Thoughts on Obama's Choice as Secretary of Education

I've started to get some nervous emails about who Obama will select as Secretary of Education. Education reformers are right to focus on this, as this is indeed BY FAR the most important decision that will impact millions of American children over the next few years (and, not to be too hyperbolic, the economic future of our country). I'm not too worried because Obama understands the crisis, knows the tired old "solutions" are NOT the solution, owes nothing to the teachers unions (they were aggressively supporting Hillary) and, most importantly, consistently makes really good decisions. I'm quite certain he won't appoint an old guard union apologist and think he's wise enough not to pick a VIP -- a big name who lacks extensive experience in the education world. Among many worthy reformers, I'm sure he'll pick someone who'll be an excellent Sec. of Education.

The worrying reminds me of this hilarious and spot-on photo that I sent around to my Obama email list shortly after the Republican convention and the Palin pick, which temporarily put the race into a dead heat, freaking out Obama's supporters:

American Prayer - Dave Stewart (Barack Obama Music Video)

Here's a link to a powerful and moving 5-min video, American Prayer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVi4rUzf-0Q.  As with most videos (and given my horrible habit of multitasking furiously), I had it playing in the background, but as it progressed, I started watching it and started to get very emotional.  The video of MLK, the night before he was assassinated, starting at 3:51 is esp powerful -- he says "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!".  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

Here are excerpts from the comments of Dave Stewart, who wrote the song with Bono:

When we were originally writing the song, Bono was crafting the words in a way that would make people think about the fact that 'America' as a concept was a truly great idea, based on the bedrock of equality. I find it more pertinent than ever to release it now; to the moment America finds itself in, daring to re-imagine itself and its place in the world.

When I set out to make a video for the new version of this song, I wanted to honor all of those millions of people, especially young people, who are, for the first time, feeling empowered to voice their beliefs. I wanted to capture how Obama's message of change has echoed across the broad fabric of what is America. To do that, we've cast the film with an eclectic array of personalities, including Forest Whitaker, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Cyndi Lauper, Barry Manilow, Joan Baez, Macy Gray and Joss Stone. They appear alongside veterans, teachers and everyday citizens— all of whom have been touched by this simple idea of change.

Here are the rest of Stewart's comments and the words to the song:

AMERICAN PRAYER SONG on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZ...

RINGTONE
http://www.myxer.com/CHANGE or text "CHANGE" to 69937 to get your "American Prayer" ringtone

FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT SONG
http://www.myamericanprayer.com

Earlier this year when I was recording American Prayer, a song I originally co-wrote with Bono, the phrase, "When you get to the top of the mountain, remember me" seemed to take on a whole new resonance, given the inspirational candidacy of Barack Obama. The song always contained one of my favorite passages from Dr. King, which was hauntingly delivered the night before he was assassinated. King says: "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!" People long for a connection— whether it is to music, to their country, or to a big idea. Regardless of what happens in November, Senator Obama has reminded millions of people that they have the power to connect to bigger ideas. He is, in essence, the embodiment of a new anthem for change. He has continued King's narrative from what was once thought of as a dream to a reality. I find it especially relevant that Barack Obama will accept the Democratic Party Nomination for President 45 years to the day of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
When we were originally writing the song, Bono was crafting the words in a way that would make people think about the fact that 'America' as a concept was a truly great idea, based on the bedrock of equality. I find it more pertinent than ever to release it now; to the moment America finds itself in, daring to re-imagine itself and its place in the world.
When I set out to make a video for the new version of this song, I wanted to honor all of those millions of people, especially young people, who are, for the first time, feeling empowered to voice their beliefs. I wanted to capture how Obama's message of change has echoed across the broad fabric of what is America. To do that, we've cast the film with an eclectic array of personalities, including Forest Whitaker, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Cyndi Lauper, Barry Manilow, Joan Baez, Macy Gray and Joss Stone. They appear alongside veterans, teachers and everyday citizens— all of whom have been touched by this simple idea of change. As an Englishman, I'm not an expert in all the intricate details of American politics. But as an artist, I understand how rare it is to inspire a connection to a bigger idea or purpose. This video isn't so much an endorsement of Barack Obama as much as it is a celebration of all those who have picked up a sign, who have registered to vote and are working to make the world a better place. So as Senator Barack Obama ascends to the mountain top, let us not forget all of the others who for the past 40 years have sung anthems of change to make this moment possible.

LYRICS

This is my American Prayer
This is my American Prayer

This is the time to finish what you started
And this is no time to dream
This is the room
We can turn off the dark tonight
Maybe then we might see

American Prayer
American Prayer

And this is the ground
That keeps our feet from getting wet
And this is the sky over our head
And what you see depends on where you stand
And how you jump will tell you where you're gonna land

American Prayer
American Prayer

My oh my
Couldn't get much higher
Lets not kick out the darkness
Make the light brighter

And these are the hands
What are we gonna build with them?
This is the church you can't see
Give me your tired, your poor and huddled masses
You know they're yearning to breathe free
This is my American Prayer
American Prayer
American Prayer

When you get to the top of the mountain
Will you tell me what you see
If you get to the top of the mountain
Remember me

LIST OF GUESTS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:
Dave Stewart
Forest Whitaker
Amy Keys
Macy Gray
Jason Alexander
Colbie Caillat
Whoopi Goldberg
Joss Stone
Buju Banton
Ann Marie Calhoun
Barry Manilow
Linda Perry
Cyndi Lauper
Sergio Mendes
Herbie Hancock
Mike Bradford
Margaret Cho
Cindy Gomez
Speech
Joan Baez
Daedelus
Pamela Anderson
Peter & Gordon
Sierra Swan
Nadirah X
Perez Hilton 

Pics of the Obamas from election night

Here are 82 pics of the Obamas from election night: http://flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/sets/72157608716313371/

Newsweek: Secrets of the 2008 Campaign

If you have the time to read 84 (!) pages, Newsweek has a remarkably detailed story from the campaign -- the writers were given were given unique access for a year to both the Obama and McCain camps, in exchange for agreeing not to publish until after the election: www.newsweek.com/id/167582

Democrats for Education Reform petition

Democrats for Education Reform has launched a petition to encourage Obama to support giving parents in DC (and elsewhere) the same educational choices that he and Michelle have -- please sign it at: www.dfer.org/petition/obama (more articles on this topic below):

Parent Letter to President Elect Obama

Dear President Elect Obama:

We write with pride to congratulate you on making history.

