Charles Richardson
Psephologist and writer
Charles Richardson has contributed to Crikey since 2002, and was a ministerial adviser in the Kennett government and a former editorial manager at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.
Bad news keeps on coming in for the Republican party, as evidence suggests that the formative experiences of people's youth continue to affect their political views throughout their lives.
Israeli PM Netanyahu agreed to talk, but he gave no hint of the shape of a political settlement he might be willing to accept. Still he's the best hope for peace.
Why do the major political parties put so much effort into a process that they have essentially no influence over?
Just as America's Republican Party is desperately searching for a more marketable identity, comes a reminder of its conflicted legacy with the death of Jack Kemp.
The problem in Somalia hasn't been a lack of engagement: it's been engagement on the wrong side.
South Africa faces major challenges, and they can can only be surmounted by the emergence of a strong opposition.
The chance of an American president allowing the domestic prosecution of his predecessors for war crimes is essentially zero. American politics just doesn't work that way.
Just as piracy is returning to our consciousness with the events off the coast of Somalia, quite different groups of people are being tagged with the same label.
In a process will run for another month, voting begins today in India, the world's largest democracy.
It's hardly surprising that the policy of sanctions against Cuba has been a failure; indeed, it's hard to point to any cases where sanctions have succeeded.
