Dennis Nottebaum

The Obama campaign has set new standards for politicians, strategic advisors and spin doctors around the globe. What aspects of his campaign will be appropriated abroad and shape the conduct of political competition in elections to come?

Dennis Nottebaum

While the world celebrates Barack Obama's historic victory over John McCain, many ballot measures on the state level also deserve our attention (overview). Most controversial among them were the decisions on same-sex marriage and abortion that were up in several states.

Both decisions are still running close in California whereas voters in Florida and Arizona have approved of banning gay marriages and the electorate in South Dakota have rejected a plan to prohibit all abortions in the state except in cases where mother's life or health is at risk or in cases of rape or incest.

In Nebraska an initiative to end affirmative action was accepted, a similar proposal is still open in Colorado.

Voters in Washington approved of plans to legalize physician assisted suicide making it the second state after Oregon to embrace euthanasia.

As to drug-related issues, Massachusetts voters accepted decriminalizing possession of one ounce or less of marijuana. Under the new law those caught  won't face criminal penalties, but will have to give up the drugs and pay a fine of $100. At the same time Michigan became the 13th state to allow the use marijuana to treat pain with doctor's approval.

Finally, a plan to name a sewage-treatment plant after George W. Bush was rejected in San Francisco.

Dennis Nottebaum

I've been wandering around Frankfurt's annual book fair this weekend when I stumpled upon a presentation by German journalist Christoph von Marschall, former Washington correspondent of the Berlin-based daily Tagesspiegel, who was presenting his new book on Barack Obama. It was not so much the size of the crowd that was drawn to the event, but rather the audience's level of knowledge about the US election campaign that struck me most. It seemed as if everyone knew Obama as intimately as von Marshall (claimed he) does. And although Germans tend to see America more negatively these days than at any time before, there was great admiration and anticipation in developments on the other side of the pond.

But this observation of the importance that the US still has for the "ordinary German" was not the most interesting part of the event. After the author had finished his presentation, the audience was eager to spark a debate (which I had seen at no other occasion at this fair). A lady brought up a provocative question that dominated the rest of the evening. She was wondering why Americans accepted the way in which the campaigns adopt strategies of defaming each other, at times using false allegations, alluding to stereotypes, spreading rumours that are obviously untrue and generally engaging in a battle of smears. Why is negative campaigning tolerated?

This is not to imply that election campaigns over here are clean and fair, but they certainly dive to lowly depths in the US. Does this stem from the difference in how "freedom of speech" is valued on either side of the Atlantic? Or rather due to a more diverse, and possibly more radical, media landscape in the US? I'm not quite sure and thought I'd put this up for debate here. So what do you think? Why do American elections always seem to scrape the bottom of the barrel? Or am I mistaken and there is no actual difference between what transpires in Europe and in the US?

Dennis Nottebaum

While Barack Obama has established a 10-point lead in the race for the White House, the McCain campaign struggles to stay in the game. With only three weeks left until Election Day, McCain would have to do what no presidential hopeful has managed to do before in order to come back from this deficit and beat Obama.

However, there is some hope left. So far, I have not managed to find a single reason to vote for the Arizona Senator (which of course is hypothetical anyway for the non-American that I am). But today Bill Kristol introduced me to the one of the better arguments for why McCain deserves to become the 44th president of the United States. But please read for yourselves:

Dennis Nottebaum

The long-anticipated clash of the VP candidates did not turn out to be the Palin Fry Fest that many commentators anticipated. She ignored questions, bewildered with her monologues and looked shaky on foreign policy - but that was to be expected. She slipped but did not fall. "It was a 90-minute sprint to reclaim her identity as a feisty, folksy frontierswoman ready to storm Washington." Many pundits have claimed a victory for Palin. However, especially in the European media, Biden is hailed as the winner. Palin's folksy appeal obviously does not extent beyond the Atlantic.