As parents, we appreciate the great care you and Michelle are taking to make sure your daughters will fare well when you (and your new puppy) make the move to your new neighborhood in Washington.  We understand how much thought your family will put toward finding the best schools for your children.

As parents who have selected public charter schools (and other schools of choice) for our own children, we understand the importance of having excellent educational options.

We encourage you to include public charter schools in your school shopping list. More importantly, however, we encourage you to remember that all parents should be able to make these kinds of crucial, life-changing decisions on behalf of their children. And they should do so with as many excellent options in front of them as we can possibly provide.

Please join us in fighting for parental choice so that every child in America has the kind of opportunities they deserve.

Sincerely,

 

Revenge of the Black Nerd

I'm convinced that Obama's election is going to be a game-changer for education reform and closing the achievement gap -- for many reasons, including this:

Revenge of the Black Nerd

Finally, an end to the myth that being bookish means you’re “acting white.”

 

• By John McWhorter
• Published Nov 9, 2008
• http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/52025/?f=most-commented-24h-10

In his speech at the Democratic convention four years ago, Barack Obama memorably challenged the myth that holding a book is “acting white.” Now that he’s been elected president, he might actually be able to do something about it.

Black students are too often scorned by their peers as “thinking they’re white” for making A’s, and many let their grades slip in order to have black friends. Some educators and academics dismiss it as an unimportant thing to focus on when addressing black-student achievement. Some sociologists have even claimed that the whole “acting white” notion is a myth by showing that black students who make good grades also say that they are popular. But as Harvard economist Roland Fryer puts it, “Asking teenagers whether they’re popular is like asking them if they’re having sex.” Fryer’s work has shown that black students do in fact have fewer social connections the higher their grades, to a much greater extent than white students.

The problem dates from desegregation. Black teens only started calling each other “white” for liking school in the mid-sixties. Feeling unwelcomed by the white students they were now suddenly going to school with, black kids started identifying school as “other.” Recently, teachers and black parents have been addressing the acting-white problem, but it’s hard. Teenagers have a variety of identities open to them for trying on anti-Establishment postures. White kids can be stoners or goths. Black kids can be “nonwhite.” As of last Tuesday, however, there’s a new weapon, and it’s Barack Obama himself. Whenever a black nerd gets teased for thinking he’s white, all he has to say is four words: “Is Barack Obama white?”

It remains to be seen what an Obama presidency will mean for the nuts and bolts of education policy. But those four little words could do more to improve black-student achievement than any number of new charter schools and reading tests.

Obama may make parents a stronger player in education

John Kirtley sent me the article below with this comment:

Today we had an event in Jacksonville celebrating our tax credit scholarship program for low income children. I wish President-elect Obama could have seen it. It was held at a school in a poor neigborhood that has a 99% graduation rate, in a city that graduates less than half its minority students. Our MC was a black Democrat, one of many in attendance. Please see this clip (2 min):

www.jacksonville.com/multimedia/video/?bcpid=1329229943&bclid=1308023108&bctid=1912371019

For those like Obama who are "pro parental choice but anti-voucher", consider this: there are private schools in Jacksonville serving low income kids on this program. There are five charter schools in the city. Would the President elect tell the parents who were at this event today that this program is wrong? Would he tell parents whose children are in schools not working for them that they should wait until a charter school comes to their neighborhood? They should wait when 95 other schools like this one are eager to take their kids?

These are real lives we are talking about. These parents don't care that he "proudly proclaimed his history of public school choice" to the NEA. They have a simple question for him: why can't we choose these schools?

Here's an excerpt from the article:

I was thrilled that he knew he was wading into hostile territory, and did it anyway. He stood up before the largest national teacher assembly in the country and announced, in effect, that while he admires teachers and wants badly to help schools, the union agenda sometimes gets in the way. And it does.

Unions first took hold in the United States because they were the only countervailing force to monstrous practices of America’s growing Big-Business. Only by banding together could workers unions force management to the bargaining table. There, unions won such rights as we take for granted now — the 40-hour work week, safety regulations and fair treatment of the 50-year-old whom management wants to replace with a young buck.

But now, in public education, there is no real countervailing force to the unions. The taxpayers have some representation at the bargaining table, but kids and parents have none. Families will never have the kind of monolithic power that can fight in contract negotiations because they’ll never become a bureaucracy in their own right. Nor should they have to. But more than anything, a well-established union is a bureaucracy. Teachers unions came into being to stop the exploitation of teachers, but grew into private businesses whose main concern is to support themselves. And bureaucracies that outlive their usefulness fight like piranhas to stay alive.

So Obama wooed the teachers, but did not woo the union bureaucracy.

By supporting the parents’ right to choose where their children go to school, just as an example, Obama signaled that he was willing to shift some power back to the families who have too long been left out of the education equation. Mandating parents to send their child to a school they don’t like serves no one but the bureaucracy protecting the employees’ paychecks. Empowering parents with options gives weight to a countervailing force that would, at last, bring the kids’ interests into a better balance with the grown-ups’. The interests of students and teachers should never be divided, and if unions cannot serve and nourish the common goals of teachers, families and taxpayers, they deserve to go away.

Here’s hoping that Obama’s momentum will inspire the Democratic Party to examine, finally, and fix this very broken part of its own machine.

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Obama may make parents a stronger player in education

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, November 9, 2008

http://www.projo.com/education/juliasteiny/content/se_educationwatch09_11-09-08_J9C68DD_v9.26fe058.html

Last summer, presidential candidate Barack Obama addressed the National Education Association’s annual convention, by way of video stream projected onto a big screen. A YouTube version of the speech, with reaction shots of the massive audience of teachers union delegates, was posted soon after the July 5 event. It’s still up, if you’re curious. It has surprises. It gave me some hope.

 

Nick Kristof with a great article calling on Obama to focus (and spend political capital) on education reform:

So let’s break for a quiz: Quick, what’s the source of America’s greatness?

