Mitt Romney has turned in another underwhelming performance in the Republican primaries, somehow managing to come third in contests in both Alabama and Mississippi.
Politics / The World / United States
How much do Americans understand about the national debate?
They seem to wander, confused and Forrest Grump-like, through a dark corridor of misunderstanding. Do American voters, Alexander Burns asks, have even a basic grasp of important political debates?
Maley: an end to the rising yuan?
Is China about to put an end to the yuan’s rise? That’s the speculation among foreign exchange traders after China reported a $31.5 billion trade deficit in February.
Santorum downplays chance of success as Southern primaries loom
Going ‘into Newt’s backyard’ and competing against Mitt Romney, fresh from Super Tuesday wins, Rick Santorum has attempted to lower the bar of expectations ahead of primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, reports John Hoefell.
Political tensions worsen after US soldier kills Afghan civilians
Crikey media wrap: A US sergeant on deployment in Afghanistan went on a civilian killing spree in a remote village in southern Afghanistan, murdering 16 people — including nine children.
Maley: stimulating the economy without filling the tank
The US central bank is grappling with the thorny problem of how to apply an extra monetary stimulus to the US economy before the upcoming presidential election.
Why Santorum had a point about Obama’s call for college education
Rick Santorum sounded sheepish when he called Obama a “snob” for saying he wanted everybody to go to college. Santorum may have mangled the message but buried beneath the gaffe was a legitimate point, writes Rick Perlstein.
Morgan face-to-face: 52-48 to Coalition
Morgan’s latest face-to-face poll, conducted last weekend from a sample of 878, shows no change in two-party support, reports William Bowe.
Why Jed Bartlet still rules: the Sorkinisation of politics
The West Wing faded from television screens (DVD box sets aside) some six years ago. But the figure of fake Democratic president Jed Bartlet still looms large over US politics, writes Juli Weiner.
US primaries an arms race between states
In the wake of Super Tuesday, what does the gruelling primaries process tell us about the Republican Party and the state of democracy in America?
GOP candidates bluster and strut, as thoughts go back to Selma
“We should not be looking across the world for new dragons to fight.” Pint-sized, a perfect miniature, congressman Dennis Kucinich (Koo-sin-ich) is on his feet in a coffee shop, Lorain. It’s (Saturday), and Kucinich is nearing the end of a month-long campaign that once again sees him fighting for his political life. The crowd are […]
American Presidential politics: the Israel-Iran factor
If American politics seem particularly bizarre in this current micro-era of extreme polarisation, one is jolted from idle smugness by remembering what’s at stake, writes W H Chong.
Sabu a snitch: Anonymous leader revealed as FBI informant
‘Sabu’, former leader of online hacking group Anonymous, has been revealed as an FBI informant who has helped the feds round up his former comrades, reports Adrian Chen.
Super Tuesday results
Crikey live blog: Mitt Romney has won Ohio in a neck-and-neck battle with Rick Santorum. It adds to his tally of Massachusetts, Virginia and Vermont, while Santorum picks up North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Rundle12: America, more Jersey Shore than Ron Paul
Officially, America is quixotic, tilting at windmills; in its underbelly it is Sancho Panza, fat, lazy and looking for the nearest haystack to sleep behind.
Netanyahu: Israel will remain ‘master of its fate’
Barack Obama and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu sought to present a united front during White House discussions but revealed different approaches to the Iranian nuclear threat, reports Jeffrey Heller and Matt Spetalnick.
Rundle12: Cleveland on Xanax with a dose of Limbaugh absurdity
We come in over Cleveland, and I noticed that somewhere in the suburbs, they’d built a scale replica of a city … hang on. It was the damn city itself.
Guy Rundle: Rundle12: what looks like a culture war is really an existence war
Conservatives initially believed themselves to be on a winner with the issue, and have only recently started to realise that it may be a disaster for them.
Sensational headline on cholesterol lowering drugs is too risky
Balancing potential benefits and risks is a challenge for doctors and patients: these can be literally life-and-death decisions, writes Stephen MacMahon, the James Martin professor of medicine, University of Oxford.
Buying a chunk of Occupy
Occupy protestors are hungry and plenty struggle to make ends meet. Now is a ripe time for the latest cashed-up group to attempt to patronise the OWS movement, writes Jeff Smith.
The GOP’s secret weapon: Benjamin Netanyahu
Despite an American political climate being pushed into the wild extremities of the right, conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan still maintains the ability to shock readers, writes W H Chong.
Think Kevin & Julia are bad? Imagine if Romney was front runner
Romney, my God. The anti-candidate. As a GOP candidate, all he had to do was turn up to the NASCAR event and shovel down dogs. Instead, he said: “I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners.”
Why drug legalisation in Central America is a good idea (in theory)
Supporters of drug legalisation quite rationally advocate its potential benefits in Central America. The major problem however is widely overlooked: the lack of public security needed to make legalisation work, writes Ralph Espach.
