Obama, in all of his grace, did one thing very, very well: he personalized the campaign for millions of people. Whether by going to people’s hometown, shaking hands with the elderly, having icons for every ethnicity and state, or modifying his oratorial style to fit his venue, he figured out a way to be many (but not all) things to many (but not all) people. It’s impressive – an almost Zelig-like approach to ensuring continuity in the American experience of his candidacy.
For me, there were two more piquant moments of the campaign that touched me personally: On the right side of my brain, is his appearance at my hometown in Pennsylvania, captured by this highly emotional photo (at The Big Picture blog, the best photojournalism blog around). On the left side of my brain, it was his his ability to maintain total brand consistency throughout, whether on his website, his signage, his t-shirts, or his dress. No organization that I know of has pulled off this type of messaging as well as his design team has, and, as a practitioner, it’s superbly impressive.

Obama’s win last night is a win for many, many people: the disenfranchised, the displaced, and the voiceless. His message of possibility is confirmed by his very electability and the willingness of Americans to believe in the very best of themselves and their country. I believe our children are the beneficiaries of the result of this election: today, they can look into our eyes and know that anything is possible – a poor, fatherless, minority kid can become President. It’s what we were all taught in grade school and that we are witnessing now. I hope the knives are sheathed long enough to recognize the power of this moment, the magnitude of our endeavors, and the resilience and strength of democracy and its American implementation. Finally, I’m thinking of all of the incredible, thankless work tackled by nameless millions who got out the vote against all odds and asked Americans to ignore the fear and the dirty tricks and elect with their future in mind. I’m incredibly grateful and utterly, utterly thankful for all those who moved history this past year.

Congratulations. I’m shaking and thrilled for my beautiful country.

While The New York Times came out endorsing Mr. Obama today, meaning not very much to a lot of people, unfortunately, SNL issued its own kind of endorsement that is both hilarious and scathing.
http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/4901c36944ba704e/4741e3c5156499a7/bcaaab4/-cpid/c6bbc9799070a74f
“The next 16 years!”
Postscript: Somehow the show has been able to make Palin’s husband look like an effeminate woos with his sled clothes in lieu of Marc Jacobs.

Someone from the Obama camp should be posting this chart on the homepage of the McCain website. Forget about domestic policy, war, or education (the focus of the final debates tonight); if you want general economic prosperity, the numbers indicate that everyone should vote Democrat.

All politics, all the time here at Deckchairs Headquarters.
After getting voter registration help from Democrats Abroad, the overseas branch of the Democratic Party, I felt compelled to send the Democrats some money. I hadn’t done it before, out of sheer laziness or sheepishness, but I’m convinced that now is the time. Democrats everywhere (and democrats everywhere) need to ensure that the world is guided by intelligent, educated, and caring individuals in the White House. As the New Yorker made it abundantly clear this week, this election will probably do more to decide the future of world affairs than any other election in my lifetime. If it goes one way, there is a chance that global warming, economic friction, and systemic issues will be addressed. If it goes another way, there is an even better chance that more conflict, more indiscretion, and more global anxiety will result.
I encourage all fair Democrats abroad to donate; it’s the least we can do, having grown up in the United States of America, under the aegis of relative peace and prosperity, despite the country’s many faults. Many of us said that 2004 could not happen again. It can again, but it mustn’t.

I’ve been reading Paul Krugman‘s New York Times’ pieces for years. Many of my earlier thoughts on the residential real estate bubble (way back in 2004) were informed by him. In fact, he’s become my favorite columnist these past few years, and I always look for a chance to procrastinate by reading him. No other columnist offers the decisive, clear-headed, and honest writing that he does. Further, no other economist, in my mind, has more publicly called attention to the lacunae in American economic policy.
Today, he wins the Nobel. Or, more accurately, he received the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008, not for his columns but for his contributions to understanding economic models and market behavior. Congratulations, Mr. Krugman. It is supremely deserved.

Interesting.
Right now, it’s 87% Obama, 13% McCain. Not a good number for the latter.
And Macedonia digs McCain.

A few years ago, I wrote about the utter ridiculousness of Canadians electing to office the conservative Conservatives. A nation with a real health care system, a strong social and educational policy, and a relatively benign approach to international politics does not need southerners (e.g. Rove et. al.) telling it how to run a country based on relatively liberal values and cultural aspirations. Despite my very strident protestations, Conservative Stephen Harper was elected Prime Minister. He is now running again for office. The entire election here in Canada has been subsumed beneath the longevity and inanity of the American election but, nonetheless, it’s still a critical juncture for Canadians.
The Canadian election is on Tuesday, October 14, 2008, and it appears that the Conservatives have taken it on the head, slightly, because of people’s anxiety about the economy. However, there are finally attempts this time around to equate the conservatives there with the Conservatives here.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdO1xcE5-qM&hl=en&fs=1]
Interestingly, the mini-site that the liberal Liberals put together to make the connection between Harper and Bush looks a lot like the ones the Obama campaign has designed: the use of lots of lovely gradients, the color blue and the font called Gotham. Nice work liberals. Nice work Liberals!
Postscript:
http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/271557392

This whole market economy crashing thing is really neat. Here’s why:

1. There are all these cool graphs with different colors showing up on the news. They go down now but they used to go up.
2. On the radio, at the top of the hour, I’m learning new words like “battered” and “tumult.”
3. There’s lots of really big numbers being used that we never got to really hear before: numbers like “850 billion” and “3 trillion” and stuff like that.
4. There’s all this cool stuff happening in other countries, too, like Japan.