Democrat Barack Obama accused rival Hillary Rodham Clinton of trying to “play on people’s fears to scare up votes” with a television ad showing sleeping children and asking who would be more qualified on security.
Obama Says Clinton Ad Plays on Fears
And on the Brian Lehrer Show, Stephanie Robinson talks about the emerging role of race in the presidential race.
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Mayor Michael Bloomberg has squashed the notion of running for president this year, declaring that he will not seek the White House but might put his support behind another candidate who embraces bipartisan governing.
NY Times: I’m Not Running for President, but …
Bloomberg: I’m Not Running for President
John McCain mocked Barack Obama’s view of al-Qaida in Iraq, and the Democratic contender responded that GOP policies brought the terrorist group there.
McCain, Obama Tilt Over al-Qaida in Iraq
In Bhutan, apparently, this is not a question the party spokespeople want to answer. Spokespeople for the DPT (the initials short for a phrase in the Bhutanese language) and the PDP (the People’s Democratic Party) sat down with our class for a training session on covering the parties. The parties are downplaying the differences between their party manifestos. The problems are the same, they say, so the manifestos will be similar. (I seem to find a whole lot more differences than they profess to) So different from U.S. elections, where, in the primaries at least, every difference is as wide as a chasm. (Think about the debate between the Clinton and Obama health care plans. The argument over mandates represents a significant philosophical difference, but when compared to the current system, there are many similarities between the two plans. Can you imagine Clinton saying “there really are no major differences in our plans, because we both have examined the same problem?” )
One party is (mildly) claiming the mantle of change (versus experience). This reference is not lost on the Bhutanese journalists, who have been carefully and critically watching the U.S. presidential contest on the internet and the international news stations. But still…how will the Bhutanese people chose? This is the challenge the reporters face: how to help voters make choices when the parties themselves seem reluctant to do so
The Democrats Abroad, a group sanctioned by the national party, has confounded delegate counters, graphic artists and political journalists since it awarded Clinton 1.5 delegates from its global primary last week. How do you explain that Clinton has 1,276.5 delegates?
Clinton Adds a Half Delegate
Listen to the February 26, 2008 Ohio Democratic Debate from CNBC
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Barack Obama has taken clear leads over Hillary Rodham Clinton among white men, middle-income earners and liberals a national poll showed Monday.
AP Poll: Obama Catches Clinton
McCain Says He Could Lose Over War
Don’t Be Quick to Count Out a Clinton
Plus, Brian Lehrer discusses the similarities between Deval Patrick’s campaign for Governor of Mass and Barack Obama’s campaign for president.
Give Hope a second chance?
“Would you like a little more time? Raise your hand if you would like ten more minutes.” No hands were raised. For an hour or so the students, Michael and I had been reading through the Bhutanese party manifestos, writing sample articles comparing the parties’ positions on various issues. “Raise your hands if you’re ready to stop.” No hands were raised.
“Okay, let’s practice democracy. Please raise your hands if you’d like ten more minutes.” Ten hands maybe. “Raise your hands if you’d like to stop” None. About a third of the students had participated, but I went with it. We took a little more time.
For the first time this week, the huge task before us really hit home. People WILL vote — the king has asked them to. But this is not a society that has any tradition of voting, not even to the level of a show of hands.
Later, as I went around the room as small groups of students read their stories to each other, one read his, detailing the party’s positions on gender parity. The story was nicely composed, with one exception. The last paragraph of the story read “The key difference between the DPT and the PDP on gender parity is….” Move that to the top, I suggested. A voter who cares about gender parity will want to know that. That voter needs to make a choice, and needs to have some basis for that choice.
Choose, please. Raise your hands.
Today, we began the training (because of the time difference, we were actually going head to head with the Oscars). We were overwhelmed by the response — twenty journalists were supposed to show up, forty three came. One drove “two-days journey” — she actually did in 15 hours by driving through until 3 am over the national highway, the road that hairpins through the Himalayas. Some of the journalists were brand new, but all took their craft amazingly seriously. We were a bit worried that we’d have to draw them out, needlessly so, it turned out. This was a group keenly aware of the history that is taking place in Bhutan, and in the important role they’ll have in shaping it. The sessions were long, but their attention hardly flagged.
We were questioned about everything from maintaining objectivity to how to handle accusations that black magic would be used in a campaign. But mostly, the input and the analysis was consistently thoughtful. In a discussion of ethics, we talked about the ABC reporters who won a Polk award for a series they did by posing as tourists in Myanmar. Was it ethical? Yes, they said, because the people of Myanmar wanted the story out — only the junta did not.
Not much time for tourism today, though we were able to walk through the town of Thimpu, which was bustling at 5 pm with children and workers on their way home. Even as a construction zone (the town is preparing for the coronation of the 28-year old fifth King of Bhutan, an event that will be roughly simultaneous with the seating of the country’s parliament in April) the town was beautiful. And unusal for a Southeast Asian or South Asian city, beggar and tourist free.
Ralph Nader is launching a third-party campaign for president. He made the announcement on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He says none of the presidential contenders are addressing ways to stem corporate crime and Pentagon waste and promote labor rights.
Nader Announces Another Presidential Bid
Hillary Clinton angrily accused her Democratic rival Saturday of deliberately misrepresenting her positions on NAFTA and health care in mass mailings to voters.
Clinton Furious Over Obama’s Mailings
Today we drove up to Dochula pass, the first on the national highway — a road that is not quite one lane in each direction, with constant hairpin turns. This is the main road that goes from one side of the country to the other — a distance not much different from crossing the state of New York. It takes two days of driving to get to the other side of Bhutan. Here, everything is measured in “day’s journeys” Two days journeys to the east by bus. One from the south, to get your vegetables to market. One day’s walk. Some towns are so remote, election machines had to be helicoptered in. The weekly paper Kuensel has already been sending reporters out on the muddy trails with the candidates. The literal campaign trail. As we drove up to the pass today, I saw many houses far from roads, reachable only by trails and stairs. Supplies are carried in by back. This is a common way of living here. Campaigning in the U.S. seems hard, but how would our election have been different if Barack Obama and John McCain had had to walk eight hours — none of it horizontal — to meet the voters?
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