of their presidencies Carter was at 56% and Clinton was at 49%. Obama comes in at 52%.

“More importantly… is the fall in his approval rating between January and November among independent voters from 62% to 50% and among Republicans from 41% to 18%.”

This bodes very unwell for the upcoming Congressional elections. The Obama administration is suffering a bad case of anti-incumbent malaise. His Nobel Peace prize has been divisive rather than an asset. Bouchet notes that the issues which have marked Obama’s first year have been “the economic stimulus, health care reform, cap-and-trade, the bank bailouts and the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.”

Who could forget the health care debacle? Anti-Obamacare campaigners were painted as individuals who “wanted poor people to die” – a grotesquely unfair and inaccurate criticism. Opposing Obama’s reforms did not entail supporting no reforms at all. In fact there was a widespread consensus that American health care was in a bad way. The debate should have been about how to reform health care and that debate was lost amidst partisan bickering. In the end it didn’t matter whether Obama was proposing a good health care bill or a bad one – they had to get it through, failing to do so would have meant an emasculated administration.

So is it a good bill?! No, not really… Obamacare still means that 32 million Americans (of the original, and misleading, figure of 47 million) will stay uncovered.

And what of the biggest crisis his Administration faces? Bouchet notes “Obama’s ratings were lowest on his handling of the economy and the deficit.” Indeed, the stimulus was ill-thought-out, money was injected into the economy with little thought to how it would actually be spent. It was reckless and it hasn’t helped enormously. “Another potential consequence of Obama becoming a victim of his first-year image” is the hurt Democrats may suffer in the state-level elections where 36 governorships will be at stake. Bouchets rates the chances of Obama losing control of the Senate as unlikely but the ‘supermajority’ the Democrats currently enjoy is at risk.

What does the future hold? Well, Clinton survived a poor first term, Carter didn’t. Although Obama is down but not out, Bouchet likens conditions more to Carter’s 1970s than Clinton’s 1990s. A two term presidency is still Obama’s to lose. Whether or not Obama can reinvigorate his election sparkle in the countdown to the midterms will be telling.

Tags: Barack Obama

Obama’s fiery boxer shorts and suspected bow ties

“Never trust a man who wears a bow tie”–so advised Father H to a young Julian H.  Not sure why; maybe he forgot that I was a boy, a boy who likes girls.

Anyway…

….Barack Obama doesn’t wear a bow tie, but he bloody well should.

During his campaign he promised that the public would have five days to look online at new Bills before he signed them off. Last month it was reported that this was a great fat lie. He’s signing off all kinds of stuff without posting it online at all.

And today, of course, we have this little matter of a complete u-turn on the publication of photos showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

“Politicians just get elected then break all their promises bla bla bla”.

Well yes, actually, they do.

Now click here to look at more bad paintings of Barack Obama.

Tags: Barack Obama, lies, politicians