President-Elect Obama

Barack Hussain Obama - the soon to be 44th President of the United States of America. It was an incredible night of drama an emotion, even from the Hen Ferchetan's living room thousands of miles away.

It was all over as soon as Ohio was called for the Democrat but nobody in our house dared call it until Virginia came in a few minutes before 4am Wales time. Waiting for California to put Obama over the edge was then a mere formality, followed by telephone calls to jubilant friends and family in the States.

It's incredible that states like Virginia and (probably) North Carolina found themselves in the Blue column. Even more incredible is Indiana, where Obama turned a 20% defeat in for Kerry in 2004 to a 0.9% victory. Yes demographics have changed all over the US in the past 4 years,but that remains a HUGE swing.

Both McCain and Obama's speeches were of the highest quality. McCain returned to the humble man of 2000, the candidate many people wanted him to be again this year. Obama has a lot of pressure on him now. He's promised Change, he's promised unity, he's promised to remake America brick by brick. Will he be able to live up to the hype? We'll wait and see.

Obama Wins!

Two US towns have declared their results for the presidential elections. In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire 40 years of Republican rule has ended after the townspeople voted for Obama by 15 votes to 6.

In the other town to traditionally open and close voting early - Hart's Location - Obama's 17 votes beat McCain's 10. With Ron Paul winning two votes the town was able to declare 100% turnout and an Obama victory!

Other US towns, Cities and Precincts are so slow compared to those two bustling towns and won't start reporting results until at least 11pm our time!

Barack Jones

The new Barack Obama advert has actors playing the part of McCain's campaign staff in a strategy meeting.



Reminds you a lot of Plaid Cymru's hugely successful Party Political Broadcasts last year (before you ask, my definition of a "hugely successful" PPB in Welsh politics is very very low, all that a PPB requires to reach that level is that I can just about remember what happened in them - that "We know what's best for Wales" line still chills my bones!)



Who knew the next President of the USA was such a buff of Welsh politics!

Hat Tip: Vaughan

Gutter Politics

I thought that petty politics was rife in Wales, but clearly it's a thousand times worse in the USA! Democratic candidate Barack Obama said in a speech yesterday that McCain's adoption of Obama's "Change" motto was just "putting lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig" when you remember that the Republicans have been running Washington for 8 years.

McCain's campaign have now launched an ad, picked up by the American media of course, accusing Obama of sexism and of calling Republican vice President candidate Palin a pig! And if that wasn't an absurd enough claim on it's own, it's made even more foolish after the Democrats responded by flagging up a YouTube clip of McCain 9 months ago calling Hillary Clinton's health plan "putting lipstick on a pig"!

With intellectual debates like this you'd think America was choosing a class clown not a President.

American Dream

Republican Mitt Romney speaking at their convention in St Paul:

"We need change all right -- change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington...It’s time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother

Yes we all get the clever twisting of Obama's "Change" slogan but...um... did Romney just call Bush and his friends "liberal"? And who is he calling the party of Big Brother, apparently not the Republican party and their Patriot Act!

It's bizarre stuff, it's like the Republicans have decided to pretend that they haven't been in power for eight years and hope no-one remembers!