Tag: General Election

Iran And Elections

As long as we are speaking of elections……

While the country, the US, was laser focused on the primaries and the media speculating who and what would happen afterwards and onward……Iran had an election and it could be good news for the rest of the world….

It looks like the moderates are winning big time….that could seriously limit the influence of the hardliners…..

Though all the details are still emerging, the results of the Iranian parliamentary election were released by the Interior Ministry today, and showed a strong shift in composition toward the reformist wing, giving the supporters of President Hassan Rouhani a plurality

The split sees 85 reformist MPs, and 73 members of the moderate conservative camp, meaning the two factions combine for a majority, even without further possible gains in some districts during runoff votes. These factions both supported the nuclear deal, and are broadly supportive of international rapprochement.

The big losers are the ultraconservatives, the hardliners,  who had over 100 seats in the parliament last time, but are down to just 68. Turnout was 62 percent nationwide, according to the Interior Ministry.

The election also saw voting for the Assembly of Experts, a body which is responsible for selecting the next Supreme Leader. Though the experts aren’t split up by political alliance, they too appeared to be heavily moderates and reformists.

Another positive note for the Iranian election was that more women than ever have won……

Estimates based on the latest results show that as many as 20 women are likely to enter the 290-seat legislature known as the Majlis, the most ever. The previous record was set nearly 20 years ago during the fifth parliament after the 1979 revolution, when 14 women held seats. There are nine women in the current Iranian parliament.

Eight of the women elected this time were on a reformist-backed list of 30 candidates standing in the Tehran constituency known as “the list of hope”.

(the guardian.com)

Now with this election what will the scenarios for the region look like?  Could this be a positive sign?  Or will it be just more of the same rhetoric?

I found a piece written by a very good Iranian-American journalist, Hooman Majd……..

Iranians want a lot of things. What they don’t want is to be told that their vote doesn’t count or that it doesn’t matter.

Source: How much change do Iranians really want? – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Personally, I think this is a positive thing…..that the Iranians would move closer to the rest of the world and work with it in solving problems……it is too early to say for sure….but it does look like a promising change, at least to me……

The hardliners have been beaten by the reformists and the moderates…..that could be a positive thing for international relations…..but what if anything does this defeat mean……

Two important nationwide elections were held in Iran on Feb. 26. One was for the Majlis, or parliament, while the second was for the Assembly of Experts, a constitutional body that appoints the supreme leader and can, at least theoretically, fire him. To be sure, the elections were neither democratic nor fair. Thousands of candidates were disqualified from running by the Guardian Council, another constitutional body that vets all candidates for elections. The elections are also not fair because the hard-liners, who control many important national organs, use the nation’s resources for their own campaign and propaganda.

Source: What the Defeat of Iran’s Hard-Liners Means

This will be an interesting situation to observe……well at least for me…..

Truth In Advertising–Part 2

I recently wrote a post about the campaign ads and how they were choked full of lies, half truths and exaggerations….and why we as a country cannot make these cowards tell the truth in their ads for election….after all they are selling a service…the service of representation….

Across the pond…in the UK…they have the right stuff when it comes to these ads….

A candidate named Phil Woolas was suspended and his election was nullified for lying in election campaign stuff….

Woolas – who was Immigration Minister under Gordon Brown – was found guilty by two High Court judges of breaking election law by knowingly making false statements about an opponent.

He accused Lib Dem candidate Elwyn Watkins in a pamphlet and two mock newspapers of pandering to Islamic extremists. His campaign team was said to have set out to “make the white folk angry”.

Now here is a great idea…..my Brit friends I salute you and your country’s election laws….

Labor And November

A friend sent me this blog post, it is from a blog entitled ’08 Elections:

Autoworkers are fighting two enemies at once: the companies themselves who are closing plants and slashing wages and benefits, and a far right Republican government whose anti-worker and free trade agenda greases the wheel for companies to move production out of the country.

“We have the flexibility to source all of our business to other locations around the world and we have the right to do so” said American Axle CEO Dick Dauch. Work for what I say or I’ll give your job to someone else he said. He did just that forcing huge concessions on the union.

Labor needs a Democratic landslide in the November elections – a landslide that sends a message to the next President and Congress that relief for working people is needed and a landslide that will give working people the leverage to stop and reverse the corporate attack.

And if the auto companies won’t operate the plants, let’s nationalize them! Couldn’t these skilled, disciplined, highly productive workers build trains, buses, fuel efficient cars, or in some way greatly contribute to the rebuilding of our country’s infrastructure?

The Dems would be much more preferrable than the Repubs, as far as labor goes, but I do not see anything changing for labor after the November election.  Labor will work hard and probably help get Obama elected and then we will return to the days of yore.  Labor will not even get a kiss after the f*cking!

