obama

• Can you believe it's fifty degrees today? How unseasonably warm for November!
• Alabama or Texas Tech?
• No, no I don't think we'll need Secret Service to keep our daughters out of bars. Maybe in the second term when they hit their tweens?
• Seen any good movies lately?
• Thanks for that secret CIA order authorizing the military to go after Al-Qaeda through clandestine ops in 15 to 20 countries with whom we already have tenuous and arguably hostile relations! I so enjoy challenges.
• Nice drapes.
• Have you got any more hand sanitizer?
• Did I mention it was unseasonably warm?

7 years, 1 month, and 25 days ago; a few hours after watching the second of the Twin Towers fall, I told my father "today is the most significant moment I will see in my life." Today, I think I stand transcendentally corrected. As tragic, violent and world-changing that 9/11 was, today stands on its own in history in a hopeful, peaceful, united way.

Yes we can.

Yes we did.

Yes we are.

Not sure what else to say.

Tears all around here.

That's it. That puts Obama at 195 called. Add in:

CA 55
OR 7
WA 11
IA 7

= 271!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news, the big three Senate races are not going well for the Dems.

Leaving the voting booth this morning it hit me. Today was about a simple choice:

- Vote for cynicism, fear, division and handing over one's fate to others, under the guise of "protecting us".

- Vote for hope, self-empowerment and unity.

It's really that simple.

It's finally- unbelievably- wonderfully here. In four and a half hours, Jesse and I will go stand in line to cast our vote for Barack Obama for President of the United State of America.

And this morning makes me think of another amazing morning for America, Bill Clinton's inauguration. And so, without further ado, the closing salvo to Maya Angelou's "On the Pulse of the Morning":

Here, on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, and into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope --
Good morning.

Can't talk, too busy being hopey.

Fortunately, other people have time on their hands. Time to take trips to New York to commit sacrilege for capitalism.

Yay Dan for finding this gem of a societal clusterbomb.

The Rovian construct (parasailing, swift boats, flip-flopping) was to define the 2004 election on a question of Kerry: his character, ability to lead and record.

The McCain people are having a terrible time with message control. This election is about John McCain. And it's not going well for him.

Sample: NYTimes top stories today:

1. Frank Rich: McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere
2. For McCain and Team, a Host of Ties to Gambling
3. Maureen Dowd: Sound, but No Fury
4. Bob Herbert: Palin’s Words Raise Red Flags
5. Behind Insurer’s Crisis, Blind Eye to a Web of Risk
6. Thomas L. Friedman: Green the Bailout
7. Nicholas D. Kristof: Impulsive, Impetuous, Impatient
8. Everybody’s Business: In Financial Food Chains, Little Guys Can’t Win
9. Op-Ed Contributor: Greenwich Time
10. Editorial Observer: Wasilla Watch: Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits

Via Hotline on Call, Obama's addendum to the bizarro joint release follows. And look! He added two nifty extra points of his own:

I believe that several core principles should guide this legislation.

First, there must be oversight. We should not hand over a blank check to the discretion of one man. We support an independent, bipartisan board to ensure accountability and complete transparency.

Second, we need to protect taxpayers. There should be a path for taxpayers to recover their money, and to turn a profit if Wall Street prospers.

Third, no Wall Street executive should profit from taxpayer dollars. This plan cannot be a welfare program for CEOs whose greed and irresponsibility has contributed to this crisis.

Fourth, we must help families who are struggling to stay in their homes. We cannot bail out Wall Street without helping millions of families facing foreclosure on Main Street.

1. Historically, up to and including Bush/Cheney, voters--especially independents-- vote for the top of the ticket. If you make the argument that the past eight years have dramatically changed the American perception of the role of the vice president:
   a) McCain-Palin should deter voters who want a tough, experienced foreign policy expert in that newly expanded position and b) it's not consistent with the poll that indicated that 15% of the public couldn't name the vice president.
2. Debates.
3. The electoral map is primed, still, for Obama. Even losing Ohio and Florida, Obama need only pick up two states that Kerry didn't, and he's leading in 2/3 of the likeliest: CO (with a strong up-ticket senate candidate in Mark Udall), NM (Bill Richardson), and VA (look to dissatisfied suburbanites and the biggest GOTV in history in the state's urban areas.