Finchley 1959 - Explore new Perspectives

AP Photo Last night was the night. After months of speculation, questioning and laugh offs, both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders proved that they are serious candidates, and that they are here to stay for a long time. They both finished second in Iowa, but New Hampshire proved that they are in no way perennial candidates anymore. And what a way to do it, Donald Trump won more than double of his nearest competitor John Kasich, while Bernie Sanders won upwards of 60% too. The question now is if they can continue their streak in South Carolina and Nevada respectively. On the Democratic side, there were no questions at all. After an amazing debate performance, poll leads locally for months and severe recent gains nationally, Bernie Sanders absolutely crushed Hillary Clinton. It is true that the demographics and location of New Hampshire favoured Sanders, but the size of his win is unquestionable. He won in almost every category. He won among males and females, rich and poor, and ...

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has also dropped out of the Presidential Race, just after Rand Paul has done the same. In 2012 Santorum was the surprise candidate of the year, as he won Iowa and became the main challenger to Mitt Romney. Santorum had high early hopes for the 2016 race, but unlike last time around, he never managed to connect with the voters. The lack of support led to low levels of fundraising and polling, and constant relegation to the second tier debates. With Santorum out of the race, only 9 candidates remain in the Republican race, and will try to get the most votes in New Hampshire on the 9th of February. While four years ago he was a champion of the workers and the people who saw Mitt Romney as just another rich man lying to them, this time around he campaigned for Christian vote and made family values a key focus in his strategy. He tried to reform his Evangelical coalition from four years ago and build on it, but he too was surprised by the rise...

Chris Carlson/AP After months of campaigning, Iowa finally voted yesterday! On the Republican side of the Iowa Caucus, Texas Senator surprised Donald Trump. While the Democrats pretty much tied, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders only received slightly less support than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but it is still unclear who won, as a recount is very much possible. All the latest polls, even by Anne Selzer, predicted a Donald Trump victory, even though they all acknowledged that Ted Cruz was not far behind. But in real life, not many people expected Cruz to win, even though if there were serious questions of whether or not Trump supporters are real and if they will actually turn out to vote. Well they were real, but Cruz had more of them. Trump almost even slipped down to 3rd place, as it was confirmed that Rubio's late surge was real. His 23.1% is an extremely good show in a state like Iowa. This was a huge loss for Trump. More precisely his ego. For mo...

PDA America Finchley 1959 has been covering the 2016 US Presidential Election since the candidates have been announcing their intentions from early last year onwards. Now, as the final 24 hours of campaigning takes place across the state of Iowa before voting, we are ready to make our predictions. On the Republican side, we are ready to call Iowa for Donald Trump over Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The Hawkeye State's Democrats though, are more likely to choose Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as their nominee.  Here's why. Donald Trump seems to be a sure bet. Ted Cruz was ahead in December, but by now he has slipped. He even has to worry about Rubio now, as the Florida Senator is surging in Iowa. But Cruz is still likely to have a safe second place, at least. His supporters are more reliable than Trump, so they will probably turn out in higher numbers. Nevertheless, while we are calling Iowa for Trump, Cruz is still within ...

Daily Mail New York City is a great city. In several ways it is perhaps the greatest city in the world. Everyone must go there at least once in their lives. New York is also big and very diverse. That is how it is possible that four of the main (if not all) candidates for President are from New York. On the Republican side, Donald Trump is the epicentre of everything New York. No question about that. On the other side, Hillary Clinton was a Senator from New York while Bernie Sanders was born in Brooklyn, and he couldn't deny it. And now that it seems that Michael Bloomberg could join the race as an Independent, it can be declared that all the main candidates in 2016 are from New York. This is crazy, a country of 323 million people, will all choose their next president from one city. It's like a local election. So what makes New York the perfect place for a candidate? We are not sure. It may be the money and the winning atmosphere. Or all the famous and influential ...

Is he, or is he not? That is the current question on the Republican side. At least to Donald Trump. And he seems to think that Ted Cruz is not a real American, and should not be eligible to be the President. How is this possible? Well Cruz was born to an American mother, but in Canada. Donald Trump keep questioning if Ted Cruz can legally be elected as President. Cruz is technically a full righted American, so there should be no reason why he couldn't be President. He wouldn't waste all this money on the campaign if he would knew that legally he is not eligible. The whole thing is a total nonsense, and Mitt Romney seems to think so too. A vast array of establishment Republicans have come out to support Cruz on this issue. It seems like they are even keen to support him, in fact anyone, just not Trump. But Trump being Trump keeps bringing it up, and it seems like it may work. Some people may question their support for Cruz, and may switch back to Trump. The candidate with...