Now Can The Change Begin?

We now have our presumnptive Repub and Dem nominees.  One is called a maverick, but yet he voted with Bush 95% of the time and the other in a fresh new face that may not be corrupted by the system in Washington, yet.  Both promise to bring change in one form or another, but is this a new thing, a new ideal for government?  Hell no!  Candidates have been promising that since the beginning of this experiment.

Carter in 1976 was all about change–a snooze at best.  Bush, both of them were all about change…ROFLMAO!  It is a common theme if you want to be elected…promise something new and different and once elected you play the game as is.

Now the question is will either of the two candidates really bring change?  Look at the Repub–do not think there is much change in that platform.  Now the Dem–the biggest question mark is this candidate.  He does not have enough record to judge accurately….but that could be something in his favor…I have said for months now that the only way to judge him if elected is his choice for VP…that IMO, will be the most telling thing.

Just remember:  CHANGE is just a word….it is often used…but seldom delivered!

Clinton-Obama Bitterness Lingers

A Democratic race that a couple of months ago was celebrated as a march toward history — the chance to nominate the nation’s first woman or African American as a major-party candidate — threatens to leave lingering bitterness, especially among Clinton supporters, whose candidate is running out of ways to win.

Some women complain that Clinton has been disrespected and mistreated by the media and the political establishment. Many see Obama as equally condescending, dismissing Clinton’s foreign policy role as first lady, pulling out her chair for her at debates and suggesting offhand during one debate that she was “likable enough.”

With equal ire, many African Americans complain about Clinton’s negativity and have accused her camp of using Obama’s race against him. Her comment that his “support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again” was just the latest in a series of over-the-line comments, some said.

And many among the legions of young voters who have flocked to Obama say their enthusiasm is more about him than about the Democratic Party and it would not necessarily transfer to Clinton if she won the nomination. In Indiana, about six in 10 Obama voters under age 30 said they will be dissatisfied if Clinton is the nominee and about half said the same in North Carolina, according to exit polls.

Nationally, about a quarter of Clinton supporters in a Washington Post–ABC News poll said that if she loses they will ditch the Democratic Party and Obama for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). A similar number of Obama backers said they will pick the Republican this fall if Clinton becomes the nominee. In both Indiana and North Carolina, majorities of African American voters said they will be unhappy if Clinton is at the top of the ticket.

Acutely aware of these dynamics, the campaigns have sought to balance tactics against tact, so that the rift between the two Democrats — and their backers — doesn’t grow so wide that the winner can’t pull the party back together. Since the May 6 contests in Indiana and North Carolina, Obama has tried to ease much of the animosity by turning his attention to McCain, highlighting differences with Clinton only in response to voters or the news media. Clinton has also shifted some of her strategy, running positive ads in West Virginia rather than the negative ones she aired in previous states.

Once a nominee has been chosen and the ticket is settled, that is when all the question will be answered.  But personally, I feel that regardless which candidate gets the nob, the supporters of the losing one will either switch to McCain or will just stay home in November.

Arguments Of Clinton

She has done a lot and said a lot trying to convince voters that she has the chance to win the nomination.  She and her handlers have come up with a new math; they have even said the vote count in Puerto Rico will help.  Delegates will help but the people of PR are not citizens and they cannot vote in the general.  They have even changed the number of delegates one needs to secure the nomination, 2025, but the Clintons keep saying 2209.

But best argument is that she can carry the swing states, like Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, et al.  She taunts her overwhelming win in WV as the key, but will it translate into a win in the Fall?  Doubtful!  Yes, Bill won in ’92 & ’96, but that does not mean that she will do so in ’08.  She has however, pledged to carry all the swing states in the general……..thinking……is that a guarantee?  If so what will be her penalty for not honoring the guarantee, if she does not carry the swing states?

Personally, I do not think she will win the nomination, no matter how much much she and that irritating Terry MacCauliffe want it to be so.  But you have to give Hillary her props for cajones.

Will Women Support Obama?

This is a great question.  In the past primary contests these voters have broken for Hillary, at least older white women, who are very loyal Democratic voters in the past.  But will they vote for Obama?  Is the question that some of us are asking.  Some pundits are saying that if Clinton is not the nominee then this bloc of voters will not vote for Obama or they will just not vote.

IMO, they will support the Democratic nominee, but to solidify that support the DNC needs to begin NOW to start the process of securing their support.  The best way to do that is to use McCain’s most recent speech on judges against him.  He basically said that if he was president he would appoint judges that were opposed to Roe v Wade.

The DNC, if they pause slightly, will lose probably about 50% of the women vote.  I realize that they are trying to straighten out the crap flying around the Party, but they need to find the time to concentrate of women and their issues, if they want their votes.  And if they want the presidency, they need to remove head from butt and begin the process now!