V for …

November 5th, 2008

Victory!

It was quite a night, wasn’t it? Fast-paced, and when it broke … as the polls closed on the West Coast … it was all done! The Pub nominee was gracious and unaccustomedly warm, and the Dem elect was humble and inspiring; it was a roller coaster, the best ride of the last eight years and the quickest.

It’s stunning, all of this — our emotions are dried and brittle like that little majik pellet that you get at the joke shop, compressed into a tiny dot. Throw it into a goblet of water and it suddenly takes life, bigger … bigger … until you think it will explode.

Our feelings have been crisped by censorship and rerouted into dark mode and repressed so we wouldn’t run with scissors… but now they’re unleashed; they’re escaping the glass, filling the space … maybe the room. We’ve shoved down emotions so long, that whatever we feel today … and in the days to come … is well out and expressed.

Joy is good to start with — proceed from there.

Now — one warning; I’ve spent a while harping away at how this change is to bring us balance, and how it won’t look quite like we thought it would. There’s a piece in this collection by cranky old Doug Thompson from Capital Hill Blue — in the last eight years he’s withdrawn from blogging at least three times in fits of pique; the important portion of his message is toward the last. To paraphrase — exhale, relax now and give it time.

Meanwhile, let’s celebrate some of the obvious. We can believe that whatever happens next, the good of the country and her people will be the first thing on the mind of the President. We will have TWO Constitutional lawyers in charge of the zoo. We will hear no more malapropisms from our leadership — and I don’t expect either Obama or Biden will hole up in an undisclosed location or insult our intelligence by lying in our faces and smirking behind our backs.

We will have CHILDREN in the White House again … according to the First-Dad, there will also be a puppy [and, to my delight, a basketball court!] We will have a First Lady with something to say and a will to say it. And — against all odds — we will have a couple in the White House who transparently and sincerely love one another.

We will become multicultural again, the fabric of our lives more rich and satisfying because of it — and, should an African band play a ditty for the new Prez [and it will,] Obama will not likely go all Booga-Booga and embarrass us all with his homemade version of the Macarana.

The cherry on the cake? The world is looking on in pleasure.

If none of that impresses you, then think about this — SUPREME COURT!

Let me say that again: SUPREME COURT!

Hallelujah! It is all well; even though Dubby still has time to make up some more stupid stuff to make our lives harder.

A diverse collection of reads, below, from Mike Moore, the Onion, the New York Times — Alice Walker and Trey Ellis give us the black perspective. Newsweek has details they’ve been sitting on until after the election; they answer a lot of questions about the various campaigns.

By the way — Happy Guy Fawke’s Day!

Mighty clouds of joy,

Jude

From Mike Moore

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Friends,

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate
fizzle out in our lifetime.

There was another important “first” last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in thegeneral election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.

It’s been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That’s because most Americans haven’t really liked the Democrats. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. Well, here’s their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.

But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago. What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country’s greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.

We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have
been inundated with media asking me, “gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?” Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.

An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.

We really don’t have much time. There is big work to do. But this is the week for all of us to revel in this great moment. Be humble about it. Do not treat the Republicans in your life the way they have treated you the past eight years. Show them the grace and goodness that Barack Obama exuded throughout the campaign.

Though called every name in the book, he refused to lower himself to the gutter and sling the mud back. Can we follow his example? I know, it will be hard.

I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It’s been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won’t be easy.

But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Yours,
Michael Moore ++

An American President…for a change
Doug Thompson, Capital Hill Blue
November 5, 2008

The embodiment of what America can and should be stood on stage at Grant Park in Chicago late Tuesday night and accepted the prize that is rightfully his.

Barack Obama – half black, half white and all American – swept into office on the tidal wave of young voters, black solidarity and enough white dissatisfaction to send too many years of Republican regression packing.

A black man (OK, half black) will become the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009. It was an event that many – myself included – predicted would never happen in our lifetimes. America is still too racist, many of us thought, and that racism, whether overt or buried, would rise up in the polls and prevent the history we saw unfold across the nation on Tuesday.

We were wrong. I was wrong and I’m happy to admit it.

As expected, Obama delivered a stirring speech from the stage, saying “Change has come to America” and promising to work to unite a nation divided by bitter, partisan differences.

His task won’t be easy and he acknowledged that from the podium, noting that he will make mistakes and promising to do something his successor never did: Admit to the American people when he is wrong.

The massive crowd of 100,000 plus in Grant Park was not all black. They were white, black, yellow and red. They represented differing political philosophies and diverse backgrounds. They came to see history in the making and they did not go home disappointed.

