Gage Skidmore January 27, 2014 With Mitt, Netflix shows human side of a hamstrung candidate Mitt, a newly released documentary about former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, provides an up-close look at the exhausting presidential election process in the U.S. This is no House of Cards when…

Flickr/350.org November 15, 2012 Obama’s second term challenges must include tackling climate change In his acceptance speech of November 6, Barack Obama at long last reaffirmed the need to address global warming. But unfortunately he also reaffirmed the spurious goal of US oil independence, which can…

EPA/Martin H. Simon November 14, 2012 Heeding the echoes of history as global leadership shifts CHINA IN TRANSITION: As China goes through its secretive but widely anticipated leadership transition, the rest of the world is watching. This week, The Conversation takes an in depth look at the National…

AAP/Dean Lewins November 12, 2012 The same-sex marriage implications for Australia from the US election and abroad The main stories coming out of the recent elections in the United States have of course been that Barack Obama won a second term, and which party controls the House and the Senate. However, the election…

EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh November 12, 2012 Obama’s legacy could lie in the Middle East, but will he go for it? The re-election of Barack Obama to a second term will have significant ramifications for an America struggling with economic and social difficulties. But will it have the same impact on residents of the…

EPA/Shawn Thew November 12, 2012 Australia and Obama’s return All the world has a stake America’s presidential election. Barack Obama has seen off a surprisingly strong showing from Republican candidate Mitt Romney and now has four final years in the executive office…

EPA/Alex Wong November 11, 2012 Foreign affairs: what can we expect from Obama’s second term? Sitting in New York, in the aftermath of an American election dominated by a domestic agenda, it is easy to lose sight of both the pressing external problems that the US continues to face, and the impact…

sobyrne99 November 9, 2012 Tea Party goes cold as US voters reject the far right The Tea Party Movement appeared to have become a major force in American politics in the 2010 mid-term elections, sweeping 87 new Republicans into the lower house, biting into the Democrats’ lead in the…

EPA/Uwe Anspach November 9, 2012 Race to the White House: Joe Siracusa, Stephanie Brookes The race to the White House is over, and Barack Obama has won. Every week for two months, we’ve been talking to Australia’s top US experts on the ins and outs of the 2012 US presidential campaign as part…

@BarackObama November 8, 2012 ‘Four more years’: that Obama tweet and the politics of intimacy It’s been quite a year for tweeters. First we had the Twitter Olympics. Now, Barack Obama’s first impulse, on hearing of his re-election as President of the United States, was to tweet out thanks to the…

EPA/Tannen Maury November 8, 2012 ‘That’s what politics can be’ – US winners and losers speak One of the standout characteristics of the 2012 campaign was the candidates’ conspiracy of tedium. Barack Obama’s research had shown him that voters are deeply suspicious of his rhetorical brilliance (even…

EPA/Shawn Thew November 7, 2012 Obama forges winning coalition as GOP faces electoral irrelevance After an expensive, unenlightening, and interminable campaign, Barack Obama overcame a weak economy, high unemployment, and a lacklustre performance in his first debate with Mitt Romney, and was re-elected…

EPA/Matt Campbell November 7, 2012 The revenge of the 47% This was Mitt Romney’s last best chance to be president of the United States of America. Romney had a relatively easy primary contest. All the other Republican candidates shot themselves in the foot by…

EPA/Shawn Thew November 7, 2012 Forward for four more years: how Obama won his second term Barack Obama’s re-election won’t generate the same exuberance as 2008. The lofty rhetoric of “Hope” and “Change” has been replaced by the much more sombre message of “Forward”. And while four years ago…

EPA/Steve Pope November 7, 2012 Obama wins on the economy and the auto bailout Barack Obama has won a second term as President of the United States. For months we were told this would be a close election. The received wisdom was a spluttering economy would play badly for the incumbent…

EPA/Erik S. Lesser November 6, 2012 Think the US electoral system is flawed? Check out Australia’s … In the run-up to today’s presidential election, President Barack Obama received just over $632 million in candidate contributions. Want to know who from? These direct, individual donations (known as “hard…

EPA/Matt Campbell November 6, 2012 The insider: what’s really happening inside the campaigns on election day It is now election day in the United States. You can compare being on an American political campaign on this final frenetic day to spawning salmon giving their all to leap waterfalls before they die. Media…

EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo November 5, 2012 The ‘empty chair’ election: those who turn up will decide While haranguing an empty chair at the Republican National Convention, Clint Eastwood stumbled upon the central metaphor of the 2012 election. The election has been, on the whole, about people who were…

EPA/Shawn Thew November 4, 2012 Mitt Romney’s ill-fated last stand In these last days of the United States presidential election, the images from the campaign trail document the confusion of the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan campaign. The unclear Republican message is no match…