Is it a tradition of market-friendly capitalism? The diligence of its people? The cornucopia of natural resources? Great presidents?

No, a fair amount of evidence suggests that the crucial factor is our school system — which, for most of our history, was the best in the world but has foundered over the last few decades. The message for Mr. Obama is that improving schools must be on the front burner...

...No family underscores the power of education more than Mr. Obama’s. His father began as a goat-herd in a remote village in Kenya, but his studies carried him to the University of Hawaii. And Mr. Obama himself has ridden the education escalator to the White House.

So Mr. Obama, let’s give others the chance to board the escalator that you and your father enjoyed. Let’s pick up where we left off in the 1970s and mount a national campaign to make high-school graduation truly universal, and to make a college education routine.

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November 13, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Obama and Our Schools

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/opinion/13kristof.html

President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are sending signals that education may be on the back burner at the beginning of the new administration. He ranked it fifth among his priorities, and if it is being downplayed, that’s a mistake.

We can’t meaningfully address poverty or grow the economy as long as urban schools are failing. Mr. Obama talks boldly about starting new high-tech green industries, but where will the workers come from unless students reliably learn science and math?

The United States is the only country in the industrialized world where children are less likely to graduate from high school than their parents were, according to a new study by the Education Trust, an advocacy group based in Washington.

 

Another brilliant column by Kristof:

Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.

Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.

We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.

Almost half of young Americans said in a 2006 poll that it was not necessary to know the locations of countries where important news was made. That must be a relief to Sarah Palin, who, according to Fox News, didn’t realize that Africa was a continent rather than a country.

Perhaps John Kennedy was the last president who was unapologetic about his intellect and about luring the best minds to his cabinet. More recently, we’ve had some smart and well-educated presidents who scrambled to hide it. Richard Nixon was a self-loathing intellectual, and Bill Clinton camouflaged a fulgent brain behind folksy Arkansas aphorisms about hogs.

As for President Bush, he adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas.

----------------------

November 9, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Obama and the War on Brains

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09kristof.html

Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.

Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.

Let's hope this article is wrong about Obama's priorities.  A key litmus test of whether he's serious about reform is who he picks to be Sec. of Education (more thoughts on this later):

Critics of the Bush administration's education policies had hoped that putting a Democrat in the White House would mean dramatic changes, including the potential scrapping of the No Child Left Behind law and its reliance on standardized testing, as well as more federal dollars for schools.

But with the financial crisis and other priorities bearing down, President-elect Barack Obama's education initiatives -- at least early in his term -- are expected to be more about tinkering than bold change.

Although he has said education is an issue close to his heart, in an interview late last month with CNN he listed it as fifth among his priorities, after the economy, energy independence, a health-care overhaul and tax cuts for the middle class.

As American students fall behind many of their peers abroad, business leaders and others have said education must be a top priority if the nation is to produce a work force that is more competitive.

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NOVEMBER 11, 2008

Obama Is Expected to Put Education Overhaul on Back Burner

By ROBERT TOMSHO and JOHN HECHINGER

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122636225053515663.html

Critics of the Bush administration's education policies had hoped that putting a Democrat in the White House would mean dramatic changes, including the potential scrapping of the No Child Left Behind law and its reliance on standardized testing, as well as more federal dollars for schools.

But with the financial crisis and other priorities bearing down, President-elect Barack Obama's education initiatives -- at least early in his term -- are expected to be more about tinkering than bold change.

School of choice for Obama girls?

A USA Today article about the school choices the Obamas have:

How about a charter school? Obama has championed these publicly funded, privately run schools, bragging that he doubled the number of charters in Illinois.

There's a great charter school just four blocks north of the White House: SAIL, the School for Arts in Learning. But it's for "children with learning differences." There are plenty more choices, though.

In a sense, the Obamas face a dilemma that many upper-middle-class families do in most big cities: Open, egalitarian systems offer lots of school choices - but the best ones fill up fast (and admission each fall is by lottery if applicants outnumber slots). Still, few can match the offerings of pricey private schools...

...It's unlikely the Obamas will choose a charter school, but if they do, says Brian Jones of the city's Public Charter School Board, the first family would have to tread lightly to avoid the impression that they "inappropriately jumped the line" to score two slots.

This year, 1,900 D.C. kids attend private schools with a congressional voucher that faces the chopping block. What if the Obama girls go the private school route, as many predict? Would President Obama soften his stance against it? Jones hopes so: "I'd love to see President Obama stand up and support the D.C. voucher law so that low-income kids in the city could have that same opportunity."

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School of choice for Obama girls?

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-11-10-obama-school_N.htm

WASHINGTON - Great news for the Obamas: If they want to strike a populist note and send their two daughters to a District of Columbia public school, there are lots of choices.

But will they have to get in line like everyone else for the most sought-after schools?

A Crucial Decision For the Obamas: Public or Private?

Jay Mathews with another article on this topic -- and some wise comments from Michelle Rhee:

Like many parents moving their children to Washington, Barack and Michelle Obama will be told to avoid D.C. public schools. Is that good advice?

This is a tricky subject. School choice is very personal. The president-elect's fifth-grade daughter, Malia, and second-grade daughter, Sasha, have been attending the first-rate, private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. I bet they transfer to Georgetown Day School, a good fit because of its similarity to their current school, its historic role as the city's first racially integrated school and the presence of Obama senior legal adviser Eric H. Holder Jr. on its board of trustees. It would be a sensible decision by two smart, caring people.

But it wouldn't hurt to look around first. Georgetown Day, like other private schools, would charge them nearly $56,000 a year for two kids. Why not see what their tax dollars are paying for? One educational gem happens to be the closest public school to their new home...

...The last president to send a child to a D.C. public school was Jimmy Carter. He was so hot on the subject that he had a line in his 1976 Democratic convention acceptance speech about the political and economic elite who "when the public schools are inferior or torn by strife" send their children "to exclusive private schools." Amy Carter did fine at Thaddeus Stevens Elementary and Hardy Middle schools, but education experts think it's better to focus on training teachers to raise achievement rather than tweaking famous parents about their school choices.

