US election: CNN camerawoman unsurprised by racial abuse at Republican convention

The black CNN camerawoman who had peanuts and racial abuse thrown at her on the floor of the Republican convention has said she was "not surprised" by the ugly incident.

Patricia Carroll found herself thrust into the news earlier this week after two convention guests hurled nuts at her and jeered: "This is how we feed animals".

The pair, thought be alternate delegates to the Republican convention, were thrown out of the Tampa Bay Times Forum by security but not before creating an embarrassing political incident that was roundly condemned by party officials.

Ms Caroll said: "I hate that it happened, but I'm not surprised at all," although she said she did not think the behaviour was unique to the Republican Party.

The 34-year-old from Alabama said she was one of few black women at the Republican convention but added "This is Florida, and I'm from the Deep South.

"You come to places like this, you can count the black people on your hand. They see us doing things they don't think I should do."

31/08/12

US election 2012: Mitt Romney pledges 'to restore the promise of America'

Mitt Romney on Thursday night pledged to "restore the promise of America" by replacing Barack Obama's hollow message of "hope and change" with job-creation and economic competence.

In a prime-time address to his party's convention in Florida, the Republican presidential candidate vowed to rid the US of the "disappointments of the last four years" by ousting his opponent.

"President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet," Mr Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, was expected to say. "My promise is to help you and your family".

Finally confronting questions of his corporate career and Mormon faith that have dogged his campaign, the 65-year-old attempted to persuade voters that he had the experience and temperament for the job.

He described Bain Capital, the private equity firm where he made his $250 million (£160 million) fortune, as a "great American success story", rejecting Mr Obama's depiction of him as a vulture capitalist.

After unveiling a website about his career that claimed he "helped save thousands of jobs", Mr Romney pointed to his private sector experience as proof of his ability to end America's unemployment crisis, which has left 23 million people unemployed or seeking more work.

31/08/12

US election 2012: Larry Flynt offers $1 million for details of Mitt Romney's tax returns

Larry Flynt, the pornographer, has offered up to $1 million for details of Mitt Romney's unreleased tax returns

The controversial publisher of Hustler magazine publicised the offer by taking out full page advertisements in The Washington Post and USA Today newspapers.

The advertisements say "What is he hiding?" and seek documented evidence about Mr Romney's "unreleased tax returns and/or details of his offshore assets, bank accounts and business partnerships".

A telephone hotline has been set up for tips, and the money will be paid if a verified story is published.

Mr Romney, who is worth an estimated $250 million, has released two years of tax returns and has defied mounting pressure from Democrats to unveil more.

Last month the Republican presidential nominee said he had paid at least 13 per cent tax during the past decade.

09/09/12

US election: Ann Romney emphasises family touch

Ann Romney further emphasised her husband’s family credentials on Tuesday by baking a batch of Welsh cakes.

Preparing to deliver a “heartfelt” speech to the Republican convention, Mrs Romney treated journalists on Mitt Romney's campaign plane to her speciality, which is based on a family recipe.

Mrs Romney, 62, is descended from Welsh coalminers and has won plaudits on the US election trail for her eloquent remarks to supporters and energetic campaigning style after surviving cancer and M.S.

She said that she would stress “how important this election is going to be” and had been practicing her delivery in a school hall near the Romneys’ summer home in New Hampshire.

In a television interview yesterday she spoke for the first time about suffering a miscarriage in her 40s. She recalled her youngest son, Craig, had “burst into tears” after learning he would not, after all, have another sibling.

28/08/12

US election: Republican convention guests call black woman 'an animal'

The Republican Party was in damage control mode on Wednesday after two of its convention guests allegedly threw peanuts at a black camerawoman and jeered: “this is how we feed animals”.

The incident was swiftly condemned as "deplorable" by officials but still cast an unwelcome shadow over a convention where Republicans are eager to prove they are a modern and inclusive party.Security guards were called to the convention's main hall on Tuesday afternoon after reports that two people were racially abusing a black employee of CNN, the cable television news network.

At least one of the attendees was ejected from the hall by security and police officers but no arrests were made and no charges will be brought.

29/08/12

US election: Mitt Romney's make-or-break chance to lead America

Mitt Romney will tonight deliver a make-or-break speech to America, putting himself forward as the man who can revive the world’s largest economy even as a new poll showed him to be the least popular Presidential candidate in decades.

