Thomas Ash

Thomas Ash was associate editor and web development consultant at openDemocracy, where he built the current site. He now works for New Internationalist magazine, and his personal website on philosophy is PhilosoFiles.com.

20 days to go: Obama already winning votes in key battleground states

There are now twenty days remaining before America votes - but some Americans have started voting already. Several states allow early voting, and according to SurveyUSA exit polling Obama has

By Thomas Ash

/ 15 Oct 2008

Obama's formidable ground game

Karl Rove's voter mobilisation organisation was widely credited with winning George W. Bush re-election four years ago. This time, the Democrats appear to have the edge in the

By Thomas Ash

/ 14 Oct 2008

Obama derangement syndrome reaches the conservative mainstream?

The over-the-top reactions of some liberals to George W. Bush's presidency earned the label 'Bush Derangement Syndrome'. I think it's time to diagnose a

By Thomas Ash

/ 13 Oct 2008

McCain booed by his own crowds

To his credit, John McCain has started taking on some of the wilder anti-Obama sentiments in his crowds. He took back the microphone from a supporter at a town hall

By Thomas Ash

/ 11 Oct 2008

Dogs that didn't bark

Ben Smith makes the very good point that immigration is one of the dogs that didn't bark in this election: it was expected to be one of the

By Thomas Ash

/ 10 Oct 2008

Obama to McCain: "say it to my face"

One of the stranger features of the recent presidential debate was the complete absence of William Ayers. If the attempt to link Obama to Ayers were the last, best hope

By Thomas Ash

/ 9 Oct 2008

The perils of negative campaigning

As a brief follow-up to my last post, and to set the stage for tonight's debate, I want to highlight the risks posed by the recent intensification of

By Thomas Ash

/ 7 Oct 2008

The campaigns swap personal attacks

Today was a day of traded blows in the US election campaign. Since Saturday, Sarah Palin has been attacking Barack Obama for "palling around with terrorists" - specifically

By Thomas Ash

/ 6 Oct 2008

30 days to go: Obama’s election to lose

Today, there are 30 days remaining before the US votes on November 4th. Right now, this is Obama’s election to lose. He is an average of seven percentage points

By Thomas Ash

/ 5 Oct 2008