Two little boys

Photos from a Manassas, Virginia rally:

A loneliness about him

I think Lance Mannion's article is probably quite perceptive because he brings his knowledge of performance and drama to this analysis:

What some have called his cool, others have called reserve, and others have resented as aloofness, appears to me to be a deliberate, disciplined, stepping back. He's watching himself with a deeply critical and skeptical eye, ready to come down hard on the first sign of an emotion or egoistic urge getting out of hand . .
Good performers---and a politician on the stump is a performer---are often their own toughest audience, particularly the ones who aren't naturals. Some performers are able to watch themselves with a sense of humor, others with an ironical detachment. Obama seems to be watching himself with an open grade book in his hand.
And there's a loneliness about him. . .
with Barack Obama we have a President-elect who is a reluctant public figure. He strikes me as a brilliant, active, but scholarly man, introspective, even introverted, who's been granted gifts for public speaking, moral persuasion, and leadership that he is temperamentally not inclined to enjoy . . . I think Obama became a politician because he felt it was his responsibility, not because he thought it would be fun.

And he goes one to discuss why Joe Biden, who does think politics are fun, is Obama's perfect vice-president:

Biden's the guy you can see reminding an annoyed and exasperated President Obama to smile and nod while listening to a blowhard and a boob waste his time by smiling and nodding himself. Biden's the sort you can see walking you to the door after you've just been dressed down and having you convinced by the time he's helped you on with your coat that you've been given a medal and a two-week vacation . . .
Biden, I think, is the perfect complement to a basically shy and skeptical man interested more in policy than in other politicians, drawn more to individuals than to crowds, more at home in private than at ease in public.

I think this may be why it took Hillary supporters a little while to warm up to Obama, because he didn't have that spontaneous, warm, gregarious manner.
But once you get past that difference, then his commitment to leadership and his simple basic decency simply shines.

Sarah who?

Cariboo Barbie has no future in the Republican party because she would not follow instructions.
And that is an unforgivable sin for a Republican.
So we will wave buh-bye as she disappears back into the Alaskan wilderness...

Amazing story

From Tiny Revolution, by Jonathan Schwarz:

It's September 12, 2001. You're sitting in front of a TV, watching footage of the World Trade Center collapse over and over and over again.
All of a sudden, someone from seven years in the future walks out of a tiny temporal vortex, and tells you: George W. Bush is going to fuck this up so badly that in 2008, the United States of America will likely elect as president a black man whose middle name is Hussein and whose father was Muslim. Oh, and he also admits he's used cocaine.
I think it would have been easier to convince me of the reality of time travel. 'No, no, I believe you really are from the future. But the other stuff, that's CRAZY.'

Celebrations

Celebrating the Obama win around the world:

Japan:



Obama Girls, a hula dance group formed in honor of Obama's Hawaiian heritage, perform hula to celebrate Barack Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential election in Obama, Japan.

India:

ndian Siddi Tribals eat sweets as they gather in Ahmedabad in celebration of Barack Obama's election victory.


A sand sculpture congratulating US president-elect Barack Obama by Indian sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik

England:

Guy Fawkes celebrations featuring effigy of Obama.



Kenya:


Paris:


Holland:


Indonesia:

Students at Obama's old school.

Australia:


Israel:

Great line of the day

From a comment on Daily Kos about traveling:

We won't have to pretend to be Canadian anymore.

Free at last, free at last

Thank god almighty the United States is free at last.



I'm listening to MSNBC go into lyrical poems of praise for Obama -- "one person who did this, who found a voice and inspired us, this one guy figured out the potential of the word hope and put it before us."

No on Proposition Hate

I was surprised to see that a few people from California have visited this blog -- so this one is for you.
Please, Californians, vote No on Proposition 8.
It is a simple matter of human rights.
The Mormon Church has given $20 million to the campaign to make gay marriage unconstitutional in California -- as Jon Stewart pointed out, this is the church that founded Utah because they were being discriminated against by other religions.
Here is the latest commercial which shows what is at stake:

Great line of the day

Over at Far and Wide, a comment from deBeauxOs defines what the Liberals should be looking for in terms of "electability":

Oh good grief. Just pick someone who appears remotely shag-able.
Of course that just eliminated the usual suspects.

Hope and Dreams

Land of Hope and Dreams



This Train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train
Faith will be rewarded
This Train
Hear the steel wheels singin'
This Train
Bells of freedom ringin'

Great photo of the day

From Tales of the Freewayblogger:

Great news!

