Will merely moving ‘forward’ be enough for the American people?

With just over three weeks to go, we’ve got ourselves a ball game. President Obama’s bizarrely listless performance in last week’s debate has served as the fillip the Romney campaign sorely needed, and has led polls to indicate a Presidential race that is now too close to call. Vice President Joe Biden came out fighting in Thursday’s debate with Republican rival Paul Ryan, but while that may rouse the troops once more it is unlikely to change the face of an increasingly close election.

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Why its unlikely it will ever be Mitt Romney’s job to “worry about those people”

Mitt Romney: D’oh.

Yesterday saw the release of a video from a behind-closed-doors Romney speech to wealthy campaign donors. In it, the Republican nominee for President of the United States explains his belief that 47% of Americans “believe that they are victims” and claims “my job is not to worry about those people”. Dismissing half the population may seem an unconventional electoral strategy, but in truth it is in keeping with what has been a disastrous period for a beleaguered campaign.

With any hopes of a post-convention bounce lost amidst the bizarre nature of Clint Eastwood’s ‘speech’ and the more impressive Democratic gathering, Romney’s campaign is beginning to resemble a squandered opportunity for Republicans. The economy continues to struggle, many Democrats are disillusioned with the last 4 years, independent voters are receptive to an alternative and President Obama no longer seems able to inspire the masses as he did in 2008. Yet, amidst the recent in-fighting, weak polling and struggle to re-launch the campaign, any message that may have resonated with vital swing voters seems to have been lost.

Le Pen party can still spoil Hollande’s golden moment

At the Salle Equinox in Paris last night, supporters and activists of Marine Le Pen danced the night away to 1980s pop music. On the playlist was, reportedly, Lionel Ritchie’s hit ‘All Night Long’. All night Front National activists might well have continued. With around 18% of the vote (18.05% Le Point/17.9% Le Figaro), Mme Le Pen has produced the shock result of the first-round in the French presidential elections, surpassing even her father’s record from 2002 in which he gained some 16.86% of the vote.

Incest and the Right to Family Life: A Political Conundrum

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The recent case in Germany of Patrick Stuebing and Susan Karolewski’s incestuous relationship has just come to an eruptive end with their fight lost in the European Court of Human Rights, but what are the political implications of this? Stuebing and Karolewski are biologically brother and sister but were never socialised as such and grew up apart with Stuebing being adopted and only rediscovering his biological family at the age of 18.

Stuebing has already served a prison sentence for this incestuous relationship but nothing deters them and ethically should it? How would any of us feel at being told we could not be with the one we love, would we fight? Love is a tricky topic as it means different things to different people but what we all know is that it is not chosen. It is rarely based on logic or reason and that is the sole reason it is valued so highly. It is one of the few commodities that cannot be bought, sold or exchanged but in cases like these, it can be forced into submission.

Why healthcare could prove to be Obama’s insurance policy

Not that I mean to boast or anything, but this particular writer is fortunate (or brilliant, whichever you prefer) enough to have been accepted onto a study abroad scheme to spend the next academic year in New York.

Inflated ego aside, this has allowed me the pleasure of spending my morning off browsing health insurance options from US providers. What is immediately striking is just how complicated it all seems, and how bizarre it is for a UK citizen so fond of the NHS to have to think about such matters.

Health insurance is currently top of my agenda, and it seems Barack Obama is intent on moving it up the agenda of the US electorate as well.