Category: Everything Political

(No-one has transcribed it? Really?)
Key’s victory speech was poorly delivered and a bit rubbish, but it was also gracious and thoughtful. Using his victory speech to talk at length – at great length! – about his admiration for Helen Clark was astonishing. Pledging to represent all New Zealanders, whether they voted for him or not, was an approach clearly lifted from Obama but positive nonetheless. And making a public outreach to the Maori Party was another un-needed but appreciated move.
There were two moments in his speech that won enormous cheers from the room: “Our collective success rests on the success of individuals”, he said, and “It will be a government that values individual achievement.” These are clear signals of the ethos inside National. There is a lot of meaning in those statements, a lot of politics, clearly understood by those in the room without having to be unpacked. Key has come in with a clear agenda, and it is the same as that of the 90s-era Nat government, the members of which still fill his caucus.
The only restraint is that the voters have not given a mandate for a return to the 90s; as Gordon Campbell suggested, the mandate given John Key is “be not-Helen”. Massive reform should erode voter support, and fast. Many inside the Nats are eager to get on with their 90s-era project while they have their hands on the tiller. Expect big battles inside the National party as the ideologues take on the pragmatists.

Of course, the NZ election has its own Obama:
Mr Key told a crowd of about 100 supporters and passers-by it was important they mobilised as many people as possible to vote for National on Saturday. “Last night America voted for change. On Saturday, we’ve got to get New Zealand to vote for change.”
Like Obama, Mr Key is a white right-wing millionaire businessman. He also shares Obama’s renowned oratorical gifts:
One Labour supporter repeatedly asked Mr Key to “tell the truth” about the changes National would make to the Employment Relations Act.
Eventually Mr Key’s frustration boiled over.
“The truth is you’re an idiot,” he yelled back.
John Key: Keepin’ It Classy Like A PM Oughta

By Patrick Moberg. Via Liam, who found it at ComicBookResources.

The Alligator just phoned me. He said “I wanted to be the first American to tell you that we finally did something right.”
This is a good day. (Even though the call cut off right after he said that. And he just called again and it died again.)
The USA’s long national nightmare of peace and prosperity may be about to return!
(Now, with a black man heading for the White House, they better get started on a comprehensive meteor plan. Hollywood has given us the warning, people!)

AM HAVING AN ANXIETY ATTACK OVER THIS ELECTION.HOW CAN THEY GIVE STATES TO OBAMA WHEN SOME STATES ARE STILL VOTING.MAKES ME PHYSICALLY ILL,WE WILL BE DOOMED.
Have a nice day, Fox News commenters!
Fu*k all you dems and liberals. I pray that you die a horrible horrible death. You deserve it. You should not be called americans. YOu don’t deserve the AMERICAN air you breathe. You will get what youdeserve
Your rage fills me with joy!
Just think, if not this year, we will have Sarah Palin in 2012.
*dies laughing*

As stories come in from the U.S. polling places, I am reminded of one of the most ridiculous aspects of the U.S. political system: its archaic and difficult voting system. I continue to believe that the single most important change that can be made to the U.S. democracy is to sort out these structures. Consider just a few things that come to mind right now:
* you need to register to vote. Most countries don’t do this – if you’re a citizen, that’s all the registration you need. Sure, if your records aren’t up to date then there’s a bit of extra paperwork and the election staff will glare at you, but your vote will still be welcomed and counted. Not so in the U.S., where you need to go through a registration process. This, apart from being a barrier to participation, also opens the door to the kind of Republican shenanigans we’ve seen the last few elections, with voter registrations being strategically challenged and blocked. There’s simply no good argument for voter registration as a separate process, and as long as it remains then participatory democracy is weakened in the U.S.
* Election day is Tuesday. That is, of course, a day when the vast majority of people have to work. Sensible countries schedule their elections for weekend days, for obvious reasons. Apart from everything else, scheduling on a weekday puts barriers in the way of vulnerable low-wage workers who don’t have much autonomy over their work schedule, either because of their particular work arrangements or because they can’t afford to take a few hours off.
* Voting takes too long. Some details from reader accounts on the front page of Salon’s War Room blog as I write: “…the line at my polling place at 7:30 this morning… snaked around a parking lot and down the street and around the corner. The hour and a half I spent in line…” (St. Louis, Missouri); “My wife, daughter and I arrived at the polls about 6:40am, 20 minutes before they opened, and the line was already out to the road from the HS gym. We only have one polling location in town and it becomes a logistical nightmare. After we voted and were driving home the backup to get to the HS was already a mile long and cars were turning around and giving up. In a town of at least 12,000 registered voters, probably more, we desperately need more than one polling location.” (Londonderry, New Hampshire) Again, these are huge barriers to participation.
* Voting machines: from the archaic devices and poorly designed ballots that gave us the hanging chad debacle in 2000, to the Republican-connected Diebold voting machines that don’t give a paper trail, through a report on CNN (that I read an hour ago and can’t find now) that votes on one machine were being switched from Dem to Rep and vice versa – this is, frankly, embarrassing. Ruth’s post the other day, “My favourite thing about New Zealand elections is that you vote with a fat orange felt pen, a clear sign of a serious democracy at work”, takes on another meaning – a fat orange felt pen can’t screw up your vote for you.
There’s more, of course, this is just off the top of my head and not even as a citizen of the U.S. And none of this is old news. In fact, I just discovered Wikipedia has a big article on exactly this set of issues. Change is urgently needed. It will take grassroots pressure, top-down resources, skilled systems designers and leadership, but it must be done and perhaps under Obama the political will that has been lacking in the past will finally be there. Otherwise, the U.S. will continue to elect its presidents under a cloud of confusion and corruption.

I’m going to leave milk and cookies out for the U.S. electorate for when they shimmy down the chimney to leave Obama under the tree.
***
I’m wearing my Obama badge today, and I’m checking CNN.com, which I only ever do when there’s an election in the U.S. And I can’t forget how I was feeling this time four years ago:
November 2, 2004
9:53 PM: I’m not nervous about the winner. I’m confident it’s Kerry. I’m nervous that somehow or other Bush and his sickening puppeteers will find a way to walk away with their heads held high. I don’t just want them to lose – I want them and their entire mad project to be humiliated.
11:24 AM: Aargh.
***
*crosses fingers, again*

The accolades for this Greens billboard keep coming, with a best-of-week award from international ad-industry site BestAds. Judge Alan Russell of ad agency DDB Canada gave the Greens billboard the “best outdoor” nod, saying “First Choice goes to Green Party. It’s so damn simple I ask myself, as with all the best work, why didn’t someone think of that before? Few words, striking photography, emotional appeal, clever, yep it’s got my vote.”.

I’ve also been impressed with the visual design of this one-sheet, released with a major policy announcement that the Greens would favour a coalition partnership with the Labour party rather than the National party. This is an amazing piece of communication, condensing huge amounts of information into a small space and giving the reader great tools to unlock the content; it is comprehensible at a glance and also rewards detailed study. This is a really difficult task and they’ve absolutely nailed it – I wonder if the same team who did the billboards are behind this? The Greens have really lifted their game this cycle, and while it would be foolish to say the Greens are riding a wave of support due to their snappy design, it surely isn’t hurting them and is making it impossible to dismiss them as amateur idealists who don’t know what they’re doing – which has been, in the past, a surprisingly tenacious criticism.