Underpinnings and Self Tanner

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Dave Barry on Obama

Barack Obama is our next president, which is very bad because he is a naive untested wealth-spreading terrorist-befriending ultraliberal socialist communist who will suddenly reveal his secret Muslim identity by riding to his inauguration on a camel shouting ''Death to Israel!'' (I mean Obama will be shouting this, not the camel) after which he will wreck the economy by sending Joe the Plumber to Guantánamo and taxing away all the income of anybody who makes over $137.50 per year and giving it to bloated government agencies that will deliberately set it on fire.

He keeps going.

What will be done about Lieberman?

I guess I missed this; but apparently Obama did an LBJ style corner-backing with Joe the Independent back in June.

Rhambo

Obama's designated a--hole.

"Reactions to the Election"

Rehka Basu with the Des Moines Register and Eugune Robinson with the Washington Post both had columns in the Des Moines Register today.

Basu: "Wave of hope lifts spirits, flags around the world"
I've never been a flag-flier, though I've had citizenship in two different countries. I know that people have valid and admirable reasons for flying the flag, but it felt somehow immodest to me, like a public display of affection, or a boast of "Mine is better than yours." Maybe if we had a world flag, it would have come easier.But on two occasions, I've felt tempted to hoist the U.S. one - after Sept. 11, 2001, out of solidarity with a wounded America, and since Tuesday, out of pride.

An overwhelming, unsquelchable pride began to well up listening to Barack Obama's glorious acceptance speech and seeing the throngs of joyful, tear-streaked faces on TV, and it has hardly let up since. John McCain, in a gracious concession speech, called it a day of special pride for African-Americans. But really, it belongs to every American. Just as it took men to give women the right to vote, and a white president to sign the emancipation proclamation, it took people of every demographic to look past race and vote for change.
But tearing down that racial barrier is only one part of what makes this election so transformative. There are so many victories wrapped up in one. There's the triumph of intelligent discourse and inquiry over blind adherence to some doctrine. Let's hope now we can rebuild a culture in which a good education is not denounced as elitist but applauded and aspired to for everyone.

This is also a win for our relationship with the world. (to read the rest of the article, click here or I have posted it in full in the comments of this post).


Robinson, "Morning in America"
I almost lost it Tuesday night when television cameras found the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the crowd at Chicago's Grant Park and I saw the tears streaming down his face. His brio and bluster were gone, replaced by what looked like awestruck humility and unrestrained joy. I remembered how young he was in 1968 when he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., moments before King was assassinated and hours before America's cities were set on fire.

I almost lost it again when I spoke with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), one of the bravest leaders of the civil rights crusade, and asked whether he had ever dreamed he would live to see this day. As Lewis looked for words beyond "unimaginable," I thought of the beating he received on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the scars his body still bears.

I did lose it, minutes before the television networks projected that Barack Obama would be the 44th president of the United States, when I called my parents in Orangeburg, S.C. I thought of the sacrifices they made and the struggles they endured so that my generation could climb higher. I felt so happy that they were here to savor this incredible moment.

I scraped myself back together, but then almost lost it again when I saw Obama standing there on the stage with his family -- wife Michelle, daughters Malia and Sasha, their outfits all color-coordinated in red and black. I thought of the mind-blowing imagery we will see when this young, beautiful black family becomes the nation's First Family.

Then, when Michelle's mother, brother and extended family came out, I thought about "the black family" as an institution -- how troubled it is, but also how resilient and how vital. And I found myself getting misty-eyed again when Barack and Michelle walked off the stage together, clinging to one another, partners about to embark on an adventure, full of possibility and peril, that will change this nation forever.

It's safe to say that I've never had such a deeply emotional reaction to a presidential election. I've found it hard to describe, though, just what it is that I'm feeling so strongly. (my emphasis, L.T.)
It's obvious that the power of this moment isn't something that only African Americans feel. When President Bush spoke about the election yesterday, he mentioned the important message that Americans will send to the world, and to themselves, when the Obama family moves into the White House.
For African Americans, though, this is personal.

I can't help but experience Obama's election as a gesture of recognition and acceptance -- which is patently absurd, if you think about it. The labor of black people made this great nation possible. Black people planted and tended the tobacco, indigo and cotton on which America's first great fortunes were built. Black people fought and died in every one of the nation's wars. Black people fought and died to secure our fundamental rights under the Constitution. We don't have to ask for anything from anybody.

Yet something changed on Tuesday when Americans -- white, black, Latino, Asian -- entrusted a black man with the power and responsibility of the presidency. I always meant it when I said the Pledge of Allegiance in school. I always meant it when I sang the national anthem at ball games and shot off fireworks on the Fourth of July. But now there's more meaning in my expressions of patriotism, because there's more meaning in the stirring ideals that the pledge and the anthem and the fireworks represent.
It's not that I would have felt less love of country if voters had chosen John McCain. And this reaction I'm trying to describe isn't really about Obama's policies. I'll disagree with some of his decisions, I'll consider some of his public statements mere double talk and I'll criticize his questionable appointments. My job will be to hold him accountable, just like any president, and I intend to do my job.

For me, the emotion of this moment has less to do with Obama than with the nation. Now I know how some people must have felt when they heard Ronald Reagan say "it's morning again in America." The new sunshine feels warm on my face.

Nate Silver & crew from 538 OWNED this election

Thanks to Phil Hester for giving me the site a few months ago. Of course I'd have found it eventually, but it has been by far my go-to source for all things poll related. He's a genius. (And so is Nate.) Ha ha!

Uncle Roger

Election official Roger Miller helps Phil Barber, both of Des Moines' south side, place his ballot into the ballot box correctly on election day at Southview Manor in Des Moines Tuesday November 4, 2008.

