"Who Will the President Kill Next?"

My tribute to the legal minds at Fox News and their reaction to Obama's ordering the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Obama's Mandate: Two Views

"[Obama's] case was a clear and bold statement of the need for sustained public investment and leadership to move us into the future with new energy, reform of our broken health care system, and provision of a world class education from birth to a career for every child."

Robert L. Borosage

"If he can keep us all from fighting over food scraps in restaurant dumpsters in the next four years, he will have done a good job."

Marc Maron

Election Day

9am-- Drop the kids off at preschool. The teachers in Irina's class tell me how they did a mock Presidential election yesterday. My daughter and her best pal ran on a platform of "more snacks". The winning ticket ran for more visits from community members like firemen (my wife maintains the teachers must have heavily influenced that win). Even though she lost, I'm proud of my little girl for the way she shamelessly pandered to the voters' basest instincts. I'll have to teach her about character assassination in time for 2012.

10am-- Settle in to work at my favorite wifi cafe. It's hard not to just hang on CNN.com all day. I put on Howard Stern to take my mind off things, but he's talking election too. For some reason the old coot is angry that Obama carries a pocketful of good-luck charms, most infuriatingly a "monkey god". Monkey God? I find a picture, and sure enough, Hanuman. Hindu spirit of sacrifice and selfless service, defender of the poor and forgotten throughout Asia. I visited Hanuman temples all over North India, and I once contributed a Hanuman painting to a popular CD of yoga chanting. For some reason I've been getting emails lately from people who want to turn it into a tattoo. I realize I stopped believing in good omens at some point.



5pm-- We were hoping to go out to watch the results tonight, but our sitter was booked--one of her clients was once a Presidential primary candidate. So our "date" consists of voting, picking the kids up and taking them out for Mexican.

8pm-- The restaurant is deserted. Faith thinks that everyone's glued to their TV's. Or battening down the hatches? The first polls are closing and we spend the meal craning our necks to see the TV. I talk to a couple of older guys at the bar, extras right out of a Scorcese movie. They're enraged that CNN is still posting results state-by-state, because it tends to affect the vote in places that are still open. I can't tell for sure which side these guys are pulling for. Eventually they switch to a basketball game, then leave it on AMC. Sylvester Stallone in a tux-- Rocky II. Did they want to watch something where they're sure the black guy is going to lose?

9:30pm-- Home. It looks to be breaking the right way. I take the baby upstairs to walk her around on the roof, a surefire way to get her to sleep. Usually the white noise of the traffic does the trick, but immediately I notice that there's hardly any. Almost no one's out on the street.

10pm-- The kids went down without a fight. Some clients of mine in D.C. are trading emails with their colleagues in India, trying to pin down a location for an event in New Delhi. I suggest a couple of places I visited. How can anyone be thinking about work right now? I haven't thought much about that India trip post-2001. It was a magical time, it's nice to be reminded of it twice in one day.

10:30pm-- Obama has 202 electoral votes--it's looking good. We go up to the roof for a cautiously celebratory drink before the next round of polls come in. Still very little street traffic. The city holds its collective breath. Faith wonders if there'll be a sudden surge of noise. I don't think so--different networks call it at different times. It's not a Giants game.

10:55pm-- I'm wrong. I don't know what was just announced, but suddenly an enormous roar is building all over the city. Cars are honking their horns, we see fireworks across some rooftops. We forget all about CNN-- this is what we want to be watching. The cab drivers at the gas station are high-fiving each other. People are running through the streets chanting "Obama". We stand and watch the impromptu celebration from on high for another hour. This is the spot where I stood and watched the second tower collapse. Today, a good day to be in New York.

Change

"For one shining moment, let's call a halt to our red-blue bickering and predicting. Rather than glancing back at our racist past or peering into our uncertain future, we'll allow ourselves a brief celebration of now. We'll be brave and reckless enough to be happily surprised by one undeniable change:

Against all sensible odds and reasoned predictions, untold numbers of Americans of every persuasion have opened their hearts, minds and souls to the possibility that a black man is the best choice to lead them. Whatever happens, an immeasurable amount of light has illuminated our darkness."

-Donna Britt, Washington Post

Obama in 16:9

Considering that the line on Obama used to be that he "doesn't give any details", it's been gratifying to see him putting out serious policy proposals lately. Good or bad, you can't accuse him of not having a plan. In these last desperate days, with the McCain side flinging retarded talking points like so much monkey shit, Obama's very much assumed the role of the adult in the room.

Obama has displayed a clear-eyed willingness to be honest about the mess the country's in, and to ask more of us than to wave a flag or take another fucking trip to the mall. Personally, I'm willing to sign off on his tax plan even if I end up on the wrong end of it. If the broader economy keeps imploding it won't be long before there's nothing to tax anyway. The idea of a New Deal-style program, putting people to work rebuilding the infrastructure and converting the power grid, makes my little liberal heart do backflips.

Maybe it's all a bunch of happy horseshit he's selling, maybe the money just isn't there, burned up over the last five years in a faraway desert. But I'm willing to throw in with the guy who wants to see the United States excel again at something besides fear and messianic delusion.

Obama-Nation

As Barack Obama seems to be cruising to victory, it crossed my mind the other day that he is spectacularly positioned for what is referred to in the wrestling business as a "heel turn." I'm not trying to suggest that on day one he's going to smash Nancy Pelosi in the face with a folding chair. But from a storytelling standpoint, if you were going to have a character morph unexpectedly into a tyrannical despot, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a better setup than what seems to be developing.

There's an almost mystical sense of convergence between this man and this moment in history. He's a transformational figure without even doing anything. The mere fact of his skin color represents a tectonic shift in American society. There's not a few people who are already looking at the dude to be some kind of Messiah. He's looking to ride into office with a big majority, cruising a tidal wave of economic anxiety. The Democrats might pick up enough seats to not only crush the Republicans in any vote, but to prevent them from even blocking a vote. It would only add dramatic irony that he's following on a President who made jabs at seizing dictatorial power, but ultimately proved hapless at everything. 

I'm not speculating that something like this might happen, I'm just speaking as someone who likes to invent compelling storylines using the available components. I personally find it hilarious that the Republicans are spinning apocalyptic visions of a popular Democratic mandate. They ask us to imagine a nightmare scenario where a single party controls both the executive and legislative branches, its power unchecked, running roughshod over the constitution, remaking the country in its image, emptying the treasury in the service of its long-held obsessions and mad utopian fantasies, all the while funneling obscene amounts of cash to its friends and cronies. I mean come on. It's a compelling argument, but I can't see anything like that ever happening in reality. 

Obama

I couldn't bring myself to watch the convention. Does anyone need this thing? We all knew what it was going to accomplish going in. Most of us who aren't in politics just need to know who we're pulling the switch for. Plenty of professional organizations in the world have interminable semi-regular industry conventions with a lot of drunk people in suits staggering around wondering what party to go to and trying to convince themselves that they're taking part in something meaningful. Most of these things, nobody thinks they need to put them on TV and analyze them to death.

It's going to play out like it always does, right? the Huffington Post is going to convince me that the speeches left everyone's jaws hanging open in awe, and you could feel the tectonic political plates shifting under your feet, and across the country people are burning up their Republican voter registrations as we speak. Then a few months later everyone basically admits that it was pretty so-so, and that the Republicans came along a week later and buried them yet again.