Even D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, with two children at a D.C public school, says she does not believe "in people sending their kids to either public schools or a particular public school because they want to make a political statement." The D.C. schools have options for the Obamas "that are incredibly compelling," she said, but they should follow their own instincts and send their children to a school "they are fully confident is going to ensure that those kids get a great education."

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A Crucial Decision For the Obamas: Public or Private?

By Jay Mathews
Monday, November 10, 2008; B02

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/09/AR2008110901937_pf.html

Like many parents moving their children to Washington, Barack and Michelle Obama will be told to avoid D.C. public schools. Is that good advice?

Yes, I'm OK and no, I'm not being considered for a position in the Obama administration

After being an Obama emailing/blogging machine for the past few months, I took a rest after the sweetest victory ever!  Apparently it was too long of a rest because today I got an email from a friend wondering if I was OK -- or if I was being so quiet because I was being vetted for a position in the Obama administration.  LOL!  Yes, I'm fine -- just exhausted (being in the money management business these days is no picnic!) -- and it's way too early in my career to do public service full time; I'm waaaaay too busy with three businesses (investing, conferences and a newsletter, plus writing monthly columns for the Financial Times and Kiplinger's and book underway) and 11 nonprofit boards (seriously; I just counted them the other day -- I had no idea...).  Maybe when Cory Booker is elected President (in 12 or 16 years I'd guess) I'll be ready to serve...

 

No articles in this email -- just more amazing, powerful, heartfelt emails from people I'm so proud to call my friends.

James Forman with a very powerful email

James Forman with a very powerful email (all the way below) with a description of his day last Tuesday and his feelings:

 

Been so overwhelmed by the past week that I haven't written anything.  Plus, what more is there to say really?  My email inbox has literally exploded with heartfelt messages, congrats, stories from election day.  Sorry if i haven't responded to yours, I did or will read it I promise. 

I'm not sure that I have much to add to the deluge of words and emotions at this point, but here's my final diary of the campaign.

Monday, middle of the night
Up till 2AM after watching Obama speak to a crowd of 90,000 in Manassas (sweet irony there) VA.  Obama tells us he has one word: tomorrow.

Tuesday night, 5pm
Canvassed all day in Alexandria VA.  It's raining, i'm exhausted from last night, and i think i might be coming down with something.  Obama team is sending me text messages (why did I give them my cell phone number?) saying that VA turnout is low, we need to push till 7pm.  At the office at Grey Goose Lane we are deluged with volunteers, it's like one volunteer per voter, I joke to my mom that we should just each adopt a voter and sit on their stoop till we confirm they cast their ballot. 

5:30pm
Turns out that's not a joke.  Word comes from Tom Smith (love that I'm taking orders from my former student) that we should each take a list of voters and not come back to the office, just find the 5 or 6 left on our list that haven't voted and sit on their stoop, call them, do whatever it takes to confirm that they have voted.  "You own this list!", Tom commands to each of us as we leave the office with a list of voters that we have yet to confirm.  Jesus, I want to own the list, and I want to win, but mostly I want a drink.

6:45pm
Ify's sister Kiki and I have now confirmed 23 out of the 25 total voters on our list.  These are all people who told the campaign in the months previously that they were Obama supporters, but they are all new voters or voters with a sporadic voting history, so they are our targets for today (by the way, I promise to vote in every election from now on if only to avoid the "sporadic" designation that will ensure the daily barrage of Obama volunteers on my doorstep if I don't).  I think 23 out of 25 is pretty successful, but I'm afraid to face Tom back at the office and admit that 2 remain unconfirmed. 

7pm
Polls close. No lines at the polls at closing.  At least where we were, the long lines were all in the morning.   Now we just wait.

8pm
We are at a victory party sponsored by Spencer Overton (I hold spencer personally responsible for all this.  he emailed me ages ago and asked me to give money for a senate campaign of a law school friend of his with the ludicrous name barack obama).  Kiki gets a good seat in front of the TV, and already we are pissed off because we are losing 8-3.  KY's 8 for Mccain and all we have are Vermont's 3.  We are trying to read the tea leaves from the announcers hints, but they are being obtuse and anyway I sure don't trust exit polls. 

The unsurprising states are coming in.  Every red state is met with a sneer from Kiki, who has pledged never to visit any of them.  "Didn't want to go to Mississippi anyway," she says.  I tell her that "there are no red states, no blue states, just the . . . . "  She tells me to shut up.

The first big one is Pennsylvania.  Our bar is going crazy . . . wasn't McCain's whole strategy built on PA?  Can he win without it?  Some more states I cannot remember and that don't seem to matter much come in, and then the big one, Ohio.  I must say, of all the states Obama was leading in, the one I thought he was least likely to win was Ohio.  Not just because I thought the primary org sucked, my car broke down, we got crushed by Clinton, etc., but that's big part of why.  (and to speak of clinton, hated it at the time, but thanks for stretching obama to 50 states--we wouldn't have won indiana or ncarolina without the organizations built there in the primary.  and much love to clinton for tremendous campaigning down the stretch for the ticket.  anybody who hates on her now needs to ask themselves if they would have been woman enuf to suck it up and work that hard after losing a lifelong dream so narrowly.)

Anyway, who cares now . . . nobody in the bar will admit it, we're all too stressed and worried that they'll take it back like they did with FL, but it's over.  VA is still close though, and I'm feeling some personal responsibility there.  Maybe it was those 2 people we didn't talk to. 

Then VA comes in and Obama is in the low 200s for electoral votes.  The polls are going to close on the west coast in less than a minute, wait . . . people at the bar start doing math and shouting about CA's 55 and how they should be able to call Cali off the exits . . . . and maybe we're the last people in America to realize this but in like 30 seconds it is conceivable that Obama will be declared President, and then everyone is counting down 10, 9, 8, and then zero and the polls close on the west coast and CNN flashes up the image I thought I would never see and Obama is declared and we can't figure out what to do. I feel like Jimmy Valvano after NC State won the tourney and I'm running around finding people to hug, we're crying, taking photos, screaming and pretty much acting like what it feels like, the best day of our lives. 

Later somebody tells me that I shouldn't tell my wife that part about this being the best day of my life, given our wedding and all, so I don't tell her, but she does get this email.  Lucky for her she ignores a lot of my emails, but babe, if you read this one, sorry about that.

