US Politics Opinion: Lessons from the Campaign and the Election

Anti-Obama billboard in Missouri

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The Republicans are between a rock and a hard place. Because of that, there is a possibility that business can actually be done in Congress, especially if Obama takes a leaf from Lyndon Johnson’s book in how to deal with legislators --- studying, for example, the passing of Civil Rights legislation in the mid-1960s. Indeed, the bigger risk for the President may be that his own party’s legislators will try to exact revenge for the past two years of gridlock, ruining the chances of good governance by the Executive and Congress.

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US Elections 2012 Video: When Karl Rove Would Not Believe Fox News "Obama Wins Ohio"

Three minutes summarising Election Night for the Romney campaign and the Republican Party....

Karl Rove, campaign strategist for George W. Bush, refuses to believe Fox's call of Ohio for Barack Obama --- he remains unconvinced as Fox's anchorwoman takes a long journey down the corridors to verify the projection with the political number-crunchers. They explain the reasoning; Rove still does not believe.

US Elections Special: How Limits on Campaign Financing Are Being Demolished for 2012

The ugly issue of campaign financing is not new, but it has risen in prominence because of the January 2010 decision by the Supreme Court decision, which has opened the doors for corporations, unions, and individuals to make unlimited anonymous contributions to political campaigns. The ramifications of that decision, as they will affect next year's campaign are not yet fully known, but this could be the year that Super PACs emerge as the "kingmakers" --- albeit hiding the identity of the kingmakers who lie behind them --- of American politics.

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The Latest from Iran (21 October): What if Nothing Important Happens?

2115 GMT: Khamenei Roadtrip --- Media Lowlight of the Day. Oh, dear, a pretty spectacular MediaFail from Reuters who, rather than going to their Tehran correspondent, rely on their reporter in Paris to get the story all wrong:

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to have scored a political success by gathering leading clerics in the holy city of Qom around him in a show of unity after months of in-fighting.

Iranian media highlighted pictures on Thursday of a smiling Khamenei sitting with several top Shi'ite Muslim dignitaries, including some who have been critical since the disputed re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year....

Among the sages pictured sipping tea with Khamenei was Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, a critic of Ahmadinejad, along with five other clerics who have the elevated status of "marja-e taqlid" (source of emulation), meaning that Shi'ite Muslims may choose them as a personal spiritual guide.

Their turnout belied rumors that senior religious figures would boycott Khamenei's annual visit to the center of Shi'ite learning in protest at a fierce crackdown on reformists and moves to isolate and intimidate dissident clerics.

About the only accurate information in this is that Makarem-Shirazi was present on Wednesday. None of the others at the meeting have the rank of "marja-e taqlid" --- indeed, no cleric with that status apart from Makarem-Shirazi has deigned to see Ayatollah Khamenei in the first three days of his Qom visit.

Yet, as stunning as this failure is, it may be dwarfed by the misunderstanding of the "senior Western diplomat" who fed the Reuters story: "(Khamenei's) trip shows the leader has the power to unite factions ... and it is a message to those who hoped the in-fighting may lead to the collapse of the system."

2025 GMT: Did the Supreme Leader Just Smack Down the Senior Clerics? Well, this is an interesting way to end the evening....

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