He will be appointed by the governor.

Maybe I misheard it?

It's a shame that they did boo but you can't blame his supporter's.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it looked like many of them had drinks in hand, and looked a little tanked.

Thatwas probably the nicest I've ever seen McCain. He did say all he right things. I agree about the crowd booing. At least this time McCain appeared to try to calm them down.

Anyway for McCain, I'm guessing he's ready for a nice long rest. Maybe he's even a little relieved. Look at all the work there is to do as President. I sure as hell wouldn't volunteer to be President into my seventies.


TIS

Great idea, I'll back in a little while.

That McCain is who I supported in 2000, and I wonder what if he had run as that instead of Dubya 2.0?

But let me quote conservative Andrew Sullivan:

"It was very classy, very moving, and finally worthy of the man we once thought we knew. Alas, his crowd was as ugly as he was gracious. I fear what will now become of the GOP."

If that crowd is the immediate future for the GOP....Oh fuck.

I'm sure the Obama team will also.

Meet you at the bar, TIS!!!

What ya drinkin SB??? I'm buying the first round.



TIS

We're staying true blue, baby!!!!

I cannot wait to hear his victory speech. Without his grandmother, this must be such a bittersweet moment for him.

At the time of FOX NEWS giving the election to Obama, Juan Williams....a black conservative-friendly pundit who's been accused by Democratic blacks of being an "Uncle Tom" more than once, gave an eloquent and thoughtful statement on how when Obama is inagurated in January 2009, it would be on the centenial of the creation of the NAACP, how that group was founded after a violent fatal racial riot in Springfield, Illinois...where Obama announced his run for President back in 2007.

He also talked of how its remarkable how for a minority group within a western nation that's been so maligned for centuries traditionally, now have elected one of their own by the country's majority.

I tell ya, he stepped up to the plate for the occassion, and I may even listen to him more now.

Before they called it, one of the pundits said wouldn't it be something if it was Hawaii that put him over the top, sort of in honor of his grandmother. Yea, I can't imagine how he must feel. And just the irony of her dying literally a day before he was to become President. What can that possibley mean? Why shouldn't that have been "ment to be?" Life is hard to understand sometimes.

I too am looking forward to seeing Obama. He's and Michelle and their whole family must be absolutely thrilled.

TIS

He just arrived at Grant Park, so he should speak in about 10 minutes.

I think the personal beating he took from W. in the 2000 changed him forever.

Well, I'm going to go watch him speak. Good night, friends. Congratulations to President-Elect Obama!!!

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's statement:

Tonight, we are celebrating an historic victory for the American people. This was a long and hard fought campaign but the result was well worth the wait. Together, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world. And I look forward to doing all that I can to support President Obama and Vice President Biden in the difficult work that lies ahead. For too long, middle class families in this country have felt invisible, struggling alone as wages stagnate, jobs disappear, and the costs of daily life climb upward. In quiet, solitary acts of citizenship, American voters gave voice to their hopes and their values, voted for change, and refused to be invisible any longer.

Another great speech. I like how he is reaching out to those who didn't vote for him AND to other countries:

"A new dawn of American leadership is at hand."





TIS

I was wondering where Biden was.

Wow! What a wonderful speech by Obama!!

I am so reminded of John Kennedy.

It's a new era, and he reminds us of all that is good with America, He reminds us of what is possible.

SC,

I'm so with you on that. I try to explain that feelng to my kids. But yea, that hope and "feel good" feeling is wonderful. It gives me the chills.


TIS

I know you remember it well, of how we all felt as young people that the gaunlet was passed to a new generation, and of all the possibilities that came with that when JFK won. I am reminded of that now.

Remember:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

and

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

Those great words were spoken by JFK at his inauguration. I am reminded of them by listening to Obama tonight.

This is an exciting time for us all.

You realize that the White House will have small kids for the first time since JFK?

Obama to Assemble Transition Team

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 4, 2008; 11:38 PM

Barack Obama will take office in 76 days, but the moves he begins making tomorrow will immediately begin to define his presidency.

He is expected to name a White House chief of staff in the next day or two, and the clear front-runner is Rep. Rahm Emanuel, his longtime friend and ally from Chicago. He will officially begin a transition operation under the direction of another Clinton administration official, former White House chief of staff John D. Podesta. Those and other prominent Democrats, many of them veterans of his two-year quest for the presidency, will be charged with assembling an administration that draws from the innovations of Obama's campaign and sets in motion a system to deliver on the promises that got him elected.

One Obama source familiar with the transition process said the goal is to move "quickly, but not hastily." The approach to appointments and other senior hires will be comprehensive, as opposed to ad hoc, which may mean that Obama will not name, say, a Treasury secretary right away but will continue to rely in the short term on his current economic advisory team. A game plan for moving forward will become clear by Friday, Obama sources said, and Cabinet announcements may start to trickle out next week.

Obama is expected to continue operating out of Chicago for most of the transition. The process of vetting and assembling a Cabinet began well before today's election, with staff members hinting at the potential for several "outside the box" picks for top jobs. Aides will move quickly to begin monitoring the government's various departments and agencies, obtain the necessary security clearances, and keep a close eye on any last-minute attempts by current administration officials to leave a mark on policy after President Bush's term ends.

But Obama's effort to create a smooth transition that puts his stamp on government will face major tests almost immediately. Congress will convene for a lame-duck session on Nov. 17, and the junior senator from Illinois will have to decide whether to become immersed in its proceedings or keep his distance, as some allies are advising.

The White House will hold an economic summit on Nov. 15 that 20 world leaders will attend; Obama, who called for such a meeting in September, has been invited to participate. His advisers are also debating whether to ask Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to stay on, to allow planning for a withdrawal from Iraq to begin as soon as possible. A U.N. conference on global warming will be held in Poland in December, an ideal stage for Obama, or a high-profile surrogate such as former vice president Al Gore, to declare that the era of Bush energy policies are over.

