Listened to this today. I don’t think he’d turn it down. And he is very pro-Hillary, but might still appeal to the left?
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I’ve always had contempt for pie charts, but maybe they do serve a purpose.
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I saw some of this unfolding yesterday.
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Sounds like you got your wish. Although only a 0.4% margin? Jeez.
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Yes!
Technically, the Guardian article was wrong, because the preliminary results weren’t yet in at the time that article was published. The candidates were informed first, while the postal ballots for the city of Innsbruck were still being counted, and Hofer conceded over Facebook. Quite unusual.
Meanwhile, the “preliminary” results (pending appeals) have been anounced. Van der Bellen won with 50,3%, a difference of 31,026 votes. Which is more than the estimates said yesterday.
As for possible appeals, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) seems to accept the loss, and just define it as “basically a tie” and use it as a bonus for their opposition politics in the future.
In Austria we’re used to seeing the election results at 5pm on Sunday, at the very second when the last polling places close. Usually nobody cares about the couple of percentage points that are shifted around as the last precincts (until about 7 or 8pm) and the postal votes (until Monday about this time) are counted.
This time, the estimates on Sunday said: 50,0% against 50,0%, with a lead of 6000 votes for VdB. Quite frustrating.
The campaigns were interesting because both candidates were usually exceedingly civilized. After all, we weren’t chosing among many political parties for the parliament, these were two candidates whose parties had 12,4% (Greens) and 20,5% (FPÖ) at the last parliamentary elections, and they were being elected for an office which is largely ceremonial. An Austrian present has to represent all of Austria, be ready to defend the constitution in case it becomes absolutely necessary (it hasn’t, except once in 1934, where the president did nothing), and most importantly, to look dignified doing it.
So both candidates had to do their best to appeal to the center.
There was one TV debate between the two candidates without moderation, and for days afterwards both candidates were quite busy apologizing for their debating style which got a little heated and personal.
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Viennese coffee house disputes are Serious Business.
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To be fair sachertorte is serious business.
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The Democrat Convention platform might be interesting.
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No. Just lazy.
But I am interested to see how Cornel West gets on, also James Zogby; and Neera Tanden following the kerfuffle with Matt Bruenig last week.
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That hedgehog has really little hands.
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It’s a good thing it’s a long weekend, because I have a lot of drinking to do.
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Birds flock together; turds clump together.
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This isn’t going to get better any time soon, is it?
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it’s gonna be a looooooooooong summer.
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