tapmag

If you are interested in American politics – of course you are, why bother reading this blog if not? – here are two dates to mark in your calendar: [Read more]

Something about the current campaign is quite surprising for Germans, apart from the fact that millions are spend just to determine the final candidates. It’s the notion that many people and institutions of the public life explicitly take sides in this hard fought campaign. But isn’t that what we should expect from them? [Read more]

Yesterday, it meant do or die for Hillary Clinton. The Democrats in Vermont, Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas voted for their presidential candidate, and once more, it was super-close.

Surprisingly, she won Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas. So, Hillary is back in the race. These primary elections were crucial for her, since her political career (and rumors say her marriage, too) was said to be in free fall after Barack Obama had won eleven states in a row. Obamania (some say Obamamania, but that looks ridiculous to me) has been spreading all over the country and all over Tinseltown. [Read more]

Tapmag can now predict that Senator Barack Obama will win the state of Germany. With 100% of votes in, Obama got 66.7% of the votes, compared to Hillary Clinton’s 31.8%. Wait, something doesn’t sound right…

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The 2008 presidential election should be a slam-dunk for the Democrats. The approval ratings for the incumbent president are dismal and enthusiasm among Republicans for their primary candidates was lukewarm at best. John McCain, now the presumptive nominee, is opposed by a significant portion of party members and right-wing talk radio hosts don’t hesitate to express their disgust at the Arizona senator.

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tapmag apologizes for being a little biased towards the Democratic party lately. The G.O.P.’s candidates or what’s left of them just aren’t as exciting as the Billary-Obama battle it seems. But it’s not just us! During super tuesday, all the attention of Berlin’s local media has been with the Democrats Abroad’s voting event at “Max & Moritz.” [Read more]

Call him the Black Kennedy, the Tiger Woods of politics, or the Second Coming. The epithets used to describe presidential hopeful Barack Obama (D-Ill) are a testimony to an election that is so much more than politics.

There is something close to biblical about rain, when the skies give way to an almost cathartic downpour, draining off the drudge, sins and conversation-residuals clogging the streets. In any Hollywood movie (especially considering the writers’ strike) it could have been a Second Coming scenario, yet it was an unassuming Monday with weather more befitting of an unassuming British city pronounced Gloomster (but probably spelled Gleucmcester) in the midst of Berlin. The prophesized savior of American politics, Barack Obama, drew close to a 100 people, who sought shelter in the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung on this rainy, borderline-suicidal Monday evening, to learn about the self-professed harbinger of a new era – in a country so far from theirs.

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Ladies and gentlemen, it’s on! Tomorrow will be the start of the most intensive presidential election in American history. Primary season is upon us, and in just over a month, by “Super Duper Tuesday“, we will with near certainty know who the two nominees are. And where does it all begin? In the Tall Corn State, Iowa.

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Is that even possible? According to their web address, www.onevoiceforeurope.eu, the newly founded European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) intends to provide that voice. Is it yet another attempt to save Europe from irrelevancy? And what exactly will that voice be?

With prominent members such as Marti Ahtisaari, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Joschka Fischer (and a bunch of other people that you’ve probably never heard of), the ECFR is based quite apparently, and not just in name, on the American Council on Foreign Relations. And since it is funded primarily by the liberal American billionaire George Soros, you can bet that transatlantic relations will be on the top of its agenda. [Read more]

It’s election time in the Danish Kingdom, and what better way to churn out those votes, than to let the Prophet Muhammad work his magic?

The Danish People’s Party (DPP, Dansk Folkeparti) has published election posters (here) featuring a drawing by Alexander Ross from 1683 of the Prophet. The poster reads in bold, capital letters: “Freedom of Speech is Danish, Censorship Isn’t – We Hang on to the Danish Values,” and continues, “Danish People’s Party – Your Country, Your Choice.” According to Danish People’s Party’s party leader, Pia Kjærsgaard, “We [Danish People's Party] are not doing this to provoke, but are doing it exactly because a drawing – a 400 year old drawing of Muhammad – is a symbol of the freedom of speech in Denmark, because we hung on to that freedom of speech.” [Read more]