Goff got a Labour-friendly debate and Key a National-friendly panel on tonight's TV3 leaders' debate. Given voters' low expectations of the Labour leader, it was his night as the worm ate him up with a spoon
For me, Goff won three of the four segments, but Key finished strongest; Goff won on policy, Key won on coalitions.That's my call on the TV3 debate this evening.
Analysis of Barack Obama's inauguration speech and its most memorable lines
As the sun rose in New Zealand, Barack Obama put his hand on Abraham Lincoln's bible and ushered in a new day in American politics. So what do we make of his beginning?
Barack Obama's audacity and hope is rewarded in the morning when he's finally sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Many worry about the pressure of expectation, but it might not be as overwhelming as they fear
In the lead up to tomorrow's inauguration, I've been re-reading some of my Barack Obama file, especially two stories in Time and the New Yorker that ran before he announced he would run for the presidency.
With the US President pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey while the President-elect gets to grip with the financial crisis, serious questions are being asked about who should actually be running the country
There’s a great sucking sound coming from south of the Canadian border. It is the result of the frightening power vacuum that now exists within the United States government.
The US election may be over but the politics rolls on with Sarah Palin sucking the oxygen out of the Republican Governor's Conference and Hilary Clinton playing cute over speculation she may be named Secretary of State.
It seems the American elections were held an age ago, so frantic is the post-vote agenda: From guessing who will be key in Obama’s Cabinet, through a convicted felon still in the recount for his Alaska Senate seat, to that state’s governor sucking all the oxygen out of the Republican Gov
Barack Obama won the US election thanks to young people, African-Americans, Hispanics... and the rich?
Last Tuesday’s election (ed: was it only last week?) witnessed a realignment of the American electorate, which, if it endures, could produce substantial changes in the country’s politics and policies over coming decades.
A quick, poetic word about yesterday's powerful uplift
There is so much to say, and no time to say it, so I wanted to at least offer readers a poem from Langston Hughes, penned during 1924 in a different America to the one we woke to this morning:
If Barack Obama can endure the pressure of expectation, he could bring us another Roosevelt moment. Plus: His acceptance speech
Follow our updates as the US election results come in
1.55pm: Thanks for joining us as we follow the final act in the longest, most expensive US presidential race in history. The first African-American president or a the oldest first-term president and the first woman vice-president. We were in the US when this race began, and the point to stress is that there are many Americas that have swung and changed as the months have gone by.
Obama's time has come, but that doesn't mean everyone is ready
When people ask me why it is such a huge deal that tomorrow the United States will elect its first non-white president, I tell them about my grandparents.
Obama's commandeering of prime time television pulled in 34 million viewers. The warning label should, however, read "only in America"
You will shocked, I'm sure, to learn that North America is obsessed with the United States election, and not New Zealand's battle of the 8th.
Glimpse the intensity of a campaign rally and the racism that still pervades too much of America
In five days Barack Obama hopes that after two years on the campaign trail Americans will vote to support his oft-articulated vision of change and hope. His remarkable infomercial that ran on US television last night ended with this live speech.
A quick and easy round-up of the state of play in the US election. See the state-by-state polls, read the writing on the wall
Thought I'd take you for a Friday afternoon tour of the US poll sites, because it's hard to believe what we're seeing in the presidential race. Even a month ago it looked tight. Today, it's merely a question of how much McCain will lose by.
Explain this to me: the African-American candidate is elitist because he is well-educated while the woman who spent $150,000 on a new wardrobe is one of us?
No matter how dirty the campaign may get in New Zealand in the final days, it is inconceivable to imagine the depths it would have to plumb to even scratch the scab of what America<
John McCain distances himself from the Bush years and champions Joe the Plumber, but he was too negative and too angry to ruffle a smooth Barak Obama.
The 800lb gorilla in the room finally got some attention, as US Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama sat down for their final debate in a campaign that seems to have gone on since Obama was in school shorts.
... And is Obama Batman? A little video fun ahead of today's final US presidential debate
The presidential debate season finally comes to an end tonight after 35 debates (and Helen and John complain about four or five!).
As the poll gap widens in the race for US President, the Republicans are showing signs of panic politics
There’s something very, very ugly happening in the United States at the moment. Yes,
McCain is tanking in the polls, so has to do the nigh-impossible in tonight's debate—get people to stop talking about the economy
In half an hour Barack Obama and John McCain meet in the second presidential debate. The pair square off in Nashville this time, in a debate moderated by veteran broadcaster Tom Brokaw.
Sarah Palin didn't crash and burn in the vice-presidential candidates debate, but then she didn't actually debate, opting instead for a recital of pre-scripted lines irrespective of the questions asked.
Governor Sarah Palin lives. She turned up to the Vice Presidential debate and did not spontaneously combust; nor was she forced to call for a life-line. Her best asset was the unbelievably low expectations that preceded her performance. She carried out the stop-loss that was required to stem the bleeding of her half of the McCain-Palin ticket.
The crazy world of arrows and tax exemptions that got the Senate to vote yes
I'm more than happy that the US Senate finally passed a bill to steady the ship of the US economy, but I've got to share this chestnut from Reuters with you.
How Joe Biden and Sarah Palin failed to debate each other as McCain gives up on Michigan
I've only seen a few highlights of the Vice Presidential debate at this stage, but it's interesting to note that most seem to be calling it for Joe Biden over Sarah Palin.
As the bail-out bill crashes and burns, Bush, Pelosi and McCain are the big losers politically.
It's almost impossible to believe that while Washington has over the last week resembled a group of large and suited Chicken Littles desperate to avoid the economic sky falling in, it may well be about to allow just that.
Having failed to save Wall St, John McCain turned up to the first Presidential debate, where he intended to be all along. Now his biggest worry could be his choice for V-P.
John McCain turned up to the first presidential debate in Mississippi - surprise, surprise. After all the histrionics and drama (is he the new Drama Queen, to match his running mate Beauty Queen?) of putting his campaign on ice to parachute in to Washington and save capitalism, McCain fronted.
As President Bush once again resorts to fear-mongering to push through a crisis policy, John McCain halts his campaign to sort out Wall St
If I heard correctly President George W. Bush appealed tonight to “my fellow citizens”. Surely I was mistaken…would “my fellow comrades” not be more appropriate? This is what Stalin was waiting for pre-Cold War. While 63 years late, capitalism is in the very meltdown that Stalin was banking on to deliver him the power to communize the world.
Dammit, Sarah Palin has as much charisma as Barack Obama
I love Obama unreservedly, much as I used to love San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (aka Mayor Hunky), which was before he schtupped his good friend's wife
