US revision: American Cabinet
One of the modern features of American cabinets is its role in reaching out to the people and representing the diversity evident in the USA. Here are some notes on Obama’s.
read more...»Post AS: A2 American delivery
Here are details of an idea about getting something interesting and productive done once students come back after the AS exams. If you are one of the lucky institutions that doesn’t welcome back students after AS exams are over, then this could work equally well as a bit of summer homework.
read more...»Obama and Cuba
The possibility of the USA formally softening its stance with the Caribbean island raises some interesting questions in terms of international relations.
read more...»More on guns
Self defence, anyone?
If your eyes glaze over when reading more about the intricate detail of Westminster sleaze, read this instead. You don’t have to be a US Politics student to find America’s relationship with the gun fascinating.
Paris, parties and partisanship
Many students write that American parties are catch-all or umbrella organisations
US elections revision
I’ve come across this useful primer from the New York Times on the race for the presidency
The West Wing way in
How one of this blogger’s favourite TV shows may help with revision
Obama: first and last
President Obama’s appearance on the Jay Leno show did not quite turn out as he hoped.
Gordomania?
There’s a short report in the Evening Standard tonight about Gordon Brown giving his stamp of authority to proposals the Labour Party is considering which are designed to usher in a new era of party politics. With party membership in long term decline (although there has been a slight blip upwards for the Tories since David Cameron became leader) parties are considering new ways of connecting to supporters who may help out with campaigning.
Larry Sabato
I attended an absolutely excellent lecture last night by Larry Sabato, Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia.
read more...»Obama the politician?
I wrote in a previous article that an American politician once said that campaigns were in poetry and government was in prose. This is a theme picked up in the Guardian:
‘You campaign in poetry, but you must govern in prose. That favoured phrase of New York’s former governor Mario Cuomo now applies with even more force to another progressive Democrat. Soaring rhetoric and a moving memoir combined to create the Barack Obama phenomenon and lift him from obscurity to the heights of the White House. Once installed, however, his main concern has been gritty negotiations over the minutiae of an economic recovery package. After protracted haggling, Congress has all but signed off on his fiscal stimulus plan, and yet the prosaic work remains far from complete.’
Read more of this neat editorial piece on the expectations gap here
First past the post
The new edition of first past the post, tutor2u’s digital Politics magazine, has been posted on the site.
Given the importance of the recent American elections, there is a bit of a US slant, but there are great articles covering UK politics, the EU, UK issues, as well as political ideologies.
read more...»What now for the GOP?
I have penned an article for the forthcoming of first past the post, tutor2u’s digital Politics magazine, on the future of the Republican Party. There has been, as is often the case when parties lose elections, some navel gazing going on at the heart of the GOP. Essentially the party seems torn between deciding that it has been too conservative, while others believe it is not conservative enough.
In the short term the party seems determined to focus resolutely on tax cuts and government spending. In my article I write that this alone will not be enough to restore the party’s credibility. Anyway, an article by Paul Harris in today’s Observer picks up on some of the latest developments in the world of the GOP.
read more...»Obama’s first weekly address
On YouTube
Electing the president
One might be inclined to think that after one of the most exciting elections in living memory, which ended with an historic outcome, that electoral reform campaigners in the USA would have lost heart.
Not so. Check out the Presidential Elections Reform Program of the FairVote website, which carries a host of useful stuff on reform of the primaries and the electoral college—the latter is particularly helpful if you are trying to dress up what can be quite a dry topic.
First past the post looks at the 2008 election
The new edition of first past the post, tutor2u’s digital magazine, has just been posted on the website.
There a number of excellent articles in it on a host of topical areas: the UK police force, multiculturalism, the US Supreme Court, the impact of Boris Johnson as London Mayor, a comparative analysis of the representativeness of the UK and US legislatures, the effect of the economic downturn on UK political parties, and look at the ‘what ifs’ of the US election.
I have also written one looking at the outcome of the 2008 presidential election. This topic will inevitably crop up on the American papers of whatever syllabus you are following in the upcoming months.
read more...»Obama’s Cabinet roundup
It’s getting to that time of year when this blogger starts looking for material for the end of term Politics quiz. This year big prizes are on offer: Supreme Court gavel pencils, diaries, Obama stickers (yahoo!). So I thought I’d do a quick scan to see who Obama’s latest Cabinet pickes were.
This page on the New York Times site does a good overview of the new - and potential - team.
It’s a shame that Arnie seems to have disappeared from the reckoning, but at least there is a ripple of excitement to be had in consdireing the exotically named Cassandra Quin Butts.
Where now for the Republicans?