Former President Bill Clinton began campaigning for Hillary Clinton this week. With less than four weeks before the first votes are cast, many campaigns are shaking up their tactics. Hillary is now enlisting Bill, Trump has ads and Christie is heading to Iowa. But will these new methods work? Just like Joe Biden though, Bill Clinton is known for his gaffes. In 2008 too, he made some controversial and unfortunate statements, and many saw him as a liability to his wife's campaign. This time around, he has been noticeably missing from the campaign trail, only appearing in some family gatherings with Chelsea Clinton too. However as 2016 arrives, Bill Clinton, one of America's most loved politicians, will start to heavily campaign for Hillary in both Iowa and New Hampshire. This is a change of direction for the campaign as they hope to solidify their lead in Iowa, and fight back in New Hampshire. Bill Clinton though seems to be tightly monitored and censored t...

There is an alternative way of predicting who will be the party's nominee in a Presidential Race. And no, it's not polls. It's the endorsement count from current and former politicians. If a few important and influential politicians back your campaign, they can sway a lot of their supporters towards you. And that could make the difference. Some candidates deliberately want to get the support of a few famous faces, and not that of the general public. Let's see how this applies to 2016. On the Republican side, Donald Trump leads in the polls. By a lot (as he would say). But there has not been a single politician in Congress, or within any higher levels of state government who backed him. Not one. He got one former Virginia representative and a few state legislators from a variety of states, but no one important. Jeb Bush on the other hand leads the endorsement primary. By a lot. Apart from two former Presidents and First Ladies and a Vice President, he a...

Former New York Governor George Pataki has ended his campaign to be the Republican Presidential candidate in 2016. This comes just over a week after Senator Graham quit too, and just over a month before the first voters head to the polling stations. The moderate Republican Pataki failed to differentiate himself in the crowded 2016 field, and leaves 12 candidates in the race. George Pataki was the Governor of New York on 9/11 and based his campaign strategy on crisis management and foreign policy experience. He was also the only Republican candidate who supported same-sex marriage and one of the first ones to continusoly attack Trump over his comments during the early summer campaign period. Yet despite all of his best effort, he has failed to gain momentum in the polls, and never really polled above 2%. Not even in New Hampshire where he focused his campaign. He also failed to raise enough money to continue, and continues the "Curse of the Governors". Pataki became the ...

The last debates of the year for both parties occurred, and now it is time to get ready for the Christmas Campaign. The Democrats met up in New Hampshire, where Bernie Sanders seems to have a small, yet comfortable lead over Hillary Clinton. It may have been the honorary home state advantage, but Bernie Sanders won the debate. He came out very strong and excited, and delivered a great performance. There were two things that could have seriously hurt him. Guns, but he handled those questions well. Data breach. Data breach? What data breach? That's right, no one cares about that. It only showed that the DNC really is against Bernie rise to stardom, but their plan backfired as the Vermont Senator gained more support. The latest polls show that he is increasing his lead in New Hampshire, and he is slowly, but once again chipping away from Hillary's lead in Iowa and nationwide after weeks of stagnating results. Hillary didn't have a bad night either. She was better tha...

It is now only 50 days till Iowa, and Ted Cruz is the new star on the block. Latest polls show that the Texas Senator overtook the lead from Donald Trump. In the string of latest national polls however, Trump is still leading, but his lead has also fallen, as Marco Rubio rises as well, but currently Cruz has the momentum. On the national scale, Carson's fall is the most visible change. He has made some controversial comments lately, and as a result is falling at a faster rate than President Obama's approval rate. Trump continues to be controversial, and it looks like his latest (disgraceful) comments against muslims might finally make him go down, to a degree at least.  It is also now time for Graham, Gilmore, Pataki and Santorum to finally quit. They clearly have no measurable support behind them after months, so they should just leave to make more space. Although it is not like their exit would give a huge boost to any of the candidates.  It is also time for Senator...