Up to 40 million Americans are expected to tune in to the prime-time speech at Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, which offers Mr Romney by far his biggest chance yet to convince voters that he can create jobs and boost shrinking wage packets.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll found Mr Romney’s favourability ranking had shrunk to just 35 per cent, with more than half (51pc) of the US electorate having an unfavourable opinion of the 65-year-old.

Mr Romney’s favourability is far behind both his opponent, Barack Obama, on 50 per cent, and a long list of previous candidates. They include Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole, none of whom were below 47 per cent at this stage in the campaign,

As Mr Romney put the finishing touches to a speech that Republican delegates hope will deliver momentum to the coming campaign, aides hinted that he would focus on his ability to revive the economy rather than an unwinnable popularity contest with Mr Obama.

29/08/12

Commentary: Why Obama needs more time

Morris Reid, a leading Washington consultant and former official in the Clinton administration, argues that Barack Obama's work is only half done.

Yes this country and its people are better off than they were four years ago but the job is not done. It took us many years to get into this current economic mess, so it will take President Obama more than 4 years to get us out of the current economic situation we are in.

When President Obama came into office there was talk of our country going into another economic depression like the one in the 1930s. Thankfully through passage of the stimulus package an economic crisis was averted and now we have been steadily improving the economy and have had consistent job growth for over 26 consecutive months rather than losing over 3 million jobs as we had done during eight years of the Bush administration.

More needs to be done and more jobs need to be created, but economic recoveries do not happen overnight.

What has President Obama done over the past four years in office? He has saved the American auto industry which is the backbone of the American economy. He bailed out Wall Street and stabilized the housing market despite the double dip in home values which are higher now than they were before he became president. We can do more and more needs to be done but let’s not forget the bold steps that the President took to keep our economy from collapsing.

When President Obama came into the office, the other side did not want to work to solve our nation’s problems. Republicans led by Senator Mitch McConnell stated that their number one priority was defeating President on the first day he took office. So before Republicans question what the President has done over the past four years, let them look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves what have they done because if you want to compare what the President has done for this country over the past four years rather than what the Republicans in Washington DC have done over the past 4 years, the comparisons are not even close.

Despite the last administration getting us into two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and not paying for these wars that we were involved in, President Obama has restored America’s standing in the world and helped capture and kill Osama Bin Laden.

07/09/12

US election 2012: Bill Clinton to hail Barack Obama as saviour of America's middle class

Bill Clinton will tell struggling Americans nostalgic for his presidency that Barack Obama is still the man to rebuild the middle class, while Mitt Romney would hand ruinous tax cuts to the rich.

In a speech, the former president will warn voters that Mr Romney would repeat the economic policies that "got us in trouble in the first place".

"President Obama has a plan to rebuild America from the ground up," he said in a campaign video billed by Obama aides as a preview of his remarks. "It only works if there is a strong middle class. That's what happened when I was president. We need to keep going with his plan."

Mr Clinton is expected to contrast Mr Obama's priorities of education and training with Mr Romney's pledge to cut income taxes and reverse the regulation of the financial sector since the 2008 crisis.

The prominence given to his speech, which is to be delivered in the slot typically reserved for the vice-president, sharply highlights the weakness of Mr Obama's position as he fights to keep his job.

Mr Obama has worked to repair the damage to their relationship caused by his defeat of the former president's wife, Hillary, in 2008's bitter party primary, by seeking his counsel over rounds of golf.

04/09/12

US Election 2012: Barack Obama says Mitt Romney would wreck the economy

Barack Obama told Americans on Thursday night that he knew their “hope has been tested”, but appealed for four more years in the White House to stop Mitt Romney from wrecking their fragile economic recovery.

In an understated speech to the Democratic Party, the President told struggling voters: "The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place". However he warned it would take "more than a few years" to arrive there.
He claimed that while “ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known,” his challenger would reheat the deregulation and tax cuts for high-earners that had “got us into this mess”.

Boasting that thanks to his leadership, “Osama bin Laden is dead”, he also attacked Mr Romney and showing his inexperience in foreign affairs by questioning London's preparedness to host the Olympic Games during a visit in July.

However, he returned repeatedly to the differences between their economic philosophies, and to implicit contrasts between his own humble upbringing and Mr Romney's childhood as the son of millionaires in Michigan, which he suggested left him best-placed to understand voters' economic woe.

07/09/2012