I still can't believe we won.  The candidate I liked from the beginning of the primaries not only won the nomination, but he won the whole blerping Election.  We were given a choice between hope and fear, between treating us like an adult and lowest common denominator campaigning (I mean come on.  Joe the Plumber?!?!), between sleaze and trying to stay on the issues...  and we made the right choice.

Maybe Obama won't be the President I think he will be, but I'm still just floored this morning.  It's a cliche to say this, but Ohio and Pennsylvania and Indiana and Virginia and perhaps even North Carolina elected a black man named Barack Hussein Obama to lead them.  Never mind the Muslim smears or the fake Whitey tape rumor or the racist PUMAs or the guilt by association attacks.   Never mind the Bradley Effect which proved to just be a myth.   What we saw instead was people going out and doing things that they never had done before, be it volunteer or give money or simply voting, even if they had to wait in line for hours.

You want to know what a community organizer does Palin?  This is what they do.  And here's a message to the people at the Republican National Convention who mocked community organizers.  A community organizer just used his skills to kick your ass nine ways to Sunday.

This is the best day of my political life.  Make me proud Barack!

And because no post like this will be complete without this, the text from the NH concession speech that we know:

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been
anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible
odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and
prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this
world. Yes we can.

And so tomorrow, as we take this campaign South and West; as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.

Yes we can and yes we did!  The United States is a slightly different place today than it was yesterday and I, for one, intend to celebrate that fact.

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Going to be a short one here, but this has been a long, drawn out process.  It's been a year of tracking polls and stupid arguments. We learned what a superdelegate was and wh they are. We learned the difference between a 5 delegate district and a 4 delegate district and why it was important.  We've been hit by trolls but also had people volunteer in ways that they thought they could never do.

Here we are on election day, finally.  At least early on, the lines are turning out to be as impressive as I had hoped for.  Let's do this!  Let's do it for Madelyn Dunham!  Let's do it for our country!  Let's do it for ourselves!  We deserve no less than Barack Obama as our president.  One last day of work and it can happen! Let's show them just what community organization is all about!

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What can I say.  I've been very annoyed with National Review's Campaign Spot.  I don't have a problem with people supporting McCain as much as I couldn't handle the horrible arguments he was using.  All he's been doing is cherry picking polls (worse than Drudge even) and trying to say that that was the new reality.  Fortunately last night he over extended himself and I got a chance to get a little revenge.  

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How bad are things for McCain right now?  In an Ohio rally his own creation didn't show up.  McCain tries to cover this with a cry of, "You're all Joe the plumber!" but that moment of confusion is sad.

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No, this isn't a diary.  I don't care.  This is important news.  Apparently John McCain became zombified last night at the end of the debate.  Guard your children.  Repeat!  Guard your children!

BRAINS!!!

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I know there's been a lot of hand wringing over the past few days about the Palin trap.  The Republicans, goes the theory, decided to dig themselves a huge hole in the polls just so they could have a good media narrative on October 2.  Hey if that's their strategy, I'll take it.

When I was in college, I was on a softball team that regularly lost games by 20 runs or more.  Our stated strategy was that we were lulling our foes into a false sense of confidence and then we'd pounce.  We never quite got to stage 2.

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Interesting result in the two early morning tracking polls.  The first two polls of the day are the Daily Kos one and the Rasmussen one.  The former is the one most skewed towards the Democrats and the latter is most skewed for the Republicans.

What are today's results?

R2000: Obama 49/McCain 43

Rasmussen Daily: Obama 50/McCain 44.

The fact that these two polls are finding the same range means that it's much more likely that a serious gap between the candidates is beginning to emerge.   We'll have to wait a few days to see if the debate moved the dial in any direction but in 2 weeks we have gone from slight McCain lead to slight Obama lead to significant Obama lead.  It's a very encouraging trend.

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Wow, when you've lost the National Review crowd, you've lost everyone.  They've been the last hold outs.  Apparently they're reaching their limits there:

Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there. Here's but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: "Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama's numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?"

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we'd all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she's a woman -- and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket -- we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can't repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP's unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Yeah, she got some hits on Biden there, but that's to be expected.  National Review columnists were so excited about Palin.  They're the base that was energized.  If they're starting to ask for her to leave, who is she appealing to?

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It looks like we might not just bend over today.  Nancy is saying no!

Congress will respond to the financial markets crisis by taking action this week in a bipartisan manner that will protect the taxpayers' interests. The Administration's $700 billion proposal does not include the necessary safeguards. Democrats believe a responsible solution should include independent oversight, protections for homeowners and constraints on excessive executive compensation.

"We will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome. Democrats will act responsibly to insulate Main Street from Wall Street.

Who is taking the lead on this?  One Barack Obama, that's who!  While McCain spent the day - ummm, anyone know what he did today? - Obama was on a conference call with Democratic leaders to organize the response.  That 7 point plan in Obama's speech today wasn't just for show.  

"Spokesperson Linda Douglass says that the conversations were about devising a "quick, bipartisan solution" to the economic crisis and they touched on the principles that Obama laid out in a speech in Charlotte, N.C., today."

Obama is leading on this issue and helping to solve the crisis without giving away the store.  It almost looks... what's that word again...  presidential!  

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Well I think we're seeing why they kept her under wraps.  ABC got the puff interview, but she said something that I hope won't play well:

The Governor advocated the accession of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO.

When asked by Gibson if under the NATO treaty, the U.S. would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: "Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

Does anyone think that a war with Russia over Georgia or Ukraine is in our interests?  This isn't Iraq here; we're talking about going to war with a country that has many nuclear weapons.  I hope at some point in that interview she said why this is so crucial.  How many Americans had even heard of the non-state Georgia 3 months ago?  I thought it was the Islamists who were our mortal enemy now.

Time to bring back the Daisy ad.  

Update: Some people in the comments suggested a line of reasoning where Palin didn't actually call for war per se. I can see the point, but: (1) If Palin actually were the VP now, making a comment like that actually would go a long way towards bringing us to war. (2) We just spent 48 hours addressing if, "Lipstick on a pig," was a veiled attack. I'm not seeing the need to go out of my way to pull Palin out of a hole she dug for herself, especially because I'm not convinced McCain isn't itching for a war.

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