Finchley 1959 - Explore new Perspectives

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...

Politico The 2016 Iowa Caucus results turned out great for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. People like Ben Carson, Donald Trump and Rand Paul also felt ok about their numbers. They could have been better, but could have been worse. Then there is Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie who officially didn't really care about what they got here, as they focused on New Hampshire. But it must have hurt them. And then there is Jim Gilmore, Martin O'Malley, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. They were demolished, and for Huckabee and O'Malley it was a knockout. Huckabee's exit leaves the race with 11 Republicans, if you can count Gilmore at all, while O'Malley's exit leaves just Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the side of the Democrats.  Huckabee's poor results were expected, and thus his exit is not a big surprise. What is a surprise is that Rick Santorum didn't go down with him, even though he had an e...

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 ...

PC: Patrick T. Fallon The first Democratic Debate of 2016, and the last one before voting starts in Iowa on February 1st, happened on Sunday night in Charleston, South Carolina. The debate was focused around Bernie Sanders. He still leads in New Hampshire, he is now at least tied with Hillary in Iowa, and nationally he is closing in on her too. America is feeling the Bern, and Sanders hopes that the South will too soon. After the vibrant debate on guns, Wall Street and ISIS, the campaigns now are courting black voters as everyone is trying to win Iowa. Hillary is traditionally polling better with the black voters, and Sanders is from an almost all-white state, but there are signs that this is changing. And Sanders doesn't have to win a majority of this voting block, but for the March primaries it will be enough if he can just chip away a sizeable part from Clinton's support. Everyone was waiting for the fireworks. And they got it. Bernie Sanders has been creeping up ...

The First Republican Debate of the Year happened last night. It was all about Trump vs. Cruz, Rubio vs. Cruz and Cruz vs. everyone. Ted Cruz was the ultimate winner though. Cruz spoke the most and was the most talked about as well, together with Trump. Earlier this week Trump narrowly retook Iowa from Cruz, but now it really will be a 50/50 race in the first voting state. They used to be on pretty good terms, but as Iowa votes in just over two weeks time, on February 1st, gloves are off and it is all about blood now. Trump and Cruz had several big battles last night. Trump again attacked Cruz on him being born in Canada. It probably doesn't really matter, cause he does seem to be qualified, but some Cruz voters might stay away from him, and in a close race like this, that could decide everything. And by everything we don't only mean Iowa. If Trump wins in Iowa, and then in New Hampshire too, he could have enough of a momentum to go all the way. Yeah, it is scary. So someon...

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...

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...

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham became the latest Republican Presidential candidate to suspend his candidacy. While Graham consistently received positive feedback from his debate performances, he has failed to convert them to higher poll numbers and fundraising. The veteran Senator had a very strong foreign policy credential, but will be most remembered for his quarrels with frontrunner Donald Trump. Graham's exit leaves 13 candidates in the contest, although the number of candidates with even decent chances is about half of that number. Graham's campaign was always considered to be a long-shot one, but with the endorsement of 2008 nominee, John McCain early on, he was taken more seriously. However even with McCain's endorsement, Graham failed to lift off. Early on he received heavy criticism for being too boring and lacking public speaking skills, but he actually performed really well during the undercard debates. But the emphasis is on the undercard, as he nev...

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...

Once a rising star in the party, now just a failed Presidential Candidate. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal dropped out of the Republican Presidential Primary race this week. 3 down, 14 more to go. Governor Jindal was the latest victim of this unique race. And the third Governor in a row. Jindal stated that this wasn't his time, but in reality he had far bigger troubles than timing. He never succeeded to break out from the crowded field of Republicans and was always relegated to the Undercard debates which are viewed by a lot less people. People were just not very enthusiastic about him, that is if they knew about him. Jindal fell because the like of Trump and Carson rose. But honestly, he never really had that much of a chance in this race. Maybe years ago, but at least he tried. This is the year of outsiders, and Jindal is a firm insider. He has been involved with the Louisiana government for decades despite his young age, so he can't say that he is an outsider. He ...

Scott Olson/Getty Images Over the last couple of days there have been two Presidential debates in America. The Republicans met for the fourth time in Wisconsin on the 10th, while the Democrats met yesterday for the second time in Iowa. Both of the debates were significantly different from the ones they previously had, and it was interesting to see how the dynamics change. But at the end of the day, there are always winners and losers, and we were there to see it. Here is what happened: In the Republican debate, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz stood out. For Rubio it was the second consecutive debate in which he performed really well, gave clear policy answers and had smart comebacks for those attacking him. His chances look better and better everyday, and there is no an indication that he was able to keep his momentum going on from the strong debate performances on his campaign stops. He is rising in the polls and is getting more and more donations. Rubio is still comi...

Mark J. Terrill/AP President Marco Rubio? Yes. Last Night the third Republican debate occurred, this time in Colorado. A lot of question were answered as it was a crucial night for many of the candidates. One thing is clear though, Marco Rubio is now the biggest hope of the party, and he should be chosen as the nominee.  It is also easy to see that several of the other candidates should withdraw, to allow for a clear, policy driven debate between the serious candidates, like the Democrats have been able to do. Unfortunately however, there is only a little possibility that the field will thin out enough in time before Iowans will go to the polling stations. Jindal, Pataki, Santorum and Graham should drop out now. The miracle is not going to happen for them. The participants of the undercard debate showed again why they are still at that debate, and not at the main one. It is time to go. We also think that Governor Huckabee and Senator Paul should follow them, as they ...

Although he may not admit to it, Trump is slipping. In the latest national and statewide polls, he has been slowly losing his ground, most often to Ben Carson. In Michigan for example, Carson already overtook him, but the extravagant businessman still remains atop most polls. But if the momentum or current tide has its ways, and water usually does, that will change soon. There is nothing to suggest that this is only a temporary blip in Trump's system, although he has always surprised the audiences. When Trump launched his campaign, he was largely ignored. But he soon got all the headlines due to his controversial remarks, and god knows why, but he just kept rising in polls. He did everything in the opposite way, and it worked. Establishment candidates who followed the playbook, Rick Perry and Scott Walker bled out, and Trump kept on roaring ahead of everyone. Then came the first debate, and everyone still loved him. He was so different,...