The speeches come on, McCain first.  I cannot believe these shits boo Obama's name.  I don't have the tape, but I remember watching Kerry's concession and some others, and I could be wrong, but I don't remember Dems booing the winner.  McCain's speech is quite good, but the commentators seem a little too ga-ga over it.  I mean, what did they expect McCain to say?  My opponent, the dude you just elected, is a punk-ass terrorist socialist who wants to steal your money and has secret affiliations he is keeping from you?  Oh right, ok.

The other thing that I don't like about McCain's speech is this bit about special pride for African Americans.  I mean, yeah, I get that, but it seems to miss the larger point about the special pride for all Americans.  But ok, I'm not going to hate.

Re special pride, it appears that chocolate city DC is now turning into a massive street party.  Crowds are forming outside the White House.  I sort of love that, but I'm also kind of hoping it is not too many black people out there.  Talk about feeding America's worst fears.  Let's at least wait till Jan. 20 before turning Pennsylvania Ave. into freaknik. 

1AM
Text from my friend Lisa in Seattle.  Lisa is white, and so is her daughter.  Apparently they were watching the acceptance speech and her daughter saw the Obama family and daughters.  She asked, "can a white girl grow up to have brown skin?"  Shit, I start crying again.

2AM
Going to sleep.  Only break in the euphoria are the results from GA.  My peeps worked so hard down there, it was a pure volunteer effort, little help from the campaign, and the energy and spirit I heard from folks like Chrisitian, Mary, Sonya and Amy was so intense.

5AM
Tossing and turning in bed, really I need 8 hours of sleep, but I cannot do it.  I have to go downstairs and see the paper, know it is official, it wasn't a dream.

6AM
Paper.  The good news is they haven't taken it back.  The bad news is that all the dirty dishes are still in the sink.  Wow, so everything is not going to change with Obama.  Still gotta wash my own dishes.  A preview of disappointments to come.

8AM
Reading the paper and I cannot stop looking at the photos of the Obamas.  I start thinking about my mom, how she decided to move to Atlanta when I was 11 and Chaka was 8.    We didn't want to move, we were new york city kids.  At the time she never came clean about why she had moved us.  Only later, when we got older, did she tell us the whole story.  About how she was a white mom raising 2 mixed-race black boys and our environment was mostly white.  I was going to a mostly white school.  She started to worry about a lot of things, including our racial identity.  She had lived in Atlanta during the civil rights movement and knew it had a thriving black community and black elected leaders, a black mayor.  She talked about how she wanted her black boys to open the paper and see pictures of black people running the city.  To know that was possible for us in America.  To have no shame in who we were.

My mom is sitting across the table, and I watch her with love and appreciation for her selfless decision to uproot us.  Then Ify comes downstairs.  She's got the little bump in her belly which is our baby to be, due in April.   This baby will be born during an Obama presidency, and will take for granted that which seemed so unlikely to me and my generation, and which seemed utterly impossible to my parents'.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Love to you all, thanks for support and energy and emails, doing this together has been what has made it so fun, and since I do have a life and job and work to get back to, any suggestions that any of you have for how to kick the blog/TV/RachelMaddow/talkingpointsmemo/CNN/billmahrer/hardball/total-media-addiction are quite welcome, James 

P.S. If I don't respond to emails pls forgive me, step one of curing myself of campaign addiction is less time on email.

From my friend Josh Porter, whose friend is Obama's speechwriter, Jon Favreau

From my friend Josh Porter, whose friend is Obama's speechwriter, Jon Favreau:

So I usually hate when people send out these dopey mass emails and just BCC everyone. But so many people keep asking me what it was like to be there, and instead of trying to retell the story 30 times, I figured this would be easier, and BCC'ing you all would save everyone the trouble of a string of Reply All's in their inbox with (half) witty responses.

Let me start by saying that no matter how hard I try to put it into words, I don't think I can really truly describe what it was like to be there. Calling it 'historic,' or saying that it was a 'once-in-a-lifetime event,' is to make a cliché out of it.

We started the night in Jon's parent's hotel room on Michigan Ave, a short cab ride away from Grant Park, so we could watch the results live. Jon was obviously still at the office at this point, and the plan was to meet him at the park as soon as we knew the outcome. So there we all sat, (myself, Hawkes, Megan, Andy Favs, and Mark and Lil) starting at around 6:00 central time, freaking out over every single percentage point swing in every battleground state. After flipping from CNN, to MSNBC, to Fox, and back again, we settled in on CNN, since they had the most clear, logical graphics and stuck mainly with the states that mattered (i.e., where real Americans live. Thank you Sarah Palin). As the percentage points sometimes would take 10+% swings, we had to continually remind ourselves that with "<1% reporting", that was bound to happen. It didn't really work that well. We were a nervous wreck.

At around 7:00 central time, Jon sent me an email that just said, "PA!!!!" and we saw the margin of victory (55-44) for Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes, and started to realize that this was really about to happen. About an hour later, Jon sent a "you guys should start walking down if you're not there yet," email, but none of us could comfortably leave the hotel room without knowing for sure that it was over. A few minutes later (after one false alarm from Fox), Ohio was in the bag and the race was, for all intents and purposes, over. After a room full of screams and bear hugs, we made our way down to grab cabs and head to Grant Park.

A few minutes later, I got this email, which I'll probably print out and save for the rest of my life. In five words, he said exactly what an entire nation, and a good part of the world, was feeling the moment they heard the news. (That's probably why he writes speeches for a living):

From: Jon Favreau [mailto:jfavreau@barackobama.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 10:06 PM
To: Porter, Josh
Subject: Dude
We won

Oh my god
Sent from my wireless handheld device, a miracle made possible by John McCain
=======================================================================================

Jon had gotten us "Headquarters" credentials, (which he probably shouldn't have done, since none of us are really mature enough to handle carrying such a coveted ticket. Quote of the night from Andy: "I'm probably not even talking to anyone who doesn't have a credential tonight") so after passing through a pretty intensive security screening, we had access to the area right in front of the podium, in front of all the (couple hundred) press cameras. Again, I can't even describe the energy in the park, and the buzz in the crowd. You saw it on TV.