Obama acknowledged that the problems facing America are daunting. He cannot, and will not, turn this nation from its self-destructive course overnight or even over the next few weeks and months. America’s decline has been years in the making and the cure will take months and years to purge this nation of the cancer that inflicts our national psyche for far too long.

We can only hope he succeeds and that the nation can unite behind him to make it happen. Obama assumes the helm of a sinking ship, battered by the storms of division and taking water from a rising tide of corruption and cynical political opportunism.

He will need help and the same American voters who put him into office also gave him a Congress that should be more receptive to his programs and ideas for change.

We, as Americans, must give the new President and Congress a chance to deliver. We must put aside our own selfish interests, party affiliations and fears from the past.

It’s time to stop thinking as Republicans or Democrats or liberals or conservatives or red state or blue state. Such labels lead to division, not cohesion. Such divided loyalties breed partisanship not patriotism.

We’re Americans and in these troubled times that is, should be and must be all that matters. ++

History
Trey Ellis, HuffPo
November 5, 2008

I love history and had often whined to myself that I wasn’t lucky enough to have lived during a more exciting age: I sometimes like to think that I could have been a Tuskegee Airman, Buffalo Soldier or beatnik. Instead, I grew up in an America that often felt like occupied territory. After freeing Europe from the Nazis in the Forties, and then blacks in the Sixties and women in the Seventies, politically, the next thirty-odd years have largely been a depressing, embarrassing, soul-grinding drag. Throughout those years it often felt like the Empire struck back and would never return this nation back to its people. So I escaped in my mind, consoling myself by writing about the Airmen and the Beats.

But last night history came to me.

I love those pictures of Victory in Europe day in Times Square: all the confetti, all the young women and sailors spontaneously making out. Last night Times Square seemed almost as jubilant as back then. My Manhattan neighborhood fifty blocks north erupted in cheers and cars and trucks honking and spontaneous street parties till the early morning.

Is America really America again?

My friends, black and white, had been so nervous about yesterday. I’d been relatively calm. If the polls had been closer, then the Empire’s dirty tricks might have been able again to put their thumb on the scale and steal another win. If McCain had been a more predictable servant of corporate interests than they might have fought harder for him. In the run up to election day I was sleeping pretty well.

Then imagine my surprise when, upon seeing CNN pronounce Obama the winner, I burst into tears.

It wasn’t my first time that day. The kids and I both had election day off so after going out for breakfast we walked down the block to our polling place. Chet, my seven-year-old, wanted to stay outside and play. Ava, ten, wanted to come into the booth with me. I didn’t even really know she could. I almost let Chet stay out then remembered that I was about to make history and brought them both in with me. The older black women working the polling station were all atwitter around them, counseling me on the best way to have two kids help me vote. “One pulls the lever back, the other forward,” one of them advised. She must be a very good mom. They all applauded when my kids went in with me and shouted, “First time voters!” Inside, I lifted Chet up, against his protestations, and we all flipped the lever for Obama.

“What’s the matter, daddy?” asked Ava as we headed back up the hill.

I had to breathe a few times before I could speak.

I’d voted for him in the New York primary but didn’t yet see much of a difference between him and Hillary. I really just wanted our side to win. By any means necessary. And as a progressive, her politics on key matters like health care, were actually much closer to my own. Back then I voted for Obama anyway because, frankly, he seemed so much like me. But as the race wore on he seemed to get bigger while she seemed to shrink (the same thing seemed to happen to McCain).

Then his magnificent race speech in Philadelphia cinched my full-throated support.

The old century stubbornly clung on well past it’s sell-by date as we all suffered under the B Team from the Ford Administration. Yet today, almost nine years into the 21st Century, the future finally, actually, begins. ++

An Open Letter to Barack Obama
Alice Walker, The Root

[thanks, Nadirah]

Nov. 5, 2008

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors.

This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people’s enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely.

However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, “hate the sin, but love the sinner.” There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people’s spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to “work with the enemy” internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker ++

Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress
The Onion
November 5, 2008 | Issue 44•45

WASHINGTON—After emerging victorious from one of the most pivotal elections in history, president-elect Barack Obama will assume the role of commander in chief on Jan. 20, shattering a racial barrier the United States is, at long last, shitty enough to overcome.

Faced with losing everything, Americans took a long overdue step forward and elected Barack Obama.

