Dems take control of NY State for the first time since 1935

With the Governorship and Assembly already in Democratic hands, the State Senate has gone to the Democrats for the first time in 40 years, and the Democrats now control both houses, and the Governorship for the first time since 1935!

Last year, Patterson became the first African American Governor of New York when Spitzer resigned (and the first blind Governor in the US).  Now, the young Malcolm Smith from Queens is poised to become the first African American State Senate majority leader, replacing the obstreprous Republican Joe Bruno, who (finally) retired.

Per the WSJ:

After taking over the Delaware House of Representatives, Democrats now control every legislative chamber in the northeast, with the exception of the Pennsylvania senate.

Third Party Candidates

I'll let other people write about the historic and uplifting nature of the Obama victory.

I just want to make a small point on Third Party Candidates.  Bob Barr (L) and Ralph Nader (I) were on ballots in several states, and in a few of them, they made the difference in swinging states one way or the other, although not enough to swing the election in either way.

MONTANA (3 electoral vote)

McCain 230,410

Obama 214, 481

Ron Paul     9, 932

Nader     3,499

This was outside the margin of influence, but it's remarkable how close it was.  Between Ron Paul and Ralph Nader, McCain could have an additional net 6K votes.

NORTH CAROLINA (15 electoral votes)

Obama   2,101,986

McCain   2,089,826

Barr         25,181

Here it is pretty clear that Bob Barr cost McCain the state.

INDIANA (11 electoral votes)

Obama 1,352,356

McCain 1,329,370

Barr     28,980

Again, pretty clear that Barr cost McCain the state.

MISSOURI (11 electoral votes)

McCain is leading Obama by 5,853 votes.

Nader won 17,767 votes, and Barr won 11,355 votes.

Here, it looks like Nader cost Obama the state.

What's remarkable however, is how many states were won decisively, outside of the margin of influence of 3rd party candidates, ie Florida, Virginia, Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, all states in which Obama won over 50% of the vote.

International Cognitive Dissonance

From Nicholas Kristof's column in the NYT this morning:

Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which conducted the BBC poll, said that at a recent international conference he attended in Malaysia, many Muslims voiced astonishment at Mr. Obama’s rise because it was so much at odds with their assumptions about the United States. Remember that the one thing countless millions of people around the world “know” about the United States is that it is controlled by a cabal of white bankers and Jews who use police with fire hoses to repress blacks. To them, Mr. Obama’s rise triggers severe cognitive dissonance.

“It’s an anomaly, so contrary to their expectation that it makes them receptive to a new paradigm for the U.S.,” Mr. Kull said.

Again, as someone who sells American products abroad for a living, I cannot stress enough how important it is to achieve a paradigm shift in international perceptions of the US.  With the US$ on the rise, our exports are going to suffer.  We need to counter that by increasing demand overseas for our crap.

Alabama will not go blue this year

Adam Nossiter writes about the "uncertainty" surrounding Obama's biracial heritage.  In New York, we don't call it uncertainty; we call it racism.

“I’ve always been against the blacks,” said Mr. Rowell, who is in his 70s, recalling how he was arrested for throwing firecrackers in the black section of town. But now that he has three biracial grandchildren — “it was really rough on me” — he said he had “found out they were human beings, too.”

Alabama won't be turning blue this election, that's for sure.  You have to wonder why the NY Times would even run this article about racism in Alabama.  Isn't that a given?  I'm far more interested in racism in New England, or the Upper Mid-West.

Obama Primetime Special

The Obama campaign has just purchased a primetime, half hour blockon CBS for Wed, Oct 29th at 8pm.  The aim is to air a special of some kind.

I cannot even begin to calculate how expensive this must have been.  They will  be pre-empting The New Adventures of Old Christine.  And I am further blown away by the sheer brilliance of it.  It is such a bold, daring move, and one that has never been done before.

I cannot wait.

SNL Oct 4th

Everyone is talking about the VP debate skit, but this one had me doubled over.

"Palin" as verb: submit your suggestions

PALIN: to throw up in a pale, as a result of being a pregnant teenager

Why is she throwing up?

She's Palin!

OMFG! Who's the Dad?

Most Viewed Daily Show Clip Ever

Rove, O'Reilly and Palin

Harder and Harder to Watch

More of the Palin interview with Katie Couric.

Obama v. McCain: Round One

Short assessment: Obama clocked him.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: on the issues, there were no surprises. They repeated slogans, gave some boring details, and generally did their jobs. Most Americans don't listen to details, and probably tuned out after 20 minutes. And according to the ratings, fewer Americans watched this debate than watched the same Bush/Kerry debate in 2004.

Most Americans respond emotionally to the candidates, which helps explain why Obama doesn't have a more commanding lead. He has been, until now, unable to connect emotionally to more than 48% of the electorate.

But what we saw on Friday was staggering. McCain looked older, rattled and more frail than we have ever seen him. He has literally aged years in the past two weeks. According to my Mother, who is quite an emotional person, it's probably due to Palin's complete mental meltdown on Katie Couric a few days prior, and the ensuing blowback from Republican party stalwarts to have her removed from the ticket. See here.