At that point, Jon and Tommy came over from headquarters and met us, and a few minutes later CNN finally made the call. On the screen next to the podium where Barack Obama was about to speak, it read 'PROJECTED WINNER: BARACK OBAMA.' As we all jumped around and hugged random strangers, you could hear a million people in Grant Park scream and let out a collective sigh of relief.

I won't get too much into the speech. You all watched it. It was amazing. And if you didn't have tears in your eyes as he spoke, then you're probably the type of person who also hates puppies and/or babies. I know from where we were all standing there wasn't a dry eye in the house. To be able to stand next to my best friend who wrote the speech that was probably moving a billion people around the globe to tears was something I'll never be able to put into context. I'll leave it at that.

WARNING, I'M ABOUT TO GET PARTISAN. IF YOU'D RATHER NOT READ A SHORT POLITICAL RANT, FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH!!   Regardless of who you voted for Tuesday night, I think it was impossible not to get emotional as Barack spoke. This was a win for America. Men, women, and children all around the world were waving American flags and cheering. There were a million people in a park in Chicago at midnight on a Tuesday to watch a politician speak, and most of them were moved to tears. Little kids were begging to stay up past their bedtime to watch this. Mothers and fathers brought their infant children to see this, so they could tell them they were there once they're finally old enough to understand what happened. A generation of people who never really cared about politics now care. My 16 year old cousin was sending me text messages about electoral votes. If you don't think that's important, then I don't know what to tell you. On Wednesday morning, our standing and our image around the globe was significantly better off than it was on Monday morning. That's important. If you have to pay a higher marginal tax rate on your income over $250k a year, or on your dividends or capital gains or inheritance because of this, then I'm sorry. But I'm guessing you won't be pinching pennies or eating Ramen noodles to survive any time soon.

Once the speech was over, we all made our way over to the Underground for the afterparty. No, Barack Obama wasn't there. Turns out the President Elect has more important things to do than down Jaeger bombs with reporters, campaign staffers- who all looked like the weight of a 20 month campaign, and the expectations of a country, were finally off their back-  and campaign groupies (i.e., myself, Hawkes, wil.i.am, Forrest Whitaker, Amarosa (like, really?), Common, DJ Cassidy, et al). The after-after party was held back at Jon and Tommy's house at 1724 N. Cleveland Ave. From the pictures I sent around, you can all guess how that went.

If you missed the pictures, let me know and I'll resend.

Josh

From Victor Ndu in London

From Victor Ndu in London.  His friend's video is very powerful: http://asule.webng.com/obama/

Hello,

 

It was my 31st birthday on the 6th of Nov and the 2 best presents I wished for came through -an Obama win and (as a big formula fan) Lewis Hamilton wining the Formula one Championship. A friend of mine, Ahmed Sule, an investor based in the UK put together a lovely picture essay which you can find in the link below. There is a picture of Ahmed in 0.44 and .11 in the video

Enjoy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ahmed Sule <suleao@aol.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 6:02 PM
Subject: Photo Documentary- Glass Barriers by Ahmed Sule
To: Ahmed Sule <suleao@aol.com>

All,

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend?  I have just finished this photo documentary which I would like to share with you.

This documentary examines the concept and impact of glass ceilings especially in the light of Lewis Hamilton and Barack Obama's recent success.

There is a very nice song accompanying the documentary, so I suggest you put on your computer speakers so that you can listen to the music while watching the documentary.

I hope the documentary inspires you and if it does, feel free to share it especially with any your contacts and young ones.

http://asule.webng.com/obama/

Happy viewing.

Btw: Venus has just won the Doha WTA Championship and gets a cheque of $1,340,000.

Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA

"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself.  Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."- Barack Obama

An appeal from my mom

An email my mom sent last Monday to some friends and family who weren't sure they'd vote for Obama:

I know I am imposing on your privacy, but I will risk it because this is so important to me, to you and to our country.  Whether you have already voted or plan to do so today, you need to read what I and others are thinking when we support Barack Obama.  If he is so fortunate to win the presidency, I will not gloat, but simply be thankful that we will have a chance to mend America from the inside and begin to restore ourselves in the eyes of the rest of the world.  We have been so divided as a nation and lost the respect of many people around the globe.  As many now think, we are not people who care only about our own welfare and ignore others when they are having hard times.  Americans are much better than that.  Just witness how in our own family, we responded to the misfortune of the Iraqi man and his Iranian wife who are unjustly accused of helping terrorists.  Rick and Blackie, I also know that you and other businessmen have supported all sorts of public efforts as well as constantly helping in our own families.  Also, I still can’t believe how mother just gives and gives of her small pension to all the many solicitations that she receives even though we have told her that some of them are taking advantage of her.  Her response to that is “It gives me pleasure to help.”  And Americans, whatever their religious persuasion, give generously to those in need at home and in foreign countries.  I am in constant contact with US citizens, many of whom are missionaries, who have given their whole lives to providing health and education opportunities to people in far flung places. 

All of this is to tell you that I think Obama is someone who can bring Americans back to their core values of hard work, strong moral values and a shared commitment to our communities which now include not only our own neighborhoods, but the whole world.  Like it or not, instant communication, ease of travel, and interdependent economies have made us all neighbors.  Although we are often afraid of how those new “neighbors” behave, our only chance of getting along with them is to know them better and share with them the information and the resources to improve their lives.  This does not mean that we have to be Mother Teresa, but it does mean that we acknowledge that they exist and have the same needs to take care of their families needs and aspire to a better life in each generation.  It is when people give up hope and have little to lose that they cease to care about their own lives and mindlessly strike out.  Think about how our own families in just a few generations have made the best of their opportunities – largely because they had the luck to be in America where we have free education, good health care and a system of government that offers protection and justice.  I feel so incredibly lucky that my great grandparents migrated from Europe, took menial jobs (including Grandma Morrisey cleaning toilets), farmed, gained work in the civil service, worked at full times jobs and took part time work on the side, always stressed the importance of education, and generally scrimped and saved so that their children could have a better life than they had. 

