Most of the coverage in the UK of American elections in the last couple of days has focused on Hillary Clinton’s latest primary victory and then John Edwards’s endorsement of Barack Obama.
However, also of significance is the special election (by-election) win chalked up by the Democrats in a formerly solidly Republican Mississipi congressional seat. George W Bush carried the district with more than 60% of the vote in 2004, but in this week’s election Democrat Travis Childers won through. This makes it three special election victories for the Democrats in a month – all in strongly Republican areas – and suggests that far from struggling to hold on to their dramatic gains from the 2006 elections, they are poised to make even more gains this autumn.
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4 Comments
It’s worth noting, I think, that the views expressed by Mr. Childers during the campaign would not sit out of place among his Republican colleagues – he is conservative on all the push-button issues (abortion rights, gun control and so on). So the result shows the willingness of a normally Republican area to vote Democrat, which is interesting in itself; but there is no great shift towards more liberal opinions.
Furthermore, why do Lib Dems in the UK cling to view that the Democrats are somehow “their” party. It may make them feel better about their fortunes in the UK to know that they are formidable force in the land of the free, but as a Lib Dem member for over 10 years I would rather cut off my hands than vote for a Democrat candidate.
I think it’s simply a case of the least worse of 2 evils… but even that is dubious
I agree with both the above – lots of things about Barack Obama are pretty appealing, but it’s also worth remembering that he advocates building a 200 mile wall to separate US soil from Mexico. Be careful what you wish for, etc.