* Barack Obama has been elected; the purpose of this blog has been accomplished.

It has been enormous fun for us to present a variety of opinions, including our own, and to interact with those of you who read our blog and made your own comments.

We ended up making 479 posts and receiving over 6,000 views.

We want to thank all of you who participated with us in our blog and in the most exciting and significant election campaign we have ever witnessed.

LEW & PAT

* Friedman (NYT): white conservatives voted for Obama

Tom Friedman writes in the NYT …

• white conservatives telling the guys in the men’s grill at the country club that they were voting for John McCain, but then quietly going into the booth and voting for Obama, even though they knew it would mean higher taxes.
• Why? Some of them intuitively embraced Warren Buffett’s view that if you are rich and successful today, it is first and foremost because you were lucky enough to be born in America at this time — and never forget that. So, we need to get back to fixing our country — we need a president who can unify us for nation-building at home.
• Electing McCain now would have, in some way, meant rewarding incompetence. It would have made a mockery of accountability in government and unleashed a wave of cynicism in America that would have been deeply corrosive.
• Bush & Co. did not believe that government could be an instrument of the common good. They neutered their cabinet secretaries and appointed hacks to big jobs. For them, pursuit of the common good was all about pursuit of individual self-interest. Voters rebelled against that.
• there was also a rebellion against a traditional Democratic version of the common good — that it is simply the sum of all interest groups clamoring for their share.

Read the entire article at … http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/opinion/05friedman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

* Brody (cbn.com): Why Obama won

David Brody writes on cbn.com (the Christian Broadcast Network) …

• Barack Obama will become the next President of the United States because he defined himself early with a clear message of change, centered in a maturity and calmness in which he never got knocked off stride.
• In political campaigning, it is critical that you be able to define your opponent. Hillary Clinton tried by saying Obama was not ready to be President. It didn’t work. John McCain tried by saying Obama was too scary. It didn’t work. Barack Obama was able to convince the majority of Americans throughout the last two years that he has the even temperament, intellect and policy proposals to effectively lead this country. The majority of the country was crying out for change. Obama fit the bill.
• Obama’s critics try and lampoon him by saying that all he can do is deliver a great speech. Please. Sure he did that. Time and again. But Obama was so much more than that. Throughout this campaign, he displayed an intellectual, calming, coolness. He crafted a message that did not come across as typical liberal fare. Instead, it came across to the majority of Americans as inspiring, hopeful and bi-partisan.

Read the entire article at … http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/475966.aspx

* Quindlen (NEWSWEEK): Now a black man will be called Mr. President

Anna Quindlen writes in NEWSWEEK …

• History will record that on Nov. 4, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the first black president of the United States. It is impossible to overstate what that means to this nation.
• no injustice or prejudice brought to bear by this country against its own people can compare with how it has treated black men and women. Humiliation, degradation, lynchings, beatings, murders. 
• or a long time a black man in many parts of the United States was denied even the honorific “Mister” by the white community, and was instead called by his first name, like a child, no matter how elderly and esteemed he might be.
• Now a black man will be called Mr. President.
• There were many reasons to elect him president, but this was one collateral gift: to be able to watch America look an old evil in the eye and to say, no more. We must be better than that. We can be better than that. We are better than that.

LMW COMMENT: After listening to Joe Scarborough act the angry old Republican on ‘Morning Joe’ this morning , I just know he wouldn’t like Anna Quindlen’s column. Too bad, Joe. America is a better place today than it was yesterday. And all of us who worked to elect Barack Obama can be proud of what we have accomplished. I sure am.

Read the entire column at … http://www.newsweek.com/id/167571

* Near-Flawless Run Is Credited in Victory

ADAM NAGOURNEY, JIM RUTENBERG and JEFF ZELENY write in the NYT …

• The story of Mr. Obama’s journey to the pinnacle of American politics is the story of a campaign that was, even in the view of many rivals, almost flawless. 
• But Mr. Obama and his aides believed from the outset that it would have to be nothing less than that if he was to overcome obstacles that sometimes in the drama of the year became easy to forget: 
  • that this was a black man with an unusual name and exotic past, 
  • someone dogged by a stubborn (and inaccurate) belief among some voters that he is a Muslim, 
  • who began plotting his presidential run less than two years after moving from the Illinois Legislature to the United States Senate.
• Mr. Obama’s campaign did not waver from its core theme of change. It tolerated no drama and did not endure a single staff shakeup, in contrast to the turmoil that marked the Clinton and McCain campaigns. 
• Mr. Obama kept himself, and his team, on an even keel — a character trait that paid immense dividends in the closing stages, when his understated approach to the economic crisis came off to many voters as steady leadership.

LMW COMMENT:

This long NYT article is an excellent recap of the primary and general election campaigns that led to the Obama victory.

Pat and I, after returning to Key West on Thursday night, went to Obama HQ and for the next five days made phone calls and canvassed voters door-to-door. We have been involved in many campaigns, I have run several, but I have never experienced a campaign like this. It was a magnificently conceived and managed effort.

Now, of course, we will see if Barack Obama can govern as well as he campaigned. I expect that he will. 