My first vote in a presidential election was for John Kennedy and I was truly inspired.  But I have not been similarly stirred until now with the prospect of Obama being president.  Although I have given money and constantly sent information about him to others by email, I really wanted to feel that I had done everything I could to ensure that he would win the election.  So I stayed up until midnight yesterday in Kenya calling on Skype to 24 voters in Pennsylvania. Because we are eight hours behind, I had only a few hours of common calling time.  It was quite an education – some people hung up, and I communicated with a lot of answering machines, but I did talk to about a dozen people who were very serious about their voting.  Not all of them were supporting Obama, but in all cases it was clear that they were thoughtful and really cared about helping make America better for themselves and their families.  One very touching call was to a 73 year old woman named Willie Mae who was bed ridden and was very upset that she could not vote for Obama.  She said that someone had come to her house, but could not help her because it was too late to get an absentee ballot.  She somehow thought that she couldn’t have voted anyway because she had never learned to read or write.  I was so upset that I sent an email to Whit and my 30+ Americans (who live outside the US) list and asked them if they knew anyone in Pennsylvania who could help Willie Mae to vote.

This morning I received the two articles below from Whitney that further my commitment to an Obama presidency.  The first one especially sums up my hopes.

So, thanks for reading this.  I hope that I have not intruded too much on your privacy.

Jeremy Goldberg's comments

From Jeremy Goldberg:

Hi everyone:

So it's taken me a few days to both finally sleep and collect my thoughts.  Having heard from many of you, I know that you share my exitement, enthusiasm and wonder after Tuesday night. 

I, for one, am still processing Obama's victory. On the one hand, you could say I expected it--both based on my conviction from the very beginning that he could and should win, and by the objective analysis anyone could read heading into Tuesday's election.  On the other hand, I don't think I was really prepared for it to happen. 

This campaign, and Obama's ultimate triumph, has led me to a few insights:

• It is a remarkable thing when people mobilize behind a cause.  I have been actively involved in the non-profit sector for almost eight years (ten, if you count my internet startup!). But this campaign experience is completely different from serving on a board or a benefits committee for an organization you believe in.  It is special to watch people working together to change their country, and the selflessness, sacrifice, camaraderie, and dedication that such change requires. 
• One can only wonder what we could accomplish if you applied such a movement to some of the great challenges we face--such as education reform or conservation .  This might be Obama's greatest opportunity:  how to convert the legions of people he drew into the process to support a sustained effort to attack these challenges, which will require a change in behavior on the part of the American people. I think he will, and if the Obama supporters around me are any indication, I think they will respond to the call for action…
• It has been remarkable to wach people from around the world react to Obama's victory.  I've personally heard stories about the reaction of friends in England, Namibia, Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan, Gaza, Ramallah, Turkey, Israel and Egypt.  I believe in the notion of American exceptionalism (for good and bad), and this election was an example of an outcome that could really only happen in America.  Despite all the Pew polls and other indicators of the extent of anger and frustration with the United States, the reaction to this election is evidence that the world wants to look to the US.  This victory validates their faith in the American idea, even if they have lost faith in American practice.  But unlike a JFK who similarly captured the world's attention, President Obama will be presiding over a world that is much more interconnected, and where the bully pulpit has much greater reach.  He truly has a global constituency watching and evaluating his every move--a challenge and opportunity. 
• This election has restored my faith and belief in public service.  Not because Obama won, though I'm certainly glad the country got this one right.  But it has to do with the amazing experiences I had traveling the country for the campaign.  I had the most powerful conversations in living rooms in Iowa, South Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  It is remarkable to me that these people even answered the door, let alone shared their opinions, stories and ideas.  I saw desperate poverty, and the consequences of a failing education system and health care system that crystallized those problems for me like no book, tv special or congressional hearing could ever do.  But I saw an enduring faith in the people I talked to that government could still help them, and a hunger for leadership that understood their plight.
• My greatest satisfaction--beyond the ultimate victory, was in seeing the reaction of so many of my friends and colleagues who never seemed interested or engaged in politics before.  To see many of you head down to PA, make phone calls, give money, poll watch, and attend debate watching parties was really moving and inspiring. 
  

I want to thank everyone for understanding that I disappeared at times, and for tolerating a huge number of emails/appeals. I also really appreciate all the amazing phone calls and messages since Tuesday.  I'm only now working my way through them.  And if you sent me a text message, unfortunately, my blackberry deleted them all about midnight on election night, so txt me again (and let me know if you know how to stop my blackberry from regularly dumping my messages).

As for my plans.  Stay tuned.  I'm in the process of evaluating my options, with no decisions made.  I'll be doing some consulting in the meantime on some projects/organizations of interest to me.

Onwards and upwards,
Jeremy

Jeremy S. Goldberg
M: 646.228.5338
jeremy@jeremysgoldberg.com

A highlight reel from election night

Some eye candy – a ten minute highlight reel from Tuesday night: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qiRwCuQmZA

More comments

1) This is from my sister, who runs a maternal health program in Pakistan, who captures beautifully how Americans living abroad feel (prior to Pakistan, she lived in Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique and Sudan -- yes, I have an international family!):

We had an Obama victory party last night [in Karachi] and I was the only American -- everyone else was from probably 10 different countries and I toasted and spoke about what this moment meant to me – that I am from a generation born at the end of the civil rights movement and that we grew up in schools learning about the great things that were done by our parents generation to help change America for the better to end racial discrimination and we grew up learning about Martin Luther King and his I Have a Dream speech and to be proud of that, but that now I feel like I am part of a generation that is bringing change for the better to America.

 

For the first time in many many years I am actually proud to be American again. I have spent the better part of my whole career overseas hiding my head and dodging the question when people ask me where I’m from because I’m embarrassed about US government policy and how negatively the world has viewed the U.S. But last night I felt proud again to be American. I can lift my head up again because we have proven that we can correct our mistakes and because Obama makes us feel that truly anything is possible again in America. I was overwhelmed and was choking up. It was moving.

 

Others in the group also shared what it meant to them. A friend who is a gay British white man who has adopted 4 black African children from Sierra Leone told about how he woke up to show his 6-year-old son Obama on TV and could say to him: “Look at Obama – he is the President of the United States and he looks like you.  You can be anything you want to be in life.” Others spoke about how they really never imagined that Americans would actually elect a black man to be president and placed bets against it -- and how astonished they were that America actually did elect a black man and how happy they were to be proven wrong. Others spoke about how growing up outside of America people have this perception that America is the land of opportunity and possibility, but that they had become skeptical, but that this election really showed to them that America is really truly the land where dreams can come true, where anything is possible. Many people said that they believe America is the only country on earth where this would have been possible. It was as if people were regaining faith in America. I was really moved by how much this means not only for Americans but for so many people around the world.

