President Barack Hussein Obama

Our 44th president and first family.

This has been a historic election. Having a woman as Vice President or President is a stronger possibility and not such a foreign idea in Americans' minds. Having a man whose father was from Kenya and raised as a Muslim and who later became atheist and Kenya's senior government economist happened. Having a feisty, powerful and strong black first lady who grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School is here. And two beautiful little first daughters!

This is a man who grew up working hard and ran on integrity, hope and change. He found and surrounded himself with an incredible team of brilliant and powerful people who tapped into the world that we are now and harnessed the power of the Internet. He is a man who built coalition, who brought people together. This is a man who often said the taboo words of gay, lesbian, equality.

This is bittersweet for me. I am so unbelievably overwhelmed and proud of his achievement. I am also anxious about the next few years ahead. I believe that he will be a strong leader who will bring America back into the global community and mend the wreckage of the past 8 years. He is a man who respects women and their rights. However, much damage has been done. Can anyone unravel the past 8 years (and possibly further)? Can anyone bring us out of this economic morass? Can anyone do the right thing for Guantanamo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, etc? We have so overloaded our future, our children with debt - can this be corrected?

I'm not sure but I am so glad that he has stepped up to the challenge and will thoughtfully, methodically, work with the right people to make things better.

The Obama Store

I hate to admit this but today was the first day that I looked at Obama and McCain's websites. McCain's website is really well, ugly. It is low tech and feels really old. Obama's is sleek, smart, and links to your entire world (makes sense since he hired the founder of Facebook). There are online tools for you to organize locally (my.barackobama.com) and links to youtube, myspace, facebook, linkedin, blackplanet, asianave, migente, etc. You can get text messages to your phone. Oh, my phone is vibrating, hello Barack!

The most exciting item McCain has in his store is a very sad Palin cap. What does "1 of 2008" mean? The Obama store is so awesome. Obama has art by amazing artists for sale and this section called Runway to Change where designers have created t-shirts, bags, scarves, etc. Designers include Isaac Mizrahi, Rag and Bone, Jeffery Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, Juicy Couture, Tory Burch, Russell Simmons, Pharrell Williams, Vera Wang, Tracy Reese, Jay Z, Zac Posen, Narciso Rodriguez, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, etc. I love the Maria Cornejo t-shirt pictured. I love that designers I love love Obama! There's even a "Gear for Less" section with tank tops for $10. N says that she had seen guys in clubs wearing Obama t-shirts that lit up. Can't wait for those to go up in the Obama store!

Before you go, oh, this is just about shopping. That it has nothing to do with the election. I think that this shows that Obama is someone who inspires and who is current. He is someone who can take us into the future, not bring us back. Also, he surrounds himself with great people. He may not know all the answers but he knows who to go to.

I Have Cast My Vote

Let the records show that this lazy person has: figured out what all the papers were in her absentee ballot package, appropriately filled in circles with a lead pencil, sealed the ballot into envelope one, completed certificate on envelope one, sealed envelope one into envelope two, completed information on envelope two and affixed not one, but two stamps just in case. I will be mailing it on my way out to lunch.

While I thought it might be fun to actually physically go and vote at a machine, I couldn't bear that fact that I would have to wait. I wanted to have this crossed off my list. I can't believe November 4th is so close!

Excerpt from Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric

My favorite comment to this was "I'm close to my foot, I should be a podiatrist." The Republicans are sending this woman in to deal with terrorism, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Darfur...

An excerpt from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric to be aired later tonight on the CBS Evening News:

COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

2008 Presidential Election: A Choice between the Past and The Future

"...I’m going to try to make this simple. On the Democratic side you have a guy whose campaign has been based on the Internet, who believes America may have something to learn from other countries (like universal health care) and who’s unafraid in 2008 to say he’s a “proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world.”

On the Republican side, you have a guy who, in 2008, is just discovering the Net and Google and whose No. 2 is a woman who got a passport last year and believes she understands Russia because Alaska is closer to Siberia than Alabama.

If I were Obama, I’d put it this way: “Senator McCain, the world you claim to understand is the world of yesterday. A new century demands new thinking. Our country cannot be made fundamentally secure by a man who thought our economy was fundamentally sound.”

American exceptionalism, taken to extremes, leaves you without the allies you need (Iraq), without the influence you want (Iran) and without any notion of risk (Wall Street). The only exceptionalism that resonates, as Obama put it to me last year, is one “based on our Constitution, our principles, our values and our ideals...”

From Roger Cohen Op-Ed in today's NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/opinion/25Cohen.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1222362101-4IpL08RfTqsEh/1EfM9KuQ

The Election Continues to Depress Me

I literally cried at my desk when McCain announced Palin as his running mate. She and McCain have been all over People Magazine and the rest of main stream media - which, let's face it, mainstream America follows. I'd like to think that the majority of people, especially women will focus on values as opposed to the fact that she is a woman but I'm starting to get discouraged. This morning I thought of writing Obama asking - begging - him to do a better job and show that he hasn't turned his back on women. Today, my friend S sent me a bunch of articles on Palin and a note on how incensed she is about the Republicans.

Excerpts from M. Dowd's editorial:
-What kind of budget-cutter makes a show of getting rid of the state plane, then turns around and bills taxpayers for the travel of her husband and kids between Juneau and Wasilla and sticks the state with a per-diem tab to stay in her own home?
-Why was Sarah for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against the Bridge to Nowhere, and why was she for earmarks before she was against them? And doesn't all this make her just as big a flip-flopper as John Kerry?
-What kind of fiscal conservative raises taxes and increases budgets in both her jobs - as mayor and as governor?
-When the phone rings at 3 a.m., will she call the Wasilla Assembly of God congregation and ask them to pray on a response, as she asked them to pray for a natural gas pipeline?
-Does she really think Adam, Eve, Satan and the dinosaurs mingled on the earth 5,000 years ago?
-Why put out a press release about her teenage daughter's pregnancy and then spend the next few days attacking the press for covering that press release?
-As Troopergate unfolds here - an inquiry into whether Palin inappropriately fired the commissioner of public safety for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law - it raises this question: Who else is on her enemies list and what might she do with the F.B.I.?
-Does she want a federal ban on trans fat in restaurants and a ban on abortion and Harry Potter? And which books exactly would have landed on the literature bonfire if she had had her way with that Wasilla librarian?
-Just how is it that Fannie and Freddie have cost taxpayers money (since they haven't yet)?
-Does she talk in tongues or just eat caribou tongues?
-What does she have against polar bears?