U.S. Elections 2008 / IPS Inter Press Service

2008
    Feb. 5 - "Super Duper Tuesday" - Primaries in more than 20 states
    Aug. 25-28 - Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado
    Sep. 1-4 - Republican National Convention, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
    Nov. 4 - Election Day

2009
    Jan. 20 - Inauguration of the 44th President

POLITICS-US: Anti-Obama Echo Chamber in Full Swing
By Bill Berkowitz*
OAKLAND, California - Right-wing groups are stepping up their campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with two new books on the best-seller lists, another on the verge of publication, and a full-length documentary that will premiere during the party conventions later this month.
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POLITICS-US: One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush -- a staunch contractor supporter -- is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus.
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POLITICS: U.S. Debates Putin’s Ambitions
Analysis by Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON - Just days after the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia, the debate in Washington over how to view the crisis historically has become nearly as contentious as the debate over how to respond politically.
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POLITICS-US: No Traction in the Middle East
Analysis by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - More than five years after invading Iraq as a first step towards "transforming" the Middle East, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush seems to have lost its footing -- let alone its unquestioned domination -- throughout the region.
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POLITICS-US: Marketing Obama to Evangelicals
By Bill Berkowitz
OAKLAND, California - For the past three decades, the religious right has dominated the religio- political dialogue in the United States. The right’s growth, and its agenda -- which revolved around so-called traditional family values issues including, but not limited to, opposition to abortion and full equality for gays and lesbians -- was pursued on two tracks: they built multi-million dollar political and media enterprises, and they made themselves an indispensable force within the Republican Party.
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POLITICS-US: Faith in a Time of War
By Mark Weisenmiller
TAMPA, Florida - From Republican contender John McCain's Jul. 25 meeting with the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colorado to Democratic candidate Barack Obama's visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall the same day, the intersection of religion, politics and the "war on terror" has been a recurrent theme in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
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BOOKS-US: A Path Out of the Wilderness
By Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - Helena Cobban's new book, "Re-Engage! America and the World After Bush", is not aimed at a target audience of officials, policy wonks and Washington elite think-tank types. So much is clear from a tagline running across the bottom of the cover: "An informed citizen's guide."
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POLITICS: Will U.S. Soften Stance on Nuclear Arsenal?
By Paul Weinberg
TORONTO - A rollercoaster ride of spurned treaties, efforts to fund new weapons and the expansion of potential targets for nuclear strikes under the George W. Bush administration to include Iran and North Korea may be drawing to a close after eight years.
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POLITICS-US: Voter Laws Need Reform, Groups Say
By Haider Rizvi
NEW YORK - One of her sons is serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq while another who has just turned 18 is about to join the Navy. Yet despite being a mother of two U.S. soldiers, Annette McWashington Pruitt cannot cast her ballot in the upcoming presidential polls because the laws in her home state of Alabama do not allow ex-felons to participate in elections.
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POLITICS-US: My Big, Fat Geek Voter Drive
By Enrique Gili
SAN DIEGO, California - Few events elicit the passion evident at the International Comic Con convention, as fanboys and gals descended upon San Diego over the weekend, braving long lines to marvel at the latest creations of their long-standing heroes.
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MIDEAST: In Israel, Obama Looks to Votes Back Home
Analysis by Peter Hirschberg
JERUSALEM - Lighting a remembrance flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Speaking against the backdrop of a pile of empty rocket casings in the southern town of Sderot. Standing solemnly, face close to the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
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EUROPE: Germans Love Obama – For Now
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN - The extraordinary enthusiasm with which Germans greeted U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama in Berlin Thursday may have concealed a fear: once the presidency of George W. Bush ends, Germans might be forced to close ranks with the U.S. and go back to playing the role of military junior partner of a superpower at war.
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POLITICS-US: Latino Voters Heavily Favour Obama
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is preferred by a nearly a three-to-one margin over his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, among Latinos who are registered to vote, according to a major new poll released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Centre.
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US/IRAQ: McCain Knee-Capped by Al-Maliki
Analysis by Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - This weekend's surprise endorsement by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Sen. Barack Obama's call for U.S. combat forces to leave Iraq by mid-2010 marks a serious setback to Sen. John McCain, who has tried hard to depict his Democratic rival as "naïve" on foreign policy, especially with respect to Iraq.
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POLITICS-US: McCain Gets Religion
By Bill Berkowitz*
OAKLAND, California - Over the course of the past few months, Senator John McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, accepted and then rejected the endorsements of the controversial pastors Rod Parsley and John Hagee, after media reports about Parsley's vitriol toward Islam and Hagee's views that the Holocaust was part of God's biblical plan for the Jews to move to Israel.
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POLITICS-US: Doves Outnumber Hawks in Jewish Community
By Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON - A new poll suggests that U.S. Jews hold views about the Middle East that are considerably more dovish than frequently acknowledged, with large majorities favouring diplomacy with Iran, supporting a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine, and advocating U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
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Q&A: "Iran Won't Wait for Obama to Talk to U.S."
Interview with Hooshang Amirahmadi, President of the American Iranian Council
NEW YORK - Despite opposition from some hardline factions in Iran, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has responded positively to a proposal by the United States that it open a U.S. Interests Section in Tehran -- its first formal diplomatic presence since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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It's been dubbed the "billion-dollar election" for the stupendous amount of money candidates are throwing at U.S. voters before they hit the polls on Nov. 4, 2008. At stake are not just the presidency and the future of U.S. policy in Iraq and the Middle East, but every seat in the 435-member House of Representatives and 34 seats in the now deadlocked 100-member Senate. With John McCain the anointed Republican candidate, and on the Democratic side Barack Obama the first-ever African American presidential candidate, regardless of who wins, the campaign marks the closing chapter of George W. Bush's controversial eight-year tenure as the president who took his country to war and pushed executive powers to the limit.