tapmag

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]

It’s up to Saturday Night Live to decide who will be the Democratic nominee for the election 2008.

The role SNL takes on in the nomination process is an incredible example for the way political debates are being turned into entertainment in the U.S. at the moment. At the same time however, it’s an incredible example how political issues are permeating the entertainment sector, creating a new arena for public discourse. There simply is no retreat to hide from the debate over Hillary vs. Barack. [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]

I always feel somewhat left out when the President of the United States is elected. Why are only US citizens allowed to vote? He or she is the leader of the free world, right? I live in the free world, I want my vote. [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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Feel like you don’t know all there is to know about the “Second Coming”? Still unsure how to categorize this newest high-rise on the Democratic block? Here’s your chance:

“Wer ist Barack Obama? Vortrag und Diskussion” featuring Christoph von Marschall, Washington correspondent for the Tagesspiegel

Time: Monday, 21. Januar, 2008 @ 18.30 Uhr
Place: Galerie der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Rosenthaler Str. 40/41, Berlin-Mitte
Free Entry/Eintritt frei

Excerpt from the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung’s own description (in German):
Der Vorwahlkampf in den USA ist in vollem Gange und Barack Obama ist der Überraschungskandidat mit guten Chancen auf das Präsidentenamt.
Obama gilt als der “Kennedy seiner Generation”: ein Hoffnungsträger, der einen neuen Stil einführt und die Schranken des Establishments niederreißt.
Doch welche politischen Positionen und welche Werte vertritt er? Was hat die Welt zu erwarten, wenn er als erster Afroamerikaner ins Weiße Haus einziehen sollte? Und vor welchem gesellschaftlichen Hintergrund konnte er in so kurzer Zeit so erfolgreich werden?

Christoph von Marschall begleitet seit einem Jahr Barack Obama im Wahlkampf und verfolgt die Vorwahlen aus nächster Nähe.

Fachkontakt: Barbara Assheuer assheuer@boell.de

By Peter Dahl

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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