England for Obama

From ‘Mikeatle’, commenting on Bob Cesca’s Obama turkey sandwich post on HuffPo:

“You know the nicest thing about today? As my family sat down to eat, we discussed what we were thankful for this year, and every person at the table mentioned Obama. We Americans have some tough times ahead, but it’s nice to know that our new President will have our interests in mind.”

Good grief. Take a look at the new Fox News ad:

Talk about fear and loathing… And don’t you just love the way they’ve used the shot of Rahm Emanuel talking into Barack Obama’s ear? Like they’re planning some sort of evil conspiracy against the American people? Mwa-ha-haaa!

It reminds me of this slice of brilliance from The Day Today. It’s WAR!:

Ahem. Going back to the Fox News advert: someone on Huffington Post’s comments board said that this is exactly what liberal, intellectual America needs to do - to stoop to this level (actually, they said ’snoop’, but I’m pretty sure they meant ’stoop’) and start using some of Fox’s brilliant marketing tricks.

But here’s the thing: they don’t. Because Barack Obama won the election pretty tidily without stooping to such levels. Or, indeed, snooping to them.

Relationship experts Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks have made another interesting observation about Barack and Michelle Obama over on HuffPo.

Using the recent 60 Minutes interview as an example, they draw attention to the fact that Barack actually looks at Michelle when she’s talking. No, really! Apparently, this is a complete rarity among First Couples:

“With Michelle and Barack’s relationship, their level of ease, affection and respect carries a deep sense of authenticity about it. After nearly 40 years of counseling couples, individuals, business executives and others, we’ve seen just about every form of concealment, subterfuge, defensiveness and guile there is to see. If you’ve been watching presidential couples for a few decades, you’ve also seen just about every form of concealment, subterfuge, defensiveness and guile there is to see. Maybe now we’re embarking on something new and long overdue: a role model of a healthy relationship in the White House.”

And amen to that. Here’s a clip from the interview if you want to see all that, y’know, looking:

Watch CBS Videos Online

And here were some of the most interesting observations on the HuffPo comments board:

“I think the solid relationship between them contributes a great deal to the President-elect’s famous calm and even temperament. It’s a lot easier to forgive insults and move on (Lieberman & and all the rest) when your life is filled with strong, authentic love. It keeps everything else in perspective. It lets you approach everything from a position of strength and confidence. I have often thought in the past about how personally lonely and bereft some politicians seemed to be (Nixon comes to mind, as does HRC) and wondered how much that affected their public personalities.” - myjazzyhands

“There is no doubt that the two share a special chemistry and relationship that will do wonders for americans. We have had years of polarization, anger and resentments towards each other as a people. And it’s considered cool to put down your spouse and show disrespect to them… The people of this country are tired of being afraid, depressed and angry. And the fact that the Obamas respect and love each other and are not afraid to show it to the world is another layer of the tone and thinking and mood changing.” - lafrance

“One thing that makes me feel hopeful for women’s rights is that Obama sees his wife as his peer, as another human being. I don’t think he would ever deny that she is capable of making her own choices about her body and her life. To many men, their wives are all women, and all women can generally expect to be treated the way a man treats his wife and daughters. If this holds true, the women of America are in for one of the best four year spans in their history.” - Anpan

“Barack won over lots of hearts because he is a good listener and is actually interested in what people have to say. It begins at home and is a great quality for a parent to have as well as a husband.” - roshni

“One thing I noticed this fall - Barack Obama consistently looked supporters in the eye as he shook their hands during the campaign. People would post about it as well, so I know it was not my imagination! Contrast that to film clips of Palin working the rope, and you’ll see that she had this kind of frantic look about her - no looking at people’s eyes, simply looking for those open doors that she could plow through…” - sonomarc

“The famous “terrorist fist jab” pic said it all to me. The instant I saw it, I thought “that’s how I want a woman to look at me.” Well, actually the thought that ran through my head was “that dude’s SO getting laid tonight,” but it amounts to the same thing. That’s not a look at, that’s a look right through. Lucky man.” - ElBruce

“Oh God I want to be in this family. I’m 32 years old and I’ve never wished my family life was different; one learns to accept what one has. But the more I see this family, the more it hurts. I wish I was Malia or Sasha. I can’t believe I envy a 6-year-old. Deeply. — just another black girl from a broken home.” - karinova

“I am a white guy from the Bronx and I feel the same as you. Maybe they will adopt us?” - Ed Shapiro

The man is Eric Holder. Here’s the story.

Sarah Palin is the political equivalent of Tourette Syndrome. You don’t want to talk about her. You really don’t want to talk about her. And yet she keeps popping up, bursting out of your mouth (or more precisely: blog post) like some sort of unwanted yet uncontrollable expletive. Try as I might, I can’t stop writing about her. Because she keeps, y’know, doin’ stuff.

Mind you, I do think it’s legitimate to raise this new Sarah Palin attack. Because it’s an attack on me. Oh, and you. For reading me.

That’s right: Sarah Palin has attacked blogging. As surely as night follows day (except in Alaska, where night follows night), Palin is now criticising not just the “filter” of the mainstream media but the filter of the blogosphere, too.

According to Sarah, bloggers sit in their parents’ basements (or presumably just the one basement, if their parents aren’t divorced), “wearing their pyjamas and blogging some kind of gossip or lie”:

Well, I’ve got news for you, Sarah: I don’t live with my parents any more. And they never owned a basement in the first place. I will, however, admit to the “pyjamas” part. I regard it as one of the perks of the job (who wouldn’t work in their pyjamas if they could?) - and guess what, Sarah? Sometimes I blog in my pyjamas from my bed. Put that in your moose chilli and smoke it!

Ahem.

