The day after

(Tribune photo by Chris Walker / November 4, 2008)

Last night was fun (much funner for the tens of thousands in Grant park). Obama beat the Clintons, beat the GOP, and beat the odds. Now he is the first black President of the United States, only 44 years after the end of segregation. It's a little hard to believe, given what many of us thought about America only four years ago. Remember this?



If someone had told me in 2004 that in just four years, the US would elect a black man of second-generation Kenyan ancestry with a Muslim name President, I would have laughed in their face. The only ones laughing now are Democrats.

The way I see it, the greatest challenge that Obama will face as he begins his presidency is pressure from the pundits and talking heads to "govern from the centre", and ignore all those Dirty Fucking Hippies who want crazy batshit insane stuff like health care reform, a green economy freed of dependence on fossil fuels, and withdrawal from Iraq. Hopefully Obama listens to his better angels and moves ahead with a badly needed progressive agenda.

Already, conservative columnists are gravely warning Obama against taking on health care due to the poor economy. Which totally misses the point, of course, but expect to see a lot of this.

Couple other things worth mentioning:

The polls actually underestimated Obama's support in swing states, making a mockery of right wing claims of "pollster bias". Damn reality and its well known Liberal Bias.

And a final laugh at Mrs. Mooseburger's expense; remember the dust-up over Palin's $150,000 wardrobe, and how Palin went to great pains explaining that she had nothing to do with it? It was all the campaign's fault, you see.

Well, not exactly :

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.

I sooo hope she runs in 2012. Given that convicted felon Ted Stevens seems to have been inexplicably re-elected by his Alaskan constituents to the Senate, and that his Senate colleagues will now kick his ass out of Washington and into a jail cell, thus necessitating a special election, good ol' Caribou Barbie might just decide to resign the governorship and run for Stevens' vacant seat. Assuming she won, she would have just as much national political experience by 2012 as Obama did in 2008. Is that idea floating through her head even now? You betcha!

Also, this gem from the same article:

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, 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'."

Obama's awesome.