US Election Blog | The Spectator

A surprise choice

, 06 Jan 2009 10:30:32 GMT

The appointment of Leon Panetta to run the CIA in the Obama administration has sent shock waves through the US intelligence community.

Panetta, who was Chief of Staff in the Clinton White House, is a budget hawk who in the past has argued for tougher control of intelligence spending. At the same time, he has been a fierce critic of the CIA’s campaign of kidnapping, assassination, torture and warrantless wiretapping, which was authorized under the Bush administration.

For decades, the CIA has fiercely resisted outsiders being imposed on its clandestine and

Things worth reading

, 05 Jan 2009 20:50:06 GMT

The economic crisis is so bad that it is often easy to forget that the foreign policy challenges that so dominated the news a year or so ago have not gone away. The mission in Afghanistan will present General Petraeus with an even tougher challenge than Iraq, Iran’s nuclear ambitions will have to be confronted or accepted sometime soon, this year we will find out what happens in China when the economy stumbles, Russia still seems intent on reasserting its dominance in its near abroad and there is—of course—the problems in the

Obama's double-play on taxes

, 05 Jan 2009 20:13:51 GMT

The first order of business for the incoming Obama administration is going to be a stimulus package. With Obama’s vacation over and the President-elect moving from Chicago to DC, the details of the plan are beginning to become clearer. The Wall Street Journal reports that the administration will urge Congress to make 40 per cent of the stimulus, expected to weigh in at $775 billion, tax cuts. As it notes:

“The Obama tax-cut proposals, if enacted, could pack more punch in two years than either of President George W. Bush's tax

A first bit of bother for President-elect Obama as Richardson withdraws

, 04 Jan 2009 23:55:52 GMT

Until today the transition had gone pretty much perfectly for Obama. His appointments were impressive and warmly received, his poll numbers have risen to record levels and the scandal about Governor Blagojevich allegedly trying to sell off Obama’s Senate seat has not hurt Obama or any of his staff. But today the transition hit a bump in the road: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had to withdraw from consideration to be Commerce Secretary. It was decided that a grand jury investigation into allegations of corruption in the awarding of state contracts

How Labour might spin a second bail-out

, 03 Jan 2009 14:45:37 GMT

A second bank bailout would, as Pete noted earlier, be a hinge moment in British politics. Anthony Wells has shown that Labour’s fortunes began to recover because people believed that Brown and Darling’s rescue plan for the banks would work. If the government have to go back and have a second crack at it that will surely undermine public confidence in its ability to handle the crisis and in its future pronouncements.

But I suspect that Labour think they have a way to spin it. Congressional Democrats plan to have

What's wrong with political dynasties

, 02 Jan 2009 17:04:43 GMT

It now seems that Governor Paterson probably is going to appoint Caroline Kennedy to the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton. The odd thing about her mini-campaign, if you can call it that, is how unnatural she has been. She has been much less assured and appealing than she was when she stumped for Obama.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan, in her own inimitable style, explains why being born to it might be why Caroline has proven to be such a poor advocate for herself so far

“People who've seen

The survivors

, 01 Jan 2009 19:19:24 GMT

The Clintons might not be going back to the White House, but they're still standing.

I'll leave you to insert your own joke about how the Clinton campaign dropped the ball.

A Senate solution?

, 31 Dec 2008 16:49:48 GMT

Finding replacement Senators for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is hardly going smoothly. In Illinois, the indicted Blagojevich’s pick of Roland Burris, an African-American and the former Attorney-General of the state, was clearly designed to start a racial kerfuffle. Note how Bobby Rush, the former Black Panther who defeated Obama in a House primary in 2000, immediately started playing the race card. It will be at least slightly awkward for a Senate that contains no African-American members to refuse to seat a black gentleman from Illinois.

In New York, the process hasn’t

Blagojevich won’t go quietly

, 30 Dec 2008 19:08:18 GMT

The embarrassment that is Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor who has been accused of trying to effectively auction off Obama’s Senate seat, isn’t going away for Illinois, the Democrats or Obama. Rather than resigning in shame following Patrick Fitzgerald’s devastating press conference, Blagojevich has tried to brazen it out.

Today, he is set to name a replacement for Obama, 71 year old former Illinois Attorney-General Roland Burris. If seated, Burris would be the only black senator—Blagojevich presumably thinks that this factor would force the Senate to seat him despite Blagojevich appointing