Introducing Reuters Elections: our new home for all things 2012
Welcome to Reuters Election 2012, our new hub for the latest political news, analysis, and opinion. With the same commitment to accuracy you’re used to, coupled with the conviction that the exchange of arguments and opinion is a vital component of political coverage, our goal is to build an online resource to help you make sense of the issues and decide which candidates win your votes.
Conceived of and executed by Jim Impoco on the editorial side and Alex Leo on the product side, the page has a number of features new to Reuters.com.
In addition to spotlighting the great homegrown work of our own journalists, we’ll be scouring the web and linking to the best news and commentary about the U.S. elections from around the globe. We’ll also be aggregating the most interesting tweets, and our Polititude widget will measure social sentiment about each presidential hopeful — powered by WiseWindow, a company that analyzes and interprets chatter on social media platforms across the web, rather than merely searching for keywords — to capture each candidate’s social favorability at any given moment.
We’ve revived Tales from the Trail, our erstwhile election-time blog, and started a new video blog, Political Theater, where we’re amassing the most compelling videos from the campaign.
There are individual pages for each candidate, including some of the less-mainstream contenders, so you can dive deeper into their biographies, backgrounds, campaign finances, and stances.
And coming soon we’ll be launching issue pages dedicated to the central issues of this election, as well as a map featuring states with important upcoming races and ballot initiatives. For comic relief, we will soon introduce Political Punchlines, another new feature that tracks which candidates are inspiring the best jokes on our favorite late-night comedy shows.
For the latest updates, sign up for our daily newsletter, follow us on Twitter @ReutersPolitics, and like us on Facebook. Start things off by checking out our coverage of the Reuters Washington Summit, today through Wednesday, where we’re interviewing Sen. Dick Durbin, DCCC Chair Steve Israel, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Tom Coburn, among many others.
An Obama baby boom?
WASHINGTON – What did you do on election night?
The youth and enthusiasm of President-elect Barack Obama’s supporters in the wake of his historic election could lead to a baby boom if the feelings last.
Hope and euphoria “are a serious aphrodisiac,” Newsweek magazine says in its Nov. 24 issue, citing interviews with experts, supporters and, admittedly, anecdotal evidence.
An Obama baby boom would hardly be the first tied to a big news event. Upward blips in the birth rate have followed many events, both happy and sad, such as the September 11 attacks or the end of World War Two.
The online Urban Dictionary has added the entry “Obama Baby” — “A child conceived after Obama was proclaimed President by way of celebratory sex, or any baby born under Barack Obama’s term(s).”
The key, says Florida State University demographer Woody Carlson, is whether or not this catches on.
“If it’s just a moment of excitement and then everybody goes back to being depressed, then we may see a tiny birth spike. But if it continues, then the birth rate next August (nine months from now) could be the start of something big.”
Like all countries, the U.S. has a “demographic heartbeat,” an annual cycle in the birth rate anyway. The February low is always 50 or 60 thousand births less than the August high, year after year. But 2009 may see an unusually low point in February, nine months after the heart of our 2008 financial meltdown, and an unusually high point in August if there are “Obama babies” on the way. Look for a birth total in August 2009 over 400 thousand for evidence that this is more than just impressionistic speculation!
Inside the Tent: Ron Silver talks about terrorism
Director and actor Ron Silver talks about his support for the Bush administration’s response to the attacks of Sept. 11 in New York and Washington and why the issue of terrorism remains important to him now. This video was shot by Inside the Tent contributor John Steward.
Reuters Inside the Tent equipped more than 40 delegates and other attendees in St. Paul and the Democratic National Convention last week in Denver with video cameras to capture the conventions from the ground up. Steward is not an employee of Reuters, and any views expressed are his own.
Click here for a full list of contributors.
Click here for more Inside the Tent blogs.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 election coverage.
Inside the Tent: Rally for the Republic
Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul drew thousands of supporters to his “Rally for the Republic” event this week in Minneapolis, across the river from the mainstream Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Jennifer Riley from North Dakota, who attended the rally and the Republican convention, talks about the differences between the two gatherings, and the emerging struggle between the “classic conservatives” and “neo-conservatives.” This video was shot by Inside the Tent contributor Ginny Saville, who is a Ron Paul supporter.
