Kieran Lawrence looks at autonomous weapons and the effect they could have on modern warfare
Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
Ben Bland examines the fallout from the Iowa caucuses and looks forward to the New Hampshire primaries.
In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
Last Tuesday the Democrats, the party of President Barack Obama, were given a solid drumming in the US Mid-term elections. The defeat has been seen as the biggest indicator yet of the slow stagnation of the Obama Presidency. It came two years of his controversial legislative programme which included healthcare reform and economic stimulus. This, along with the stubbornness of the unemployment rates which refuse to stop hovering around ten percent, Obama’s popularity simmers in the low forties with favourability ratings rarely venturing outside of single figure negatives.
While the Presidential Elections in the United States garner much more attention around the world, these elections are still vital to the direction of American democracy as they decide control of the legislative bodies of House of Representatives and the Senate. To put it crudely the House of Representatives is like more similar to the House of Commons with 435 members tied to population and is elected every two years in order to have a constantly gauge on the popular will. To continue this crude comparison the Senate resembles the House of Lords in that it is a more august and reflective body.
The sixty four seat swings in favour of the Republicans in the House of Representatives gave them control of the House and thus now have enough votes to control the budget and legislation. The much maligned Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has been replaced by John Boehner. While Boehner is often mocked by comedians for his deep David Dickenson-esque tan, his rags to riches story is far more notable. However, just because Boehner worked his way up from working as a janitor one shouldn’t mistake him for a man fighting for the poor and the needy. The Republican Pledge to America which Boehner released several weeks ago in preparation for his inevitable march into power sets out to extend George W. Bush’s tax cut for the rich and aims to repeal Obama’s historic health care reform which extended coverage to millions of Americans. Boehner’s working class credentials may be impeccable but it is hard to forget the fact that before a vote on repealing subsidies for tobacco production, an industry that kills thousands of Americans a year, he had the audacity to hand out cheques to Congressmen from tobacco lobbyists actually on the floor of Congress.
Despite having a lobbyist for lung cancer in the position of Speaker of the House the night could have been worse for the Democrats. They retained control of the Senate and at least salvaged some dignity by defeating Christine O’Donnell, the libertarian Tea Party’s candidate for Delaware. Her bizarre statements from the past have been dragged up, one condemning masturbation and another admitting to “dabbling in witchcraft” which turned her campaign into something of a farce. Her defeat was one of the few Tea Party defeats that soured what was a massive advance for them. Sharron Angle failed to unseat Democrat Harry Reid in Nevada and the homophobic Carl Palidino lost in New York, but the victory of famous Tea Partier Rand Paul, son of principled libertarian Congressman Ron Paul, is more typical of the results.
In light of all this, is it fair to say all is lost for Obama and the Democrats? Not necessarily. The 2012 election is still very much up for grabs. Bill Clinton’s loss of both Houses of Congress in his first term in his first term has frequently been cited as an example of a successful two term Presidency that was carried out with the opposing party in control of the legislature. To see the real deciding factor in America’s political future, we should again look to the Clinton era and his slogan: “It’s the Economy, Stupid”. If Obama and the Republicans cooperate they will end up fighting for the credit or blame for the state of the economy. However if the new status quo ends in deadlock, which is a very possible outcome, Obama will be able to claim that any failures are due to their inaction and prevent a rehabilitation of the Republican political brand, which despite these wins has yet to fully recover from the Presidency of George W. Bush.
The next few weeks will set the tone for American politics for the next two years and ultimately decide who will take the position of the world’s most powerful man in 2012.
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