Well, this is just such great news! Obama is really a secret Canadian -- so this means he can run for the Liberal leadership! Pandagon explains:

Malcolm X had a love child with a University of Hawaii student who moved to Seattle and he then made go over the border to Canada to have a child whose parentage and name he then conspired to give to a Kenyan national still in Hawaii and then manufactured a fake birth certificate to hide the fact that the kid was born in Canada, despite the fact that he would have been born to two American parents and therefore an American citizen anyway.

but because he was born here, he's still a Canadian. So he can be our prime minister -- and won't he make a great Liberal leader? Manley just won't cut it compared to Barak-mania. And Iggy, well, better luck next time.
But in the comments, more conspiracies emerge:

Malcolm X? Pshaw! Obama’s education proves that his father can only be Gordon from Sesame Street.
Mr. Hooper tried to warn us, but was silenced.
And Big Bird knows everything. Why isn’t he talking? Maybe George Snuffalupagus will tell us on Sunday, when a panel consisting of Oscar (R-Garbage Can), Elmo (L-Some Garish Nightmare) and Kermit (Sesame Street News reporter) will speak to that and other issues of the day. Also, Ernie and Bert will speak out against California’s Proposition 8.

Do you naive fools think that this plot started with Obama’s birth (assuming he was “born” in the conventional sense of the word), let alone 1950? Oh no, even now, two stories under the paving stones of Red Square, Lenin is slowly awakening from suspended animation, ready to join the Manchurian Candidate Obama in imposing the Dictatorship of the Negroteriat on the entire world!

Denzel also starred in ... [wait for it] ... the re-make of The Manchurian Candidate. Co-incidence? I think NOT!

Ha! Although obviously this conspiracy theory is fact because it’s clearly based in reality and not at all on nonsensical hallucinogenic ramblings. If Obama doesn’t make it to the White House, Malcolm X’s other secret love child will have to make a go at it. And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t think Kanye West would be good under presidential pressure.
I mean. Did you see the way he screamed at that little girl at that pumpkin judging contest?

Fright Nite 2

Following up to my Frightening post, which may turn out to be the first of a series, here's a story from Miami today about two Obama supporters surrounded by a mob of McCainiacs:

After the rally, we witnessed a near-street riot involving the exiting McCain crowd and two Cuban-American Obama supporters. Tony Garcia, 63, and Raul Sorando, 31, were suddenly surrounded by an angry mob. There is a moment in a crowd when something goes from mere yelling to a feeling of danger, and that's what we witnessed. As photographers and police raced to the scene, the crowd elevated from stable to fast-moving scrum, and the two men were surrounded on all sides as we raced to the circle.
The event maybe lasted a minute, two at the most, before police competently managed to hustle the two away from the scene and out of the danger zone. Only FiveThirtyEight tracked the two men down for comment, a quarter mile down the street.
"People were screaming 'Terrorist!' 'Communist!' 'Socialist!'" Sorando said when we caught up with him. "I had a guy tell me he was gonna kill me."
Asked what had precipitated the event, "We were just chanting 'Obama!' and holding our signs. That was it. And the crowd suddenly got crazy."

The Canadians are coming!

Some of our people went to the United States to help after the disaster of Katrina, so I think it's great that Canadians are going to help now with something as positive and hopeful as the Obama campaign.
The Star Phoenix is reporting today City men to "get out the vote" for Obama:

Two Saskatoon residents and three from Regina decided to get involved. They'll be there working until election day next Tuesday.
"I really wanted to come down here. This election will impact all of us in Canada and around the world for years to come," said 22-year-old University of Saskatchewan student Zach Jeffries.
Jeffries, who's also president of the Saskatchewan Young Liberals, and friend Lee Reaney left Saskatoon by car earlier this week and arrived in Rochester, N.H., on Tuesday. The pair, along with the Regina residents and several from Ontario and Nova Scotia, will identify and mobilize Obama supporters to vote in advance polls and on election day.
Jeffries, who has experience working on campaigns in Saskatchewan, has been paired with a local Obama worker. They will supervise a team of volunteers to "get out the vote."
A friend living in New Hampshire convinced them it would be a good place to volunteer, as Obama is reported to have a very slim lead in the northeastern state.

Cross-posted at the Orange Satan.

Layton was right

The Mop and Pail reports globeandmail.com: Time to talk with the Taliban, governments say.
Remember when Jack Layton was the scum of the earth for saying the same thing?