Reuters Inside the Tent equipped more than 40 delegates and other attendees in St. Paul and the Democratic National Convention last week in Denver with video cameras to capture the conventions from the ground up. Saville is not an employee of Reuters, and any views expressed are her own.
Click here for a full list of contributors.
Click here for more Inside the Tent blogs.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 election coverage.
Faith on full display at Republican convention
ST. PAUL – Faith was on full display at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night with prayers from a pastor and tunes belted out by a Christian pop star.
Miles McPherson, a senior pastor of The Rock Church in San Diego and former professional football player, evoked patriotism and faith while leading the convention in prayer:
“Thank-you God for always being there for us. And thank you for making America the greatest country in the world. We pray these things in Jesus’ name,” he said to warm cheers from the crowd.
Such overt displays of religion, politics and nationalism would be almost unheard of in many European countries but are common in America, especially with Republican crowds.
The invocation was given by a former U.S. Air Force chaplain while Christian singer Rachael Lampa sang her songs “When I Fall” and “Blessed” on a night dedicated to the theme of “service.”
In brief remarks broadcast from the White House, President George W. Bush said: “I am optimistic because I have faith in freedom’s power to lift up all of God’s children and lead this world to a future of peace.”
Police, protesters clash near convention
ST. PAUL – Police in riot gear used pepper spray and smoke bombs against a few hundred violent protesters on Monday, and at least a dozen were arrested outside the arena where the Republican party opened its presidential convention.
In the video above, a police officer lobs a smoke bomb in the direction of the camera.
Officers on horseback, motorcycles and bicycles chased down a group of rock- and bottle-throwing protesters that had broken off from a larger, largely peaceful, march by as many as 10,000 people. The smaller group smashed police car windows and a Macy’s storefront, and a few threw glass bottles at police.
In the video above, police march down Kellogg Avenue in St Paul.
A Reuters reporter saw police handcuffing some of the protesters in a parking lot not far from the convention.
The demonstrators earlier had marched from the Minnesota state capitol to the heavily barricaded Xcel Center, where John McCain will accept the Republican presidential nomination later this week. They chanted anti-war slogans and waved signs criticizing President George W. Bush.
Public safety officials put the crowd at 8,000 to 10,000 and reported seven arrests.
Were was the violence? I only saw smoke bomb flung at a camera man, some flares with police marching towards what looked like a calm gathering. I think we need more pictures and videos before we start using adjectives like “violent” etc.. Not what I expected from Reuters.
Greek gods, a birthday billboard and other Denver nuggets
And the Obama campaign thought their biggest worry was getting the right mix of substance and style in tonight’s big speech. Not so much.
The task now seems to be either: a) recapturing the attention of 15,000 journalists busy Googling the difference between Doric and Ionic columns, or b) attacking McCain’s lack of global experience because his campaign is mixing up the Romans and Greeks. Someone should have put a primer on Classical Architecture and History in the DNC convention guide.
The controversy of course is the unveiling of preparations for Obama’s speech at Denver’s massive football stadium, Invesco Field, which has been transformed into what the McCain campaign has called “The Temple of Obama.”
A stage featuring huge plywood columns painted off-white to look like marble has been set up at the 50-yard line of Invesco Field, and Obama is expected to stride out from between the columns to address some 75,000 supporters — all choreographed for a massive prime-time American television audience.
If the clean white columns were supposed to evoke Washington’s Capitol building or even the White House — some generic presidential-like setting — they have instead sparked a (Roman?) fountain of jokes about Greek Gods and Roman ruins.
A snarky memo from the McCain campaign betrayed the difficulty critics have when faced with such a juicy target — deciding on a single funny nickname for the venue seems as hard as picking a vice presidential nominee that won’t offend the Republican base.
“Today, workers at Invesco Field are putting the final touches on the newest wonder of the modern political world — The Temple of Obama (“The Barackopolis”),” Deputy Communications Director Brian Rogers noted in an e-mail to “interested parties”.
In the end, the Greek columns contributed to a homey feeling with Biden and Obama’s family in the foreground. It looked like they were retiring into the White House that they’re aspiring for.
Ever the writer, Obama took hands-on role in preparing big speech
DENVER – Democrat Barack Obama spent long hours crafting the speech in which he will make history by formally accepting his party’s presidential nomination.