Obama remains largely a stranger to the vast federal bureaucracy and will be besieged by Washington insiders he barely knows -- and whose loyalties are untested -- seeking positions of influence.

"He was extremely good at running for office, but there's no way to predict what comes next," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar with the Brookings Institution. "There's no school for presidents. A lot of this is on-the-job training, and we take a lot on faith."

Obama's aides hope his transition operation will be a sharp contrast with the chaotic operation that President-elect Bill Clinton ran in 1992. Clinton did not pick anyone, either for a Cabinet or White House position, until the sixth week of his transition, and he named much of his top White House staff on Jan. 15, just five days before his inauguration -- far too late for them to learn the contours of the jobs they were about to undertake.

Avoiding the same mistakes is one reason Obama is eager to have the hard-nosed Emanuel become the White House gatekeeper. (Podesta, former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle and ex-commerce secretary William M. Daley remain other possibilities if Emanuel unexpectedly says no.) The Chicago lawmaker, elected in 2002, moved rapidly up the House leadership ladder and aspires to become speaker. Obama would be asking Emanuel to give up that ambition because he believes that his tenure in the Clinton White House, combined with his Capitol Hill experience, make him uniquely qualified for the job, sources close to Obama said. Emanuel has wrestled in recent days over whether to take the job, sources close to him said.

The transition process started quietly about 10 weeks ago, when Obama asked Podesta to begin a full-scale review of the federal government and to compile lists of potential hires. Podesta, who now runs the Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive think tank, created a transition board that included Clinton administration alumni, CAP colleagues and several of Obama's outside advisers. Obama has participated little in this exercise beyond urging aides to look at all sorts of candidates, including Republicans (retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is most often mentioned) and individuals from the business community.

Among those under consideration who would mark a departure from the tradition of rewarding loyalists and party leaders include New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein for education secretary and retired Marine Corps commandant Jim Jones for national security adviser. Both are viewed as non-ideological and have the potential to rankle liberal Democrats. Obama officials said they would look at innovative firms such as Google for potential applicants. One prospect for a top administration job, possibly at the Office of Management and Budget, who would test the Washington establishment is Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a crusader for government reform who annually publishes a dire alternative report on the federal budget.

The Obama shortlist includes plenty of traditional names: former Treasury secretaries Lawrence H. Summers or Robert E. Rubin could be tapped for that post again. Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is another possibility. Alternatives to Jones include Susan Rice and James B. Steinberg, Obama advisers who also served under Clinton. Eric H. Holder Jr., another Clinton veteran and Obama friend, is a candidate for attorney general, as is Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Other prominent women likely to be approached for Cabinet posts include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm.

Obama will also have to decide what roles many of his top political aides might play in the White House, such as campaign manager David Plouffe, chief strategist David Axelrod, and Robert Gibbs and Dan Pfeiffer, who led his communications team. Plouffe, for one, has announced internally that he will return to private life, at least for the time being.

While Obama contemplates how to fill the top jobs, Podesta and his team will size up the bureaucracies these individuals would inherit.

One group, led by Donald Gips, former domestic policy adviser to Gore, and Melody Barnes, a CAP senior executive, is overseeing an agency-by-agency review that will be conducted on-site by small teams. Their aim is to identify budget issues, administrative problems and policy priorities, and their findings will be presented in written reports to every Obama Cabinet secretary and administrator.

Separate policy working groups are evaluating Obama campaign promises in the context of current budget realities. One team, chaired by Steinberg and including Rice and Harvard University professor Sarah Sewall, is evaluating international scenarios that Obama may confront.

Former Treasury official Michael Froman and CAP senior executive Cassandra Q. Butts, both Obama friends from Harvard Law School, are examining personnel issues related to sub-Cabinet positions, including diversity, something Obama and his team are determined to provide. Butts, who is a lawyer, is also vetting potential candidates for ethical conflicts.

Now that the transition is an official government operation, the structure is expected to shift to a three-member board consisting of Podesta, who would oversee the ongoing agency-review process; Pete Rouse, Obama's Senate chief of staff and senior campaign adviser, who would help the new chief of staff to organize the White House; and Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago friend who was also on the campaign team, who will act as conduit to Obama, among other tasks.

While that process unfolds, Obama will rely on advisory groups that have guided him through the campaign. Former Treasury secretaries Rubin and Summers, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker and others are helping Obama navigate the nation's economic crisis and coordinate with Bush officials on further government interventions. A similar group will guide him on foreign policy. Obama gathered some of its members in Richmond shortly before the election to discuss the national security implications of the economic situation.

The transition team is exploring new approaches to communications that could undercut West Wing traditions such as the daily briefings to reporters, including making more announcements over the Internet to ensure that information reaches not only journalists but also the millions of individuals who enlisted in Obama's campaign and consider themselves invested in his presidency.

Obama is also expected to follow through on his pledge to restrict the role of lobbyists in his administration. Campaign lawyer Robert F. Bauer, a potential White House counsel, has been at work on a code of conduct. Said one senior Obama adviser: "People are going to be surprised at how strict we are."

Indiana:

Obama: 49.7%
McCain: 49.2%

98.6% reporting

Lake County: 91.8%

Wow! Congratulations to all fellow liberals. I can't believe I've tears in my eyes. I hope we follow the same route and send Ahmadnutjob packing in July. Then we might experience a period of peace and prosperity. Stock market is rising in many markets following this great news...

Sorry, I'm late on this, but I haven't heard of any incidents at the polls. Was this in PA?

Indiana:

Obama: 49.9%
McCain: 49.0%

99% reporting

Lake County: 97%

What age was Amy Carter??