Although polls going into the final weeks of October showed Sen. Obama in the lead, it remained unclear whether the failing economy, dilapidated housing market, crumbling national infrastructure, health care crisis, energy crisis, and five-year-long disastrous war in Iraq had made the nation crappy enough to rise above 300 years of racial prejudice and make lasting change.

“Today the American people have made their voices heard, and they have said, ‘Things are finally as terrible as we’re willing to tolerate,” said Obama, addressing a crowd of unemployed, uninsured, and debt-ridden supporters. “To elect a black man, in this country, and at this time—these last eight years must have really broken you.”

Added Obama, “It’s a great day for our nation.”

Carrying a majority of the popular vote, Obama did especially well among women and young voters, who polls showed were particularly sensitive to the current climate of everything being fucked. Another contributing factor to Obama’s victory, political experts said, may have been the growing number of Americans who, faced with the complete collapse of their country, were at last able to abandon their preconceptions and cast their vote for a progressive African-American.

After enduring eight years of near constant trauma, the United States is, at long last, ready for equality.

Citizens with eyes, ears, and the ability to wake up and realize what truly matters in the end are also believed to have played a crucial role in Tuesday’s election.

According to a CNN exit poll, 42 percent of voters said that the nation’s financial woes had finally become frightening enough to eclipse such concerns as gay marriage, while 30 percent said that the relentless body count in Iraq was at last harrowing enough to outweigh long ideological debates over abortion. In addition, 28 percent of voters were reportedly too busy paying off medial bills, desperately trying not to lose their homes, or watching their futures disappear to dismiss Obama any longer.

“The election of our first African-American president truly shows how far we’ve come as a nation,” said NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. “Just eight years ago, this moment would have been unthinkable. But finally we, as a country, have joined together, realized we’ve reached rock bottom, and for the first time voted for a candidate based on his policies rather than the color of his skin.”

“Today Americans have grudgingly taken a giant leap forward,” Williams continued. “And all it took was severe economic downturn, a bloody and unjust war in Iraq, terrorist attacks on lower Manhattan, nearly 2,000 deaths in New Orleans, and more than three centuries of frequently violent racial turmoil.”

Said Williams, “The American people should be commended for their long-overdue courage.”

Obama’s victory is being called the most significant change in politics since the 1992 election, when a full-scale economic recession led voters to momentarily ignore the fact that candidate Bill Clinton had once smoked marijuana. While many believed things had once again reached an all-time low in 2004, the successful reelection of President George W. Bush—despite historically low approval ratings nationwide—proved that things were not quite shitty enough to challenge the already pretty shitty status quo.

“If Obama learned one thing from his predecessors, it’s that timing means everything,” said Dr. James Pung, a professor of political science at Princeton University. “Less than a decade ago, Al Gore made the crucial mistake of suggesting we should care about preserving the environment before it became unavoidably clear that global warming would kill us all, and in 2004, John Kerry cost himself the presidency by criticizing Bush’s disastrous Iraq policy before everyone realized our invasion had become a complete and total quagmire.”

“Obama had the foresight to run for president at a time when being an African-American was not as important to Americans as, say, the ability to clothe and feed their children,” Pung continued. “An election like this only comes once, maybe twice, in a lifetime.”

As we enter a new era of equality for all people, the election of Barack Obama will decidedly be a milestone in U.S. history, undeniable proof that Americans, when pushed to the very brink, are willing to look past outward appearances and judge a person by the quality of his character and strength of his record. So as long as that person is not a woman.++

Behind The Scenes: Newsweek On McCain In The Dark, Obama Threats, And More
Rachel Weiner, HuffPo
November 5, 2008

Newsweek has released highlights of its Special Election Project, which allowed reporters to gather behind-the-scenes information on the presidential campaigns with an agreement that none of their reporting would be published until after Election Day.

You can read a summary of their report here, and the first chapter of their book here.

Below, some key excerpts — including news about a cyber attack from an “unknown entity” that hit the presidential campaigns’ computers in the summer, prompting an FBI investigation; McCain’s advisers fuming at Palin’s shopping spree, which was apparently far more extensive than originally reported; and Palin being blocked from speaking on election night by top McCain aide Steve Schmidt.

From Newsweek’s press release:

New York–The computer systems of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims of a sophisticated cyber attack by an unknown “foreign entity,” prompting a federal investigation, Newsweek reports in its exclusive special election issue, “President Obama” on newsstands Thursday, Nov. 6.

At the Obama headquarters in midsummer, technology experts detected what they initially thought was a computer virus, a case of “phishing”–a form of hacking often employed to steal passwords or credit card numbers. But by the next day, both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: “You have a problem way bigger than what you understand,” an agent told them. “You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system.”

