The dog-killing South Dakota governorβs VP hopes are in tatters. But sheβs not the first politician to flame out with an own goal
She could have been a contender. But then she wrote a book. And suddenly Kristi Noem was caught like a rabbit β or a rambunctious puppy β in the headlights.
The governor of South Dakota found herself insisting that a false claim she met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had been put in her book by accident. Wait, said Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation, you recorded the whole audiobook version and read this passage out loud. Why didnβt you take it out then?
Politics is about achieving things and telling a compelling story. But neither the president β nor Starmer β can match Trumpβs gift for narrative
The smile was the giveaway. Asked whether he was βjust a copycatβ of Tony Blair at the launch of his Blair-style pledge card on Thursday, Keir Starmer positively glowed. He was delighted with the comparison, which the entire exercise was surely designed to encourage. Blair βwon three elections in a rowβ, Starmer said, beaming. Of course, heβs thrilled to be likened to a serial winner. And yet the more apt parallel is also a cautionary one. Itβs not with Starmerβs long-ago predecessor, but with his would-be counterpart across the Atlantic: Joe Biden.
Itβs natural that the sight of a Labour leader, a lawyer from north London, on course for Downing Street after a long era of Tory rule, would have people digging out the Oasis CDs and turning back the clock to 1997: Labour election victories are a rare enough commodity to prompt strong memories. But, as many veterans of that period are quick to point out, the circumstances of 2024 are very different. The UK economy was humming then and itβs parlous now. Optimism filled the air then, while too few believe genuine change is even possible now. And politics tended to be about material matters then, tax and public services, rather than dominated by polarising cultural wars as it is now.
Itβs game on for a pair of presidential debates between two unpopularcandidatesmost Americans wish werenβt running for the nationβs highest office.
In a ratatat social media exchange on Wednesday, Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to participate in two debates on 27 June, hosted by CNN, and on 10 September, hosted by ABC.