The White House contender looked to past nominee acceptance speeches for ideas, including those of Bill Clinton in 1992, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and John F. Kennedy in 1960, according to Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod.
Obama worked largely by himself on the first draft, writing it out long-hand on legal pads and then typing it into a computer for review by his top aides.
Obama, the first black presidential nominee of a major U.S. party, will speak before 75,000 people at the huge Invesco football stadium in Denver. His speech coincides with the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The Illinois senator, who is running neck-and-neck with Republican John McCain, will lay out his vision for change in his speech and also hopes to tie in his life story as the son of a single-mother to the struggles faced by ordinary Americans.
But Obama, known for his lofty rhetoric, may also show a scrappier side to himself in going after McCain more aggressively, in a nod to some Democrats who feel that up to now his attacks have been too tepid.
“I think he’s going to make a case about the choices people face. I mean he’s said he’ll make a respectful argument but I don’t think he’ll shy away from making those contrasts where there appropriate,” Axelrod told reporters as the candidate traveled to Denver on Wednesday.
He’ll do well…I just hope America watches and open their minds and hearts a bit.
Obama|Biden 08
Kerry takes convention stage again, rips McCain
DENVER – John Kerry, the failed 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, took the stage at this year’s party convention on Wednesday to praise Illinois Sen. Barack Obama – whose career he helped launch — and lambaste John McCain.
Kerry, who said he had been friends with McCain for nearly 22 years, used tough words to criticize the Arizona senator’s evolution from a maverick legislator to a presidential candidate.
“Before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself,” Kerry said, listing what he described as McCain’s shifts on tax cuts, immigration, and climate change.
“Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding?” Kerry said. “Talk about being for it before you’re against it!”
The last line was a send-up of a gaffe Kerry himself made about being in favor of funding for the Iraq war before he was against it.
Many felt the line, which Republicans used to mock him, helped cost the Massachusetts senator the election four years ago.
Kerry gave a big boost to Obama’s career by giving the then-state senator a prime-time speaking role at the ’04 convention.
The whole quote is:
“Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Sen. McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Sen. McCain’s own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you’re against it.”
You tell ‘em Kerry! Now if only the news channels would do their job and air these speeches without talking over them, then the American people could make an informed decision this time around!!
Somebody please buy this candidate a coffeemaker
SEDONA, Arizona – Taking a few days off from the presidential race, Sen. John McCain nonetheless keeps the media on its toes with a daily, early morning trip for coffee.
The Republican presidential candidate, who is staying at his comfortable home in the hills near Sedona, has been driven with staff, Secret Service, reporters, photographer and a television crew in tow to a Starbucks.
There, he quickly gets a cup to go and returns home.
On Friday, the six-vehicle motorcade — four SUVS and two vans– drove him 19 miles roundtrip to a Starbucks in Sedona.
On Thursday, the entourage of nine vehicles made a similar trip to a Starbucks in Cottonwood and back.
Members of the media are kept well away, confined inside the two vans, where they occupy themselves determining what McCain ordered, whether Cindy McCain’s shorts were white or khaki, how much fuel the trips consumed or why the candidate doesn’t just send an aide out for the coffee instead.
For the record, on Thursday McCain had a cappuccino. Mrs. McCain’s shorts were khaki on Friday. The questions of fuel consumption and why an aide doesn’t fetch the coffee remained unanswered.
Well,
I’m sure most of you who “don’t use a motorcade and guards to go to the store” are also not the subject of a Presidential bid or quasi-celebrity status either and don’t need protection from people who would like to shoot a potential President as well. If you don’t like that he has to use all that protection and vehicles, don’t subscribe to B.S. news like this. The fact that this kind of reporting has drawn a crowd, is the reason why all the accommodations are necessary. Just quit paying attention to this kind of reporting and he will at least be able to save the vans that reporters like this one ride in daily!
I am an admitted political junkie so this is great and I look forward to viewing the same balanced and robust reporting that I have come to expect from Reuters. If it meets my expectations I will bookmark it and use it as my first choice in the field of oh so many options on where to go for the best of the best news – but – if it spins too liberal I’ll go back to Fox. Hoping it will be one stop shopping for me.