But on that point about blogs versus the “real” media: as Rachel Maddow jokingly notes, who’s to say that those who write in their pyjamas are to be taken less seriously than those who write in suits? (And what if you sit at home writing your blog in a suit?) Unsurprisingly for a blogger, I think that while the blogosphere is clearly not exactly equivalent to the mainstream media (any Tom, Dick or Harry can set up a blog. Not any Tom, Dick or Harry can get a job on the New York Times), it should absolutely be considered alongside such media as an important news source.

Indeed, if this year’s election proved anything, it’s how valuable blogging has become in the provision of news and information for an electorate which has previously been forced to rely on the corporate-owned, politically motivated likes of Fox News. The internet and its resulting independent news websites and blogs have shown that the public no longer has to depend on the old media - and the government - for information. Bush and co. only giving you their version of the Iraq war? Don’t worry - you can watch Al Jazeera online. Sarah Palin denying something? No matter - someone, somewhere will have posted the footage proving she said it. Busy British person who hasn’t got the time to sift through all the current news stories about the American election? No problem - England For Obama has done the work for you.

Like I say: if Sarah Palin attacks you, you must be doing something right. And if politicians are begging for mercy, you must be doing something really right. Here’s to Arianna Huffington, Markos Moulitsas, Jed Lewison, AKMuckraker, Andrew Sullivan, Bob Cesca, the blogosphere and all who sail in her. Huzzah!

And now I’m off to get dressed.

Ah, the good ol’ British tradition of gambling… Yes, we may not be able to vote in this election - but we can place a bet on it.

And as Keith Thomson writes over at The Huffington Post, the bookmakers are in some ways more accurate predictors of who will win elections:

“Michael Robb, political expert for the British bookmaking site Betfair.com, lets the record speak for itself: Halfway through Election Day in 2004, when a CNN poll showed Kerry taking the lead, Betfair had Bush with a 91% chance to win.

Of course that’s just one election. Probably hundreds of fifth-grade social studies students correctly predicted Bush’s margin of victory to a decimal place, right?

Betfair also had all 50 states right in 2004.

As did rival site Intrade.”

Dammit! If only I’d placed a bet on Barack! Hardly worth it now.

Take a look at Betfair’s current odds on all the states - and other aspects of the election results - here. Interestingly, when it comes down to number of electoral college votes, the shortest odds are on Obama winning 351 or more.

Click below for some brilliant photos from Obama’s rally yesterday in Pennsylvania. You know, the one that took place in the rain. On the day that McCain/Palin cancelled theirs in Pennsylvania… because of the rain. The mavericks!

Sorry to go slightly off (Obama) topic, but I just saw this headline and it surely wins this week’s Duh-hurrr! Award For Slow Realisation (also known as the Hell-oh-ohhh! Award For Stating The Obvious):

Top McCain Aides: ‘Palin Simply Knew Nothing About National And International Issues’

Well done, fellas. *Slow hand clap*. Now perhaps you and all the right wing pundits could take back the slating you’ve been doing of people like us? You know: the awful, sexist, liberal elitists who have been saying out loud, since late August, that Sarah Palin knows nothing about national and international issues? Just a thought…

The Curb Your Enthusiasm genius writes about waiting for the American election here.

HuffPo has a very interesting (and looong!) article on ‘The New Organizers’ - the grassroots teams of volunteers who have been working for the Obama campaign around the country. What they’ve achieved is truly remarkable, and very, very inspiring. As Zack Exley says:

“The “New Organizers” have succeeded in building what many netroots-oriented campaigners have been dreaming about for a decade… [They] have undogmatically mixed timeless traditions and discipline of good organizing with new technologies of decentralization and self-organization.”

He compares and contrasts what’s going on now at grassroots level with what happened in 2004:

“The Ohio campaign is attempting to build teams in 1,231 campaign-defined “neighborhoods,” each covering eight to ten precincts. They are targeting virtually every inhabited square mile of the state. The campaign claimed to have teams in 65% of neighborhoods when I visited in early September. That’s risen to 85% coverage at press time—and they are shooting for 100%. In contrast, the Kerry campaign effectively wrote off rural counties, and completely abandoned them in the final few weeks of the campaign in a last minute all-in shift to the cities…

[An organizer says:] ‘Everyone who goes out canvassing comes back with at least one story of someone they impacted. The team leaders are trained to give people time to tell those stories, and so everyone gets a sense of progress and they learn from each other how to be more effective next time.’

That’s a totally different picture than what I saw in scores of Kerry offices in 2004: crowds of canvassers receiving minimal instruction before being sent to an unfamiliar neighborhood and rarely getting the chance to debrief with others as a group.”

It’s quite incredible how effective the Obama camp has been on this front. Coupled with the help of the blogosphere, they’ve truly managed to inspire and harness the power of both ‘real’ people on the ground, and the ‘virtual’ community in the new media (and I guess this site is testament to that!).

I was in Malaysia at the start of this year, and saw the ruling right-wing coalition there lose control of state after state in the general election. They’d been in power for 50 (count ‘em!) years, and the election result was an utter shock - to both the incumbents and the victorious young and/or left-of-centre politicians and supporters. I’ve been thinking about what happened there during various points of this American election, because one of the reasons why the Malaysian government lost so many seats was that they controlled the old media - TV, newspapers - but not the new. Turns out the opposition had been rallying support and getting out the vote (as well as getting people out for rallies) via text messages, blogs and websites. They had been doing the grassroots work - and took absolutely nothing for granted - and the result was an overwhelming rejection of the old regime by the young and the left, whose power (and feelings) had finally been harnessed by the use of new media. The excitement was incredible on the night of the election, as news started to spread (via that new media, of course!) of the sweeping changes happening across the country… and I’m imagining a similar thing could very well happen in America on the night of November 4th.