*** XLN's Election Centre! ***

About election campaign. I hope this thread is just informative. Please don't start any kind of debate or this thread will be locked
I am old enough to vote, but haven't took part in any election yet.

I am glad that somebody is following this. Not to say that I don't have an interest but, shall we say... nah

Anyways I am voting Democratic.

Very informative. I am glad that you are taking such an interest in these matters.

Thanks

Hmm, I like the style of this thread, and thanks for the updates Macko.

To be honest, I have very little interest in American politics, let alone the American society. But I will say if I was in the US I'd probably stick with Obama and the Democrats. Doing a little reading about the Republican candidates (and having a little general knowledge about the party and its past governments) I tend to not come to agree with them.

My political interest is here in Australia and mostly Australia only. The next few months will be very interesting here in Brisbane as we have a city council election and the Queensland state election.

ELECTION 2012 UPDATE:

As the sun rises today in South Carolina, the candidates are already on the campaign trail ready for polling centres to open later this afternoon. After a tie in Iowa and a clear-cut victory in New Hampshire, there was an air of inevitability around Mitt Romney, who is currently the leader of the pack. But this is now gone, and his national lead over Gingrich has shrunk by ten points over the past three days. If Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, can defeat Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts, in a State where both of them are seen as distant outsiders by the people, he will stop the frontrunner dead in his tracks. With a lead of between one and three points in the polls, Gingrich knows that there is a distinct possibility he will do that just.

See coverage on FOX News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/20/gingrich-aims-to-upheave-gop-race-in-south-carolina/
Or on the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-hopefuls-rally-sc-voters-a-day-before-crucial-primary/2012/01/20/gIQA7pNXDQ_story.html?hpid=z1
Or on CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/19/opinion/gergen-romney/index.html?hpt=us_mid

ELECTION 2012 UPDATE:

Polls have now opened in South Carolina, after a day in which Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have argued furiously through the medium of television appearances and radio interviews. This morning, the Romney campaign suggested he should release more details of the ethics investigation into his procedure while he was Speaker of the House of Representatives: "He [Gingrich] should release more so voters can be confident there's no October Surprise" - in other words, so that there's nothing President Obama can use against him. Gingrich retaliated by claiming that all the information was already in the open: "Don't you sort of admire the arrogance and dishonesty of the Romney campaign?" he said. "They can't release their tax records. They're hiding. He can't even answer coherently at a debate. Until he files his tax returns, I'm not going to take anything he says seriously about being open." He was of course referring to Romney's consistent reluctance to release the details of the tax he pays. Both candidates have baggage of some form and they're keen to use it against each other.

Information taken from FOX News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/21/gingrich-romney-spar-over-ethics-and-taxes-as-south-carolina-polls-open/

I think we'd really need a political forum where we could also discuss our opinions.

Perhaps, yeah, but not on XLN. That's not what the site is for

In the meantime, those who are interested can follow the election from here.

Any other news at this time Macko?

ELECTION 2012 UPDATE:

It has emerged that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were due to meet this morning at a campaign stop in Greenville. Both campaigns had booked Tommy's Ham House, a popular local diner, for 11am, and only realised yesterday. So what happened? They each insisted they would not change their schedule, until Mitt Romney arrived 45 minutes early and promptly left before his opponent had got there. Though he took the opportunity to deliver a pep-talk to the crowd and reaffirm his self-promoted position as the "real-world candidate," Gingrich was quick to rebuke him, saying "where's Mitt?" upon his arrival. He went on to add: "I thought he was going to stay and maybe we'd have a little debate here this morning. So I'm kind of confused."

Read about it on FOX News, where this information is taken from: http://goo.gl/CYq9E
Or on the Washington Post: http://goo.gl/Wroqc

ELECTION 2012 ANALYSIS:

With so much of the media's attention focussed on Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, what's happening to the other candidates in the race? The answer is simple - they're losing support. In a contest that has been increasingly dominated by two men, the others are losing out, especially Rick Santorum. While Ron Paul, the fourth contender, has seen his ratings rise, this has come at a cost to Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa Caucus. The former Pennsylvania Senator's numbers have dropped three percent in the past three days; Paul's have risen by two and Gingrich's by eight. Romney has taken most of the hits, however, dropping from a high of 37% just four days ago to 31% now.

See the ratings as they stand (last updated today) right here at Gallup's election centre: http://goo.gl/K7oZg