There was an excellent documentary at the weekend on the possibly declining influence of the religious right. You can access for the next 29 days on Channel 4’s catch up site
I can’t find any way to download it permanently, so if there are any technophiles out there who know how…!
I have also included the first part here from YouTube
read more...»Is Europe too racist?
As a follow up to an article in first past the post about the extent to which blacks have achieved political equality now that they have elected their first ever black president, I was going to do a further one about the self congratulatory state America has got itself in. How many times have we heard that only in America can any child grow up believing that they could one day be in the White House? Or that Britain could never have a black Prime Minister any time soon.
But Matt Frei, the BBC American correspondent, has done an excellent overview of the issues on the BBC blog.
Before going on to read it, I would ask readers to consider a couple of points. First, Britain elected a female premier in 1979. Second, how many African Americans will there be in the Senate after Obama is sworn in as president?
Read Frei’s article here 
What will Obama supporters do now the election is over?
Obama obsessives like me are wandering around with a feeling of post-election emptiness. No polls to scrutinise; no electoral college scenarios to run. It seems we’re not alone, according to this hard-hitting news report from the Onion News Network…
read more...»Great introductory article on the Chief of Staff
It is unlikely that news that Rahm Emanuel has been chosen as Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff has escaped the attention of blog readers.
read more...»Schott’s presidential almanac
How many presidents were over 6ft tall? Which have had their faces on bank notes?
Find out via this jpg file, which would make a handy wall display:
Obama speech in full
I can’t seem to find the victory speech by Obama in Grant Park in full on YouTube, but this is the link to the BBC version:
‘Free’ poster
A quick heads up for students and teachers. This weekend watch out for a US elections 2008 poster in the Independent on Sunday. If recent graphics in the sister paper are anything to go by, the elections outcome map may contain a few statistical errors, but at least they are promising a picture portrait of the president elect on the other side.
“One triumphant example won’t solve the chronic failure of blacks”
So says Matthew Syed in The Times.
With wall to wall coverage of the election results possibly weighing us all down, I thought I’d point out this excellent article on race and ethnic politics in the USA – it’s gone straight into my folder of teaching notes for the topic.
Black and blue
In an intelligent article, Gideon Rachman in the FT points out that Barack Obama will not only be the first ever black President if elected today, he will also be the first Democrat elected to the White House on nearly half a century that does not hail from a southern state.
He writes:
“We are on the brink of history. On Tuesday the US could elect its first ever blue president.
The fact that Barack Obama would also be the first black president has obscured the significance of his political colouring. If he wins, he will be the first northern, urban liberal to win the presidency since the culture wars broke out in the US in the 1960s.”
See the rest of the article here
Independent resources
The Independent today contains a feast of politics for students and teachers.
First off is their Great American Quiz The same links takes you to the answers. Teachers should be able to plunder this for many end of terms to come!
Some entertaining presidential trivia here
Why The Economist came out for Obama
Away from the US elections, here’s a good feature for UK issues coverage on the allegedly increasingly fluid nature of social mobility in the UK in the Big Question
Politics Teacher Quiz - Win a Barack Obama Action Figure
What better than to have a genuine Barack Obama Action Man figure on your desk or to display in the staff room. We’ve got one of the last Barack Obama action figures left in NYC as the prize for this quick Politics Teacher Quiz…
read more...»Are you staying up for Obama?
If you are planning on staying up till the wee hours on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning here is a guide to what to expect.
For what it’s worth, I suspect it will be a lot closer than many polls are predicting and that we won’t be confident of the final result until sunrise on Wednesday.
See the guide from The Times here
US elections programming: heads up
Saturday More 4 at 7.05pm The story of Barack Obama and John McCain
As America prepares to go to the polls this Tuesday in what many consider to one of the most historical presidential elections in decades, Jon Snow narrates The Choice , a one-off documentary special which presents the story of Barack Obama and John McCain, and asks what do these two very unlikely presidential contenders say about the state of America at this crux moment in time?
Then at 11:20 pm on the same channel, Dispatches: Jon Snow’s American Journey
As Obama and McCain’s gladiatorial showdown enters its final week, Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow goes in search of the new America. Starting at the border with Mexico, Snow takes a road trip up the Pacific highway linking San Diego to Seattle, travelling though areas of great affluence, deprivation, innovation and tradition to find out about the new Americans, new economy and new directions that are shaping the next America.
On Channel 4 at 9.05 pm: Recount
Austin Powers director Jay Roach investigates the Florida voting scandal of 2000. Made-for-TV drama starring Kevin Spacey, Denis Leary, Laura Dern and Tom Wilkinson