The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: “You have a real problem… and you have to deal with it.” The Feds told the Obama campaign in late August that the McCain campaign’s computer system had been similarly compromised (a top McCain official confirmed to Newsweek that the campaign’s computer system had been hacked and the FBI was had become involved).

As Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas writes, FBI and White House officials told the Obama campaign that they believed that a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps’ policy issues–information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration. The Feds assured the Obama team that it had not been hacked by its political opponents (Obama technical experts later speculated that the hackers were Russian or Chinese). A security firm retained by the Obama campaign took steps to secure its computer system and end the intrusion. White House and FBI officials had no comment earlier this week.

Newsweek’s 2008 Special Election Issue marks the magazine’s seventh consecutive installment of providing a behind-the-scenes account of the entire presidential campaign. It will be on newsstands Nov. 6-16. The exclusive narrative of the campaign is reported by a separate Newsweek Special Project team that worked for more than a year on this historic campaign. The text of the nearly 50,000-word project will be posted in chapters on Newsweek.com Nov. 5-Nov. 7.

Other highlights from the report:

– McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.

– The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that the crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. “Why would they try to make people hate us?” Michelle Obama said to a top campaign aide.

– On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain’s core group of advisers–Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons — met to decide whether or not to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had “a pulse.”

– The Obama campaign’s “New Media” experts created a computer program that would allow a “flusher”–the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day–to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.

– Palin launched her attack on Obama’s association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain’s advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

– McCain also was reluctant to use Obama’s incendiary pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue. He had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military. McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism; Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting that Obama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons); and before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a “celebrity” ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative).

– Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary’s name came up in veep discussions, and Obama’s advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, “Are we sure?” He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.

– McCain was dumbfounded when Congressman John Lewis, a civil-rights hero, issued a press release comparing McCain with former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist infamous for stirring racial fears. McCain had devoted a chapter to Lewis in one of his books, “Why Courage Matters” and had so admired Lewis that he had once taken his children to meet him.

– The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for the Democratic primary debates, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that's green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”

++

Palin Once Greeted McCain Staff Wearing Only A Towel
Rachel Weiner, HuffPo
November 5, 2008

From Newsweek’s Special Election Project comes the real Sarah Palin. She met staff members in a towel:

At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys’ club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. “I’ll be just a minute,” she said.

She raised William Ayers before the campaign signed off on it:

Palin launched her attack on Obama’s association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain’s advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

And she spent far more on clothes than was reported:

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family–clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent “tens of thousands” more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,” and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Finally, Steve Schmidt (who reportedly picked Palin as VP) would not let her speak on election night.

McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.

Read more highlights here. Read the Newsweek story here. ++

The Next President
New York Times
November 4, 2008

This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:

An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.

Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama swept away one political presumption after another to defeat first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.

His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He offered a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.

Mr. Obama spoke candidly of the failure of Republican economic policies that promised to lift all Americans but left so many millions far behind. He committed himself to ending a bloody and pointless war. He promised to restore Americans’ civil liberties and their tattered reputation around the world.

With a message of hope and competence, he drew in legions of voters who had been disengaged and voiceless. The scenes Tuesday night of young men and women, black and white, weeping and cheering in Chicago and New York and in Atlanta’s storied Ebenezer Baptist Church were powerful and deeply moving.

Mr. Obama inherits a terrible legacy. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan.

The campaign began with the war as its central focus. By Election Day, Americans were deeply anguished about their futures and the government’s failure to prevent an economic collapse fed by greed and an orgy of deregulation. Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan.

His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in. Climate change is a global threat, and after years of denial and inaction, this country must take the lead on addressing it. The nation must develop new, cleaner energy technologies, to reduce greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil.

Mr. Obama also will have to rally sensible people to come up with immigration reform consistent with the values of a nation built by immigrants and refugees.

There are many other urgent problems that must be addressed. Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, including some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens — children of the working poor. Other Americans can barely pay for their insurance or are in danger of losing it along with their jobs. They must be protected.

Mr. Obama will now need the support of all Americans. Mr. McCain made an elegant concession speech Tuesday night in which he called on his followers not just to honor the vote, but to stand behind Mr. Obama. After a nasty, dispiriting campaign, he seemed on that stage to be the senator we long respected for his service to this country and his willingness to compromise.

That is a start. The nation’s many challenges are beyond the reach of any one man, or any one political party. ++

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Entry Filed under: Political Waves