Senate Majority-Will they make it magic 60?

52 Senate seats called now. First Democratic majority for a while. If they get 60 life will be a lot easier for Obama. Hopefully they'll get there.

Pennsylvania In-Time to start the celebrations!!??

Can we start to breathe easily at last? Obama is predicted to take Penn State the first of the biggies and is leading in a few of the other crunch states. It looks like all my hopes of the last few years are coming true and that we will have Change at last. It also look like the Senate will come solidly blue at last too. Obama Abú. Here with Gary and Fionn and a big jug of coffee-burgers and bud have been consumed and Mar and Mark chickened out and hit the bed. Come on now give us Florida and Ohio. Still I'm not going to bed till McCain concedes-I remember 2000!!

Back on track-again

North Carolina is in and Barack Obama is back on track. Fox news and now CNN are calling North Carolina tonight for Barack Obama. They're also saying that Indiana is too close to call. He's won another major state, albeit a heavily black one. If he can keep it tight in Indiana, this race is still his to win. The other interesting thing from the exit polls tonight is that large numbers feel Hillary Clinton has been making unfair attacks in both states. Interesting night ahead!

On a related topic, saw a magic North Carolina group called Chatham County Line at the Rhythm and Roots festival at the weekend. If you've never been to this festival, you need to get here for the May bank-holiday weekend next year(remember the bank holiday the Labour Party gave you when we were in Government!). Wel done to John Cleere and company for a great weekend's music.

Change in the air-Obama does it in Iowa

This politics thing is insane. Here I am, back from the Kingdom, having had a politics free fortnight and a great time with Mar and the kids and my parents. Yet here I am at almost three in the morning, watching the intrigue of politics three thousand miles away. From the day three years ago when I picked up Barack Obama's book in an airport in San Francicso, I've been hugely excited by this extraordinary young African American Democrat. I have believed that he can give Hilary Clinton a real run for her money in the Democratic primaries.

In the last ten minutes it's becoming a reality. Both CNN and our beloved Fox News have just called the state for Obama, with an astonishing 7% lead over John Edwards and Clinton. He now has 37%, to 30% each for the others. The turnout is huge, and a real indication of hope is that the number of young people turing out is the best in years.

On RTE's Primetime programme tonight, Samantha Power, that magical Irish woman who packed St. Canice's Cathedral in August called it like this. The infectious enthisiasm she had then and now may just prove right. For those of us enthusiastic about how new ideas and a lack of sticking with the old ways of doing things in politics, a guy who has only been a Senator for three years but who's now threateningfto become the US' first ever black President breathes life into politics. Roll on New Hampshire!

Reflection Time-Where did it all go wrong??

This is the twilight zone for any political activist. Unfortunately, those of us who have committed so many wakingb and sleepless moments to the entity that is the Irish Labour Party, a proud party which will be 100 years old at the next election, are getting used to this questioning and know we have some fundamental questions to answer. Let's have your opinions here to kickstart the debate, both in terms of our failure to win a seat locally and our failure to achieve a breakthrough nationally.

Addicted to Politics

Hi, my name is Seán and I'm addicted to politics! I've just been proclaimed mad by my wife who's witnessing me following the inner workings of the US House and Senate elections late into the night. The fact that we can get excited by exit polls from Virginia, Alaska and Vermont shows how much of an influence this country's politics has on all our lives. Hopefully it will be a good night for the Democrats, and Bush will lose control of both houses. This will see the start hopefully of a push to see the Presidency return to the Democrats in 2008.

My favourite candidate is Illinois Senator Barack Obama, whose star is on the rise in the party and the country and who is a good bet for America's first black President. His book, 'Dreams from my Father' is one of the best reads I have ever had, and he may just make up a dream ticket with Hillary Clinton, with her becoming the first woman VP hopefully.

One of the interesting things about US politics thesee days is the impact of the net and blogging in particular. I'm now watching Howard Dean on MSNBC, a man who made huge use of blogging in the run-up to the last Presidential election. Blogging parties are all the rage tonight including one hosted by CNN-how about it RTÉ during next summer's election? We wouldn't mind sipping a few glasses of vino in Donnybrook- I'm actually enjoying Los Robles, a wonderful Fair Trade wine from Chilé as we speak-God Bless Superquinn!

By the way have a look at one of the better US blogs I've seen, which amazingly is called Crooks and Liars- Nothing to do with politics surely!