I completely agree that Palin, and her dropping popularity are a problem, but I also think that the financial crisis has been quite humiliating for McCain. His reactions have been all over the place, and quite extreme, which is scary since what you want is cool level-headedness in the face of a crisis. He started with "the fundamentals of the economy are strong", to "I meant American workers", to we're headed for the Great Depression if I don't intervene, PERSONALLY. Talk about messianic? Is he kidding? For more on what happened in DC behind closed doors that would have lead to McCain being so out of it at the debate, see here.

The other interesting point, also raised by TPM, is that Obama made no mistakes at the debate, and that in and of itself is a huge victory. In 2004, Kerry would win every debate on the issues, and snap polls would support that, but then the Rove machine would take one or two of Kerry's gaffes during the debate, magnify and amplify them, and turn Kerry into the loser of the debate in the days that followed. But Obama seems to have that Bill Clinton quality, which INFURIATES his critics, that you can't quite grasp at anything to throw back at him. There were so many moments in the debate when Obama could have lost it and said something nasty, but it was McCain who could barely conceal his contempt. And so far, the Republicans haven't been able to embarrass Obama in any way, which must make them crazy.

So final verdict on Round One, which McCain should have been able to win with two arms tied behind his back, goes to Obama, for being cool, calm and collected.

Political Philosophy

McCain's false suspension of the campaign (all his field offices were operational, and the ads still on the air), in order to attend to negotiations on a three page bailout plan (which he hadn't read!) smacks of someone who is unhinged. By that I mean, in times of crisis, we need and want leaders who deliberate, get informed and then make executive decisions; not leaders who shoot from the hip (because they can't raise their arms over their heads) and mislead the public.

When Obama reached out to McCain to issue a joint, and therefore bipartisan, statement, it was the sign of someone truly willing to suspend politics in the face of a crisis. So McCain took the opportunity to inject partisan politics, said sure no problem, and then issued a unilateral statement instead. I know it is a cliche, but it was truly and breathtakingly Bushian in nature.

The debate will probably go on tonight, but the fact that McCain even suggested suspending or delaying it in the face of a crisis that he happens to know nothing about intellectually looks desperate, but also cowardly. It has completely backfired. The panic is evident because even though the debate is supposed to be about foreign policy, there is no way the economy won't come up, and he will look worse then Palin did on Katie Couric.

What McCain lacks is an ability to inspire. Anything. This has more to do with the fact that he has been a bureaucrat for 30 years than anything else. Critics of Obama like to say that all he does is inspire, and is incapable of anything else. Well if that's true, I'll still take it. What we need is a President capable of inspiring Americans to bring out the best in who they are, but more importantly, who can inspire the world to rally around American ideals. Why? Because hopefully, once they are inspired by our ideals, they will be inspired to buy our products. All I could think of when I saw Obama's impromptu rally in Berlin was, how many of the 240K specatators were going to buy our products after that rally? I saw a consumer base! And as someone who travels around the world selling American product, I'm here to tell you, we need that consumer base!

Nouns, Verbs, Prepositions and Objects

Please comment on this. Am I losing my mind? Is this really happening to American politics?

Keith Olbermann comments on Sarah Palin's geography comments.

THIS is why Sarah Palin is being kept away from the press

Holy shit. I mean, this woman doesn't even make sense. She's definitely speaking English, and she's definitely using words, but look at Katie Couric's face. It's like she's looking at someone having a stroke.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild

This woman is infuriating.  A lifelong Democrat, she has ditched Obama, not for one of the many reasons you hear about like experience, or racism, etc, but because she thinks he is an elitist.  Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the American 3rd wife of Evelyn de Rothschild, who lives in Ascot House in Buckinghamshire, has called Barack Obama an elitist.

Maybe it's me, but since when is being half-African, half-Mid-Western, raised on food stamps by your grandmother, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and making it to Harvard (without disclosing his race on the application, mind you), graduating summa cum laude, rejecting the big Wall Street Jobs and going to work with poor people in the south side of Chicago, considered ELITE?

An elitist would be someone who graduated at the bottom of his class at a school he got into because of legacy, then ditching his first wife after she was in a horrible accident, and marrying super wealthy.  No wonder Lynn and McCain get along so well.

Bailout Email

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

The Shock Doctrine

One of my favorite authors, Naomi Klein (NO LOGO, and THE SHOCK DOCTRINE), had a face off with libertarian commentator Andrew Sullivan.

Klein’s book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," outlines how crises, real or perceived, have been used by governments, especially the United States under George W. Bush, to strong-arm a disoriented citizenry into accepting changes to its rights, and its government, that it wouldn't otherwise accept.

But Andrew Sullivan of TheAtlantic.com disagreed with Klein that a few "demonized" companies were at fault when the real culprit behind the mortgage crisis has been:

"[The American people] have spent and borrowed more than they could actually support," Sullivan said. "…To some extent, the American people are responsible for the crisis they are currently in."

Klein quickly shot back her own rebuttal.

"The reason why this bubble was allowed to inflate is not because the American people demanded it, it was because it was spectacularly profitable for Wall Street," Klein said.