I woke up this morning and went downstairs and took Benjamin on my lap and said, “Benjamin, we have a new president and his name is Obama, and we are so happy and so proud of him, and we are proud of America and we are proud to be American” and I turned on the TV and showed him Obama and he gave a BIG smile and said “Obama!” J

  The only sadness in the day was that California and a number of other states overturned the right to gay marriage. My dear friend Emma and her wonderful partner Sophie were married on November 2 so I would like to offer them my congratulations and then sorrow that not enough American’s are open minded and open hearted enough to give equal rights to everyone. I hope that the law is again overturned soon. And in the meantime, fight to retain your rights, and let us know how we can help.

2) From another friend:

I am ecstatic about Obama's victory. 

For me, however, it is bittersweet.  Just as Obamas victory marks the great advances on the path of social justice and equality...  The loss of prop 8 in CA and other anti-gay ballot initiatives in the country show how far there still is to come. Never before has America taken away rights fairly won. Yet marriage won by the LGBT community in CA has now been stripped from us.  

Please pass this along to your readers and ask their help in this new time. 

3) From a friend who runs a network of highly successful charter schools:

This election was critically important to me -- as a loyal Democrat with a background in politics, but on a more important note, as one who has dedicated his life to serving minority communities and its children. My liberalism began in college in the 60's and has been strengthened by all that I've seen. The parents I work with have the same hopes and dreams for their children that my parents had for me and I have for my children. The difference is the struggles they face on a daily basis.

 

Their plight has worsened during the last eight years as with most Americans. Their future has a chance now, their children have a chance now-not because of one day, but because of what they have endured during the last eight years has been brought to an end.

 

I cried last night as did so many. As I told a board member today, I feel that my life is complete now.

More comments from my sister and two friends

1) This is from my sister, who runs a maternal health program in Pakistan, who captures beautifully how Americans living abroad feel (prior to Pakistan, she lived in Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique and Sudan -- yes, I have an international family!):

We had an Obama victory party last night [in Karachi] and I was the only American -- everyone else was from probably 10 different countries and I toasted and spoke about what this moment meant to me – that I am from a generation born at the end of the civil rights movement and that we grew up in schools learning about the great things that were done by our parents generation to help change America for the better to end racial discrimination and we grew up learning about Martin Luther King and his I Have a Dream speech and to be proud of that, but that now I feel like I am part of a generation that is bringing change for the better to America.

 

For the first time in many many years I am actually proud to be American again. I have spent the better part of my whole career overseas hiding my head and dodging the question when people ask me where I’m from because I’m embarrassed about US government policy and how negatively the world has viewed the U.S. But last night I felt proud again to be American. I can lift my head up again because we have proven that we can correct our mistakes and because Obama makes us feel that truly anything is possible again in America. I was overwhelmed and was choking up. It was moving.

 

Others in the group also shared what it meant to them. A friend who is a gay British white man who has adopted 4 black African children from Sierra Leone told about how he woke up to show his 6-year-old son Obama on TV and could say to him: “Look at Obama – he is the President of the United States and he looks like you.  You can be anything you want to be in life.” Others spoke about how they really never imagined that Americans would actually elect a black man to be president and placed bets against it -- and how astonished they were that America actually did elect a black man and how happy they were to be proven wrong. Others spoke about how growing up outside of America people have this perception that America is the land of opportunity and possibility, but that they had become skeptical, but that this election really showed to them that America is really truly the land where dreams can come true, where anything is possible. Many people said that they believe America is the only country on earth where this would have been possible. It was as if people were regaining faith in America. I was really moved by how much this means not only for Americans but for so many people around the world.

I woke up this morning and went downstairs and took Benjamin on my lap and said, “Benjamin, we have a new president and his name is Obama, and we are so happy and so proud of him, and we are proud of America and we are proud to be American” and I turned on the TV and showed him Obama and he gave a BIG smile and said “Obama!” J

  The only sadness in the day was that California and a number of other states overturned the right to gay marriage. My dear friend Emma and her wonderful partner Sophie were married on November 2 so I would like to offer them my congratulations and then sorrow that not enough American’s are open minded and open hearted enough to give equal rights to everyone. I hope that the law is again overturned soon. And in the meantime, fight to retain your rights, and let us know how we can help.

2) From another friend:

I am ecstatic about Obama's victory. 

For me, however, it is bittersweet.  Just as Obamas victory marks the great advances on the path of social justice and equality...  The loss of prop 8 in CA and other anti-gay ballot initiatives in the country show how far there still is to come. Never before has America taken away rights fairly won. Yet marriage won by the LGBT community in CA has now been stripped from us.  

Please pass this along to your readers and ask their help in this new time. 

3) From a friend who runs a network of highly successful charter schools:

This election was critically important to me -- as a loyal Democrat with a background in politics, but on a more important note, as one who has dedicated his life to serving minority communities and its children. My liberalism began in college in the 60's and has been strengthened by all that I've seen. The parents I work with have the same hopes and dreams for their children that my parents had for me and I have for my children. The difference is the struggles they face on a daily basis.

 

Their plight has worsened during the last eight years as with most Americans. Their future has a chance now, their children have a chance now-not because of one day, but because of what they have endured during the last eight years has been brought to an end.

 

I cried last night as did so many. As I told a board member today, I feel that my life is complete now.

Cool collage of headlines from around the world

Check out this cool collage of headlines from around the world: http://obama2008.s3.amazonaws.com/headlines.html

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Hilarious video from The Onion, "Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are": http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obsessive

Obama's acceptance speech

I admit that I was so deliriously happy on Tuesday night that I could hardly pay attention to Obama's acceptance speech, but it was a truly GREAT speech!  Below is the transcript and here's a link to the video: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/obama.transcript/index.html?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCVideo

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

----------------------

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/obama.transcript/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

 

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.