New York Times (November 26)
“Citizens voted overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates” in Hong Kong’s local election this Sunday. “If the Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping had thought that there was a silent majority opposed to the disruptive protests, the turnout and result made clear that a vast majority of Hong Kongers treasure their relative freedoms and have no intention of letting Beijing whittle them away.”
Tags: Candidates, China, Citizens, Election, Hong Kong, Leadership, Overwhelmingly, Pro-democracy, Protests, Turnout, Vote, Xi
Financial Times (November 24)
Britain might do better if it tried a page from the Athenians. “If, instead of a general election, Britain held an ostracism vote, there would be plenty of ballots bearing not only the prime minister’s name but those of other party leaders. We would be selecting the most unpopular individual rather than the most popular party—arguably a more precise method of improving the democratic landscape, given the potential for deterring bad leadership. Mr Johnson, take note.”
Tags: Athenians, Bad leadership, Ballots, Brexit, Democratic landscape, Election, Individual, Ostracism, Party, UK, Unpopular
The Guardian (November 3)
To top off Brexit uncertainties, there’s also the chance that a 25-year old could unseat Boris Johnson in the upcoming election. Labour’s Ali Milani “may not have Johnson’s recognition factor,” but “he is well known” and well-equipped to mobilise the crucial student vote. Johnson only won by 5,034 votes in 2017, “the smallest of any prime minister since 1924.” That means “Milani requires a swing of just over 5%” to win and displace the current Prime Minister.
Tags: Brexit, Election, Johnson, Labour, Milani, Mobilize, Recognition, Student vote, Uncertainties
Financial Times (June 25)
“The latest Brexit fantasy is the most absurd of all. Article 24 of the WTO’s underlying treaty is not a solution to no-deal.” If Boris Johnson wins the election, “he needs to have a plan ready to deal with the disappointment of his followers when it turns out they were sold policies under false pretences. A unilateral invocation of part of Article 24 is not a way out of the UK’s Brexit predicament. If Mr Johnson and his followers do not know that, they soon will.”
Tags: Absurd, Article 24, Brexit, Disappointment, Election, False pretences, Fantasy, Johnson, No-deal, Treaty. Solution, UK, WTO
The Economist (June 22)
Already “one in five Americans calls Texas or California home.” The behemoths are now “the biggest, brashest, most important states in the union, each equally convinced that it is the future.” But their vision is “heading in opposite directions, creating an experiment that reveals whether America works better as a low-tax, low-regulation place” or a “high-tax, highly regulated one.” Given Washington dysfunction, “the results will determine what sort of country America becomes almost as much as the victor of the next presidential election will.”
Tags: Biggest, Brashest, California, Dysfunction, Election, Experiment, Future, Regulation, Tax, Texas, U.S., Washington
Washington Post (June 18)
“The president’s lying is the only argument you need in a debate about Trump…. There is virtually no topic about which Trump hasn’t lied, often repeatedly. Immigration, trade, Iran, North Korea, health care — they all lead back to false and misleading claims.” For this reason, 500 days before the election, the Florida Sentinel became the first newspaper to make a 2020 presidential endorsement: “Not Donald Trump,” who the paper deemed a “unique and present danger” to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Tags: Constitution, Danger, Election, Endorsement, False, Florida Sentinel, Health care, Immigration, Iran, Lying, Misleading, Newspaper, North Korea, Trade, Trump
Los Angeles Times (June 18)
The President consistently “runs through the talking points about the economy or judges as quickly as possible so he can get to the really important topic: Donald Trump. The problem for Trump is that if the central question of the election is him he will lose because he is not popular.”
New York Times (April 23)
“We can wait to reject this appalling worst-president-ever in the next election. Impeachment would drive the whole country even further apart. The Republicans in the Senate would never go for it anyway. And by the time we staggered to the inevitable stalemate, it’d be well into 2020. Let’s just vote the sucker out.”
Tags: Appalling, Election, Impeachment, President, Reject, Republicans, Stalemate, Trump, Vote 2020, Worst
CNN (April 11)
“Investors will be in wait-and-watch mode until polling ends and India’s new leader is elected on May 23. Whoever wins, business is unlikely to get the kind of boost seen in the last five years…. Still, analysts expect India to remain open to global investors no matter who is at the helm. And the country’s huge market of 1.3 billion people may simply be too tempting to pass up.”
Bloomberg (April 10)
“India has so far been spared the kind of populist revolt that’s testing many rich Western democracies. It’s far from immune, however.” Whoever wins the upcoming election should “recognize that many of the conditions for a similar upheaval are in place — and that the best way to avoid it is to promote growth and opportunity through economic reform.”
Tags: Election, Growth, India, Populist revolt, Rich, Upheaval, Western democracies
