President Obama had made the geopolitically significant decision to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed along with 95 other Polish dignitaries in the airliner crash in Smolensk. But the president has been forced to abandon those plans because of the clouds of volcanic ash now spread over Northern Europe. The White House released the following statement …
“I spoke with acting President Komorowski and told him that I regret that I will not be able to make it to Poland due to the volcanic ash that is disrupting air travel over Europe. Michelle and I continue to have the Polish people in our thoughts and prayers, and will support them in any way I can as they recover from this terrible tragedy. President Kaczynski was a patriot and close friend and ally of the United States, as were those who died alongside him, and the American people will never forget the lives they led.”
The United Kingdom is holding a parliamentary election on May 6th. And like John Major’s second election in 1997, this contest has long seemed predestined to mark the end of Labour’s long run of power — the question was, how steep would the fall be?
But the polls have tightened considerably over recent months. And polls out this weekend show a striking surge of support for the Liberal-Democrats, Britain’s perennial third party, which hasn’t headed a government since its predecessor (the Liberals) did almost exactly a century ago. Indeed, a composite of this weekend’s polls appears to put the Lib-Dems in second behind the Tories, though all three parties are basically clumped together at just over or under 30%. Read More
We keep hearing from TPM Readers who have already become iPad addicts. So I thought I’d check in to see what percentage of visits to the site are now from iPads. 0.3%. Not bad for a couple weeks in existence. Bear in mind, as I’ve noted before, that TPM’s audience skews substantially more Mac-based than the population as a whole: about 30% of our readers.
Expat TPM Reader TG checks in from the UK …
As a Brit who moved to the US several years ago, but who is now back in the UK to work on the campaign for Labour, I confess to feeling a small rush of pride seeing the election mentioned on TPM.
Two insights:
From TPM Reader NS …
The first of the three leaders’ debates — unprecedented in a British election — has changed both the polls and the dynamics.
The lay of the land:
– as a governing force, Labour is exhausted after 13 years, but not discredited by the economy in the way the Tories were in 1997. – the Tories haven’t sealed the deal that they’re the replacement governing party – the Lib Dems (and especially their leader, Nick Clegg) lack experience, but also have relatively clean hands.
Senate Republicans rebuff a key White House concession on financial reform and up the ante. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says it’s time “to go back to the drawing board” and start over with new legislation.
The UK election now seems to be a genuine three way race — at least in terms of nationwide opinions polls, if not probable distribution of seats. And the big news from today is that the surge in support for the Lib Dems appears to be real and at least for the moment sustaining itself. Today’s YouGov poll actually has the Lib Dems in the lead LDEM 33%, CON 32%, LAB 26%, though other polls out today show the Conservatives still with a very marginal lead. Read More
The pace of the financial reform story has picked up, and this week will be a critical week, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid still promising to try to bring the bill to the Senate floor by the end of the week, even though he’s short of 60 votes. Will any Republicans come over? What concessions will the administration have to make to entice them? Or will Democrats be content to let the GOP stand tall as the party of Wall Street during this election year?
A lot is happening so we’ve set up a Financial Reform Wire where you can keep track of each new development in real time.
Obama will head to New York on Thursday to give a speech at Cooper Union on financial reform.
The New York Times profiles the Obama administration officials who will implement the new health care reform law. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.