Bloomberg (October 19)
Donald Trump entered the third and final debate with Hillary Clinton “far behind in the polls — further than any candidate has been able to make up with this little time before the election. And then the Republican nominee lost the debate, as he lost the previous two.”
LA Times (October 18)
Donald Trump is famous for lashing out, but now he is also “targeting the very political system in which he is competing for the presidency. He is claiming that this election is ‘rigged’…. This is dangerous demagoguery, even for Trump.” A fundamental democratic principle is “respect for the outcome of elections even if your candidate isn’t the winner.”
Washington Post (August 26)
“To appreciate what’s at stake for the world in this year’s U.S. presidential election, it’s useful to visit a place such as Australia that has been one of our most faithful allies.” Laid back Australians are “mortified at what’s happening in American politics.” Only 11% support Trump (versus 77% for Clinton) and, “most amazing, in a country that has backed every U.S. military action for a century, 59 percent of Australians say their country shouldn’t join in U.S. military action if Trump is elected.”
New York Times (August 12)
“When Mr. Trump fans racist rage against the president, suggests that gun owners take up arms against Mrs. Clinton, or speaks darkly of a ‘rigged’ election, he is not trying to woo Republican skeptics, independents or undecided voters. He is appealing to the mob.”
Tags: Clinton, Election, Gun owners, Independents, Mob, Obama, Racist, Rage, Republicans, Rigged, Skeptics, Trump, Voters
The Economist (May 7)
“It is now clear that Republicans will be led into the presidential election by a candidate who said he would kill the families of terrorists, has encouraged violence by his supporters, has a weakness for wild conspiracy theories and subscribes to a set of protectionist and economically illiterate policies that are by turns fantastical and self-harming.” Somehow, Donald Trump now has a chance to win the presidency. “The result could be disastrous for the Republican Party and, more important, for America.”
Tags: Conspiracy, Disastrous, Donald Trump, Economically illiterate, Election, President, Protectionist, Republicans, Terrorists, U.S., Violence, Weakness
The Economist (April 2)
With rising anxiety, free trade has become “a touchstone issue in America’s presidential election.” Candidates across the spectrum are stepping back from free trade, if not outright attacking it. “Freer trade was one of the engines of the prosperous decades following the second world war, in America and beyond. Yet mainstream politicians are now not only afraid to champion it, they pour fuel on the fire. That is lamentable. Free trade still deserves full-throated support, even if greater care needs to be taken of those it hurts.”
Tags: Anxiety, Candidates, Champion, Election, Free trade, Lamentable, Support, U.S.
Institutional Investor (January 18)
The “Taiwan election results present a challenge for Beijing.” Not only is Tsai Ing-wen the first female elected president, but the election brought her party, the Democratic Progressive Party, ”its first legislative majority.” Moreover, Tsai “is a strong supporter of independence for the island, presenting a challenge for leadership in Beijing who prefer to designate Taiwan as a breakaway faction of mainland China.”
Tags: Beijing, Challenge, DPP, Election, First female, Independence, Majority, President, Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen
The Guardian (May 7)
Everyone “had predicted a dead heat” in the UK election. “If the exit survey is right, they weren’t even close.” The conservatives now appear to be running away with the election. “It’s fair to say no one was expecting that. Not the political parties, not the punditocracy and – least of all – the pollsters.”
Tags: Conservatives, Dead heat, Election, Exit survey, Parties, Pollsters, UK
New York Times (January 24)
Given the struggles of ordinary Greeks amid a still flailing economy, “the only surprise in the rise of the left-wing Syriza party, which is expected to come in first in Sunday’s general election, is that it has taken so long for an anti-austerity party to come to the fore.”
Bloomberg (December 29)
“The Greek parliament’s decision to trigger elections by rejecting Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s presidential candidate throws Europe back into turmoil. The European Union can avert a full-blown existential crisis, however, if it acknowledges that Greece’s economic pain is real and not entirely self-inflicted.”