I Didn't Vote for Obama Today

How He Did It

Newsweek has their analysis.

And not to "belabor" the point, but Andrew posts this part again, which I have repeated on many occasions,

I wrote well over a year ago, when Obama was 20 points behind, and McCain written off:

Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.

We don't have to imagine any more. It's happening. And the forces for good in the world have been immeasurably strengthened as a consequence.

Obama's Chili Recipe

I made this last night for our very small Election Night get together. It was good enough that I've been asked to post the recipe. To save space, I've posted it as a comment, and provided the title link as well.

Side note: The Ciroc Obama was good, but as Brook says, I like any drinks that are blue. :)

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

Prophetic words from The Onion: JANUARY 2001.

An excerpt:

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.

ANYTHING SOUND FAMILIAR? Thank you, Bill Cook, for sennding this to me. And remember, The Onion is a parody publication.

This

Will Be

Our Future

Photos: Linda Turner, 12/30/07

Barack Obama, #44

It's official.
I can't believe it.

Ciroc Obama

1 part Ciroc vodka
1/2 part Blue Curacao
1 part fresh lime juice (or sour mix)
1 part Sprite

Mix all the ingredients and shake in a stirrer with ice; serve over ice in a rocks glass and garnish with lime.
Recipe courtesy of Gypsy Bar at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City

Joe The Plumber Tries Voting At The Wrong Place

See? I said there would be some good things going on this afternoon.

This Sums Up How I Feel Today

From Ross Douthat @ the Atlantic:
I've spent the last couple of weeks gently tweaking my panicky, paranoid liberal friends who just can't help fretting that Obama's seemingly insurmountable lead in the polls will be undone on election day. But now that the day itself has arrived, I know what they mean: Even though I don't really see any way that McCain can win this thing, I've been conditioned - by the stalemate in 2000, by the exit-polling disaster in '04, even by New Hampshire flipping for Hillary this year - to assume that some sort of bizarre election-night twist will keep us up till three AM, half-drunk and reeling. The notion of an election where the anchors know who's won by mid-afternoon, and where the suspense for television viewers ends early (when Virginia and Pennsylvania both go Obama's way, perhaps), seems like something old-fashioned, something retro, something out of my childhood that couldn't possibly happen in the crazy world of twenty-first century America. So while my rational mind expects an easy Obama win, as of this morning my irrational mind is suddenly convinced that come nine PM tonight, some furrow-browed announcer will be remarking on his this is much, much closer than anyone expected ...

12:38pm, this made me smile, though

ELECTION DAY

I just voted this morning. Then I took my mom back to register and vote (we are able to same-day register in Iowa). She wasn't showing up on the online list, so I was told she had to fill out a new registration. I arrived at the Cavalry Baptist Church, our polling center, about 9:20am. No wait; filled out the information slip, took it to the next table to be checked off the list and given a ballot; went to my "secret booth" to fill in the circles, and fed it in the optical scanner. Took less than 10 minutes, and I was voter #340. Went home, got my mom ready; took her back; they sat her down, we filled out the forms, went to the "secret booth", and she put her own ballot through the scanner; #452.

What is striking is that for both my mother and I to vote (including her registering and voting) we were in the polling place no more than 25 minutes total, between the two trips. I would gladly have waited an hour each time if it allowed the folks waiting 4,6, even 9 hours to also only have to wait an hour. What were your experiences? Please use the "comments" link below to share; I will be posting all that are emailed directly to me, also.

WE ARE MAKING HISTORY TODAY!

Barack Obama's Granmother Has Died.

This will be my last post of the night. As I said earlier, I encourage you to read "Barack Obama for President", even if you do not vote for him (but please, VOTE). It is so sad that his grandmother was so close to seeing her grandson make history, regardless of what happens tomorrow. Let's hope she'll be watching, still.

A MUST READ: View from Alaska: Big money surrounded by big wilderness

This was a guest column in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, brought to me attention by my father (thank you, Dad).

We Alaskans are not generally so magazine-pretty like her, nor are we so confrontational and vapid. Most of us don't have those peachy cheeks -- we have sunburn, windburn and frostbite. Our fingernails are dirty from actually gutting moose, not yakking about it. Our hands are chapped from picking thousands of salmon out of nets, not holding one up for the camera.

Having said that, here in Alaska we are accustomed to getting jobs we're not qualified to fill. In our far-flung villages and towns, we have big money surrounded by big wilderness; the combination causes warped career opportunities. Sort of an Edge of Nowhere phenomenon -- cousin to the Bridge to Nowhere one.

For example, in the village closest to the wilderness homestead where I was raised, I remember standing in my friend's cabin when his dad got a call on the CB radio: "People are writing you in for mayor."

The Farewell Edition: Fact Checker Wrap Up, Andrew Sullivan's Closing Arguments

Click on any one of the above pictures for the Fact Checker; but most compelling, if you have time, read Andrew Sullivan's "Barack Obama for President". It is a thoughtful (long, so print it out!) heartfelt closing argument for the choice we have to make as a nation tomorrow.

New ad from www.progressivefuture.org. Brook said I had to post it, so here you go.

McCain Gets Mean

In PA: Arlen Specter gets the crowd going....
Specter, the senior senator from Pennsylvania, was talking about his "sense" that Election Day in his state was going to be a rude awakening for Democrats, despite weeks of polls showing Republicans lagging far behind in this former swing state. That's when he let loose with his reason for optimism:

There are a "couple of hidden factors" in this election, said Specter. "The first is that people answer pollsters one way, but in the secrecy of the ballot booth, vote the other way."

Yes. That is what he said, to a chorus of hopeful affirmation. Arlen Specter was openly -- in public, into a microphone -- crossing his fingers, and hoping for racism.

Nate Silver, 538.com, Pennsylvania "in play"