Nearly one in 10 voters in the US election have already cast ballots with President George Bush taking a narrow early lead over Senator John Kerry, according to a poll yesterday.
Nine per cent of likely voters have already filled out ballots, with 51 per cent backing the president for re-election and 47 per cent supporting Mr Kerry, according to the ABC News survey. Most of the country will go to the polls next Tuesday, but people in some states are able to vote early and others have cast absentee ballots.
The result reflects most national opinion polls of recent days, which have shown Mr Bush with a slim lead over the Democratic senator from Massachusetts. However, ABC cautioned that the result of its latest poll was essentially a dead heat within the margin of error. - (PA)
President Bush may see himself as defender of democracy and compassionate conservatism but British film fans have voted him "Movie Villain of the Year".
The American "Axis of Evil" fighter is wooing voters with security pledges ahead of the presidential election next week, but it was Bush's role in Michael Moore's anti-war film Fahrenheit 9/11 that won him the villainous title.
In a poll for Total Film magazine, Mr Bush fought off competition from such well-known baddies as atomic scientist Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2 and fellow Texan Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. "The overwhelming response of our readers voting Bush top villain just goes to show how frightening people found him in Fahrenheit 9/11," Total Film's editor Matt Mueller has said.
"He was absolutely terrifying in that film. The infamous scene where he's informed about the Twin Towers attack while visiting a school, and sits there absolutely paralysed, is enough to strike fear into anyone's heart," he said. - (Reuters)
Germany's best-selling Bild newspaper endorsed Mr Bush for president yesterday, the first time a German newspaper has backed a candidate in a US presidential election. Bild listed 10 reasons "why Bush is the better president".
The endorsement went against public opinion in Germany, where polls show 85 per cent favour Democrat Mr John Kerry.
- (Reuters)
Under the unwritten rules of US election politics, candidates and campaigns never publicly doubt they will win.
Not so with Teresa Heinz Kerry, who to her detractors' delight and her supporters' chagrin keeps making headlines by breaking the rules.
"If John gets there," she said at a recent campaign event for her husband, the Democratic challenger to President Bush, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.
She was interrupted by shouts of "When! When! You can say 'when'.
"I'm going to say 'if'," she said. "I'm superstitious."