* 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: 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

* MSNBC final map: Obama 286 to 157 with 95 toss-up electoral votes

*** Our Final Map: With two days before Election Day, the final NBC News map shows Obama remaining above the 270 electoral-vote mark, with a 286-157 lead over McCain. Last week, Obama held a 286-163 advantage. Our changes: We moved Montana and North Dakota (which has same-day voter registration) from Lean McCain to Toss-up. In addition, we moved Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New Jersey (the latter of which we should have moved a couple of weeks ago) from Lean Obama to Likely Obama. So here’s where we stand:
Likely Obama: CA, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA, WI (227 electoral votes)
Lean Obama: CO, IA, NH, NM, PA, VA (59 votes)
Toss-up: FL, IN, MO, MT, NV, NC, ND, OH (95 votes)
Lean McCain: AZ, GA, NE 02, SD, WV (24 votes)
Likely McCain: AL, AK, AR, ID, KS, KY, LA, MS, NE (the rest of the state), OK, SC, TN, TX, UT, WY (133 votes)

*** Good News And Bad News: Our new map comes at the same time as the release of a final round of Mason-Dixon polls, and they contain both good news and bad news for the candidates. The numbers: Obama is ahead five points in Colorado (49%-44%), two in Florida (47%-45%), four in Nevada (47%-43%), and three points in Virginia (47%-44%). Meanwhile, McCain is up one in Missouri (47%-46%), three in North Carolina (49%-46%), and two in Ohio (47%-45%). The good news for Obama — and bad news for McCain — is that if Obama holds on to his leads in CO, FL, NV, and VA, he’s going to easily win on Tuesday, racking up well over 300 electoral votes. But the bad news for Obama — and good news for McCain — is that Obama is below 50% in all of these polls. And if undecideds break decisively for McCain, that’s how he would pull off the upset. But if the 2004 presidential contest taught us anything, it’s that turnout sometimes is more important than undecided voters. In our final NBC/WSJ poll before the 2004 election, Bush held a one-point lead over Kerry, 48%-47%. And there was the assumption that undecideds breaking for the challenger over the incumbent would propel Kerry to victory. But that didn’t happen. By the way, our final NBC/WSJ poll comes out first thing tomorