Reaching for the Big Prize: The US Presidential Election 2008

The 2008 American presidential election campaign has already become the longest and the most expensive ever. According to most observers, it is also the most interesting and exiting in decades. The Center for the Study of the Americas is happy to invite you to an event on the upcoming election, co-sponsored by the US Embassy. The invited speakers and panelists include John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute, former senior member of the White House Communications team, Katie Levinson, and Spencer Oliver, Secretary General of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, as well as researchers from the Center for the Study of the Americas at CBS

Organized in cooperation with the Embassy of the United States in Copenhagen

The Speakers

John Fortier is a veteran observer of countless U.S. political campaigns and a Senior Scholar at the influential think tank, American Enterprise Institute. He will discuss major and emerging trends in the 2008 Presidential Election. What is going on in the Democratic and Republican parties? What happened during the primary campaigns? What is current state of the Obama-McCain race? And what we could expect from an Obama or McCain presidency?

Katie Levinson will discuss the changing landscape of the American political system in a Presidential Election year with special focus on online technology. A former chief spokesperson and communications director for the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Campaign, she has first-hand experience of how websites, blogs, chat rooms, text messaging and other social media outlets are fundamentally reshaping the way the public receives information about politicians and their campaigns as well as the manner in which political campaigns are covered by the press.

Spencer Oliver was chosen as the first Secretary General of the Assembly by the first Bureau meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in October 1992 and confirmed unanimously by the Standing Committee of Heads of Delegation at their meeting in Copenhagen in 1993.

The Standing Committee of Heads of Delegations decided in 1995 to provide for a five year term for the Secretary General. At that time Mr. Oliver was unanimously re-elected and was subsequently re-elected twice for five year terms.

Previously, Mr. Oliver served 22 years as a staff member in the US Congress, including as Chief of Staff of the US Helsinki Commission from 1976-1985 and as Chief Counsel of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives until January 1993. He also served in several senior diplomatic positions on U.S. delegations to CSCE Review and Expert Meetings between 1977 and 1993.

The Secretary General’s mandate includes responsibility for managing the affairs of the Assembly, ensuring the efficiency of the Secretariat, and carrying out the decisions of the Bureau, the Standing Committee and the Assembly. He reports to the President, the Bureau, the Standing Committee and the Annual Session.

Astrid Haug, Head of Public Relations, Copenhagen City Hall.

Ms Haug has an MA in Media Science from the University of Aarhus and has worked as a journalist since 2004. In 2004 she worked as a volunteer fundraiser in the New York campaign for John Kerry, presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. After returning to Denmark, Ms Haug was acting public relations officer during the Muhammed crisis, and is currently head of public relations at Klaus Bondam’s Office (Mayor of the Technical and Environmental area), Copenhagen City Hall. (Source: Kommunikationsforum)

The Panel consists of the invited speakers as well as Fullbright Professor Ray Haberski (Marian College, US), Adjunct Professor Carl Pedersen and Associate Professors Edward Ashbee and Niels Bjerre-Poulsen.