General election: the first 48 hrs

First of all, hell yes I want these two to be the first couple. Much much more than I wanted Bill Clinton back in the White House. And here's a question: when was the last time a President had children in the White House as young as Malia and Sasha Obama?

Secondly, I'd like to relate a conversation I had a few weeks ago: a friend asked me a) if Obama would really win the nomination, and b) was I certain he would win the White House if he did. I answered affirmative to both. McCain and Obama had just started to hit each other over Obama's diplomacy, and the polls hadn't moved, so I began to explain why I thought the Republicans weak-ass shit wouldn't work this year, that Obama had found a way of appearing strong while rejecting the madness of the Clinton/McCain "no talkie" approach.

But If I had a time machine, I think I'd just go back and show him this clip of McCain, apparently doing his best to look like every child's nightmare image of the boogey man.



This election is going to be fun.

And not to get Sullivan-esque in my fawning, but this quote blew me away:

"The primaries showed that the U.S. is actually the nation we had believed it to be, a place that is open-minded enough to have a woman or an African American as its president," - Minoru Morita, a Tokyo political analyst.

"...the U.S. is actually the nation we had believed it to be..." Five, four, three years ago those words would have been acid, and could have been followed by approximately: "... the U.S. is actually the nation we had believed it to be, the biggest bully in the world, invading oil-rich countries to enrich a powerful few." Or, "the U.S. is actually the nation we had believed it to be, torturing people and humiliating them for its own sadistic impulses." Or, "the U.S. is actually the nation we had believed it to be, unwilling to make even modest cuts in its oil and coal consumption to avert climate disaster."

And until January, all those things are still true. But for today, redemption.