Finally, I must crow. Many of you know that I predicted a landslide victory for Obama last June, and never varied. It happened.

read the entire NYT article at … http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05recon.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

* MSNBC First Read: voters are comfortable with Obama as ‘Presidential’

• In addition to finding Obama likeable, voters are becoming more and more comfortable with him and the idea of him becoming president.
• Over the course of this general election, NBC/WSJ co-pollsters Peter Hart (D) and Neil Newhouse (R) have identified one key question in the poll for Obama: Do you identify with his background and values?
  • And Obama has always trailed McCain on this score.
  • Until now. In our new poll, an identical 57% say they identify with the candidates’ background and values.
  • What’s more, 58% say they’re “optimistic and confident” or “satisfied and hopeful” that Obama would do a good job if he becomes president; 46% say that of McCain.
• And 42% say they have either a great deal of confidence or quite a bit of confidence that Obama will be able to get the nation’s economy back on track. That’s compared with just 27% who say that about McCain.

* MSNBC First Read: Liking McCain But Loving Obama

• McCain and Obama are pretty well liked by voters. McCain has a 47%-39% fav/unfav rating, while Obama’s is larger at 56%-35%.
• But what’s striking is the intensity gap — almost twice as many respondents (44%) rate Obama “very positive” than they do for McCain (24%). In short, McCain’s supporters like him, but Obama’s LOVE him.
• Think about that 44% number for a minute: Obama’s overall ballot number is 51%, meaning that 86% of Obama’s supporters have a VERY positive view of him. Not since Reagan in 1980 has a base of supporters loved its nominee so much.
• Also, for the second-straight NBC/WSJ poll, Palin has a net-negative fav/unfav (39%-48%), while Biden has a net-positive one (50%-30%).

* MSNBC First Read: Obama Has A Clear Lead

• With just a day left until Election Day, Obama holds an eight-point lead over McCain among likely voters, 51%-43%, according to the final national NBC/WSJ poll before the election.
  • That’s down slightly from Obama’s 53%-to-42% advantage from almost two weeks ago.
  • Still, to put his current lead into perspective, the last NBC/WSJ survey before the 2004 presidential election showed Bush with a slim one-point edge over Kerry, 48%-47%. Bush went on to win that election, 51%-48%.
• Looking inside the crosstabs, Obama’s advantage is largely based on his overwhelming success with African Americans (winning them 90%-3%), Latinos (68%-27%), and 18 to 34 year olds (59%-38%). It’s about as solid of a three-legged support stool as any candidate could ask for.
• Obama also wins independents (48%-38%), blue-collar voters (51%-44%), suburban voters (49%-44%), and Catholics (49%-46%).
• McCain, meanwhile, has the advantage among evangelicals (78%-19%), those 65 and older (53%-40%), white men (54%-42%), and white women (48%-47%).
• One more thing: 30% say they’ve already voted, and those voters break by an identical 51%-43% margin.
• One thing that might keep the McCain folks somewhat hopeful about our numbers: We have Democrats with a +10 advantage on party ID; McCain’s team believes the electorate won’t produce that margin tomorrow.

* Menendez: Obama will win Florida

MAX PIZARRO, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter, writes (thanks to KARIN for the link) …

• In spite of McCain campaign robocalls hyping a William Ayres domestic terrorism connection, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) predicted that his colleague, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.), will secure Florida’s 27 electoral votes on Election Day.
• At Obama’s request, Menendez spent Thursday and Friday campaigning in the Sunshine State, reaching out to Cuban Americans in the Miami-Dade area.
• “As I campaigned I encountered people who would privately show me an Obama sticker in the palms of their hands and tell me they intend to vote for Obama, but can’t say it out loud because of peer pressure,” Menendez told PolitickerNJ.com as he stumped today for Obama in Jersey City.
• “I believe Obama will win 35 to 40 percent of the vote in the Cuban community down there – here of course, he’ll win in a landslide,” said Menendez, who cut a radio ad in Florida for Obama in addition to making public appearances on behalf of the Democratic presidential nominee.
• He said Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) was arriving to go to work for Obama while he departed.
• Republicans claimed Florida’s key electoral votes in the last two presidential elections.

read the entire article at … http://www.politickernj.com/max/25091/menendez-obama-will-win-florida

           

* MSNBC First Read: late poll analysis

From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro

• Some might be interpreting the latest Mason-Dixon polls as showing weakness for Obama since he has not reached 50%. 
•  But it should also be pointed out that Obama’s position has actually gotten stronger — when looking at the Mason-Dixon poll trendlines — particularly in states like Colorado, Nevada and Virginia. 
  • In Colorado, Obama has gained five percentage points from the previous Mason-Dixon poll, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, when the candidates were tied at 44%. In the latest poll, Obama leads by five, 49%-44%.
  •  In Nevada, Obama has gained 10 points since August, when McCain led by six, 47%-41%, and two points since their Oct. 8-9 poll. In the latest poll, Obama leads 47%-43%.
  • In Virginia, Obama has gained six percentage points since a Sept. 29-Oct. 1 poll that showed a three-point McCain lead, 48%-45%. In the latest poll, it’s Obama who leads by three, 47%-44%.
•  As far as the overwhelming majority of the undecided voters being white, keep in mind that black and Hispanic/Latino voters have consistently favored Obama by wide margins in public polling and have already moved toward the Democratic nominee. 
• In states like Missouri, for example, where the race is within the margin of error, black voters only made up 8% of the electorate, and Hispanics/Latinos 1% in 2004. In Colorado, blacks made up just 4% of the electorate in 2004 and Hispanics made up 8% in exit polls. 
• That doesn’t mean that McCain might not have an advantage with remaining white voters, since he is winning a majority white voters generally in public polling and focus groups. But it is also telling that many undecideds are Bush voters and have not yet decided on McCain.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/02/1627618.aspx