Boo ya!

Enough is Enough

This is going too far.

Not only does the bailout plan proposed by Paulson and the White House essentially privatize the profits, while nationalizing the losses; but there are to be no limits on the executive pay for the afflicated companies, which means that taxpayers could be paying huge payouts for failed corporate leadership!

Side note:  McCain likes to rail against corporate pay for failed CEOs, but last I checked, his gal pal Carly Fiorina got $46M when she was kicked out of HP.

BUT NOW, to make matters worse, two FOREIGN banks have succesfully lobbied to be a part of the bailout plan:  UBS and Barclays.  They want to offload the bad debt of their American divisions.

Guess who is vice chairman of UBS's American division, and their chief lobbyist in Washington:  PHIL GRAMM!  Just last night, McCain's spokespeople wouldn't rule out that he could eventually be Treasury Secretary!

HOW CAN ANYONE VOTE FOR FOUR MORE YEARS OF THIS?!?!

Note to McCain/Palin:  Thanks, but no thanks!

Quote of the Day

It's a tossup:

“There are no atheists in foxholes and no ideologues in financial crises.”

Ben Bernanke

"It's a big package, because it was a big problem."

George W. Bush

Candidates Responses to the Bailout Plan

Here is the text of Obama's statement:

“The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led to a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since the Great Depression.

“But regardless of how we got here, the circumstances we face require decisive action because the jobs, savings, and economic security of millions of Americans are now at risk.

“We must work quickly in a bipartisan fashion to resolve this crisis and restore our financial sector so capital is flowing again and we can avert an even broader economic catastrophe. We also should recognize that economic recovery requires that we act, not just to address the crisis on Wall Street, but also the crisis on Main Street and around kitchen tables across America.

“But thus far, the Administration has only offered a concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan.

“Even if the Treasury recovers some or most of its investment over time, this initial outlay of up to $700 billion is sobering. And in return for their support, the American people must be assured that the deal reflects some basic principles.

• No blank check. If we grant the Treasury broad authority to address the immediate crisis, we must insist on independent accountability and oversight. Given the breach of trust we have seen and the magnitude of the taxpayer money involved, there can be no blank check.

• Rescue requires mutual responsibility. As taxpayers are asked to take extraordinary steps to protect our financial system, it is only appropriate to expect those institutions that benefit to help protect American homeowners and the American economy. We cannot underwrite continued irresponsibility, where CEOs cash in and our regulators look the other way. We cannot abet and reward the unconscionable practices that triggered this crisis. We have to end them.

• Taxpayers should be protected. This should not be a handout to Wall Street. It should be structured in a way that maximizes the ability of taxpayers to recoup their investment. Going forward, we need to make sure that the institutions that benefit from financial insurance also bear the cost of that insurance.

• Help homeowners stay in their homes. This crisis started with homeowners and they bear the brunt of the nearly unprecedented collapse in housing prices. We cannot have a plan for Wall Street banks that does not help homeowners stay in their homes and help distressed communities.

• A global response. As I said on Friday, this is a global financial crisis and it requires a global solution. The United States must lead, but we must also insist that other nations, who have a huge stake in the outcome, join us in helping to secure the financial markets.

• Main Street, not just Wall Street. The American people need to know that we feel as great a sense of urgency about the emergency on Main Street as we do the emergency on Wall Street. That is why I call on Senator McCain, President Bush, Republicans and Democrats to join me in supporting an emergency economic plan for working families – a plan that would help folks cope with rising gas and food prices, save one million jobs through rebuilding our schools and roads, help states and cities avoid painful budget cuts and tax increases, help homeowners stay in their homes, and provide retooling assistance to help ensure that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built in America.

• Build a regulatory structure for the 21st Century. While there is not time in a week to remake our regulatory structure to prevent abuses in the future, we should commit ourselves to the kind of reforms I have been advocating for several years. We need new rules of the road for the 21st Century economy, together with the means and willingness to enforce them.

“The bottom line is that we must change the economic policies that led us down this dangerous path in the first place. For the last eight years, we’ve had an “on your own-anything goes” philosophy in Washington and on Wall Street that lavished tax cuts on the wealthy and big corporations; that viewed even common-sense regulation and oversight as unwise and unnecessary; and that shredded consumer protections and loosened the rules of the road. Ordinary Americans are now paying the price. The events of this week have rendered a final verdict on that failed philosophy, and it is a philosophy I will end as President of the United States,” said Senator Barack Obama.

Text of John McCain's reponse:

"We've heard a lot of words from Senator Obama over the course of this campaign," McCain said. "But maybe just this once he could spare us the lectures, and admit to his own poor judgment in contributing to these problems. The crisis on Wall Street started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence peddling, and he was right square in the middle of it."

Good grief.  Not only is McCain's response so thin and vapid, but it's nonsensical, given that McCain's best friends, advisors, and campaign aides are ALL lobbyists.  And whereas Obama actually called for a bipartisan solution, McCain went on the attack. 

Chris Matthews Blows a Gasket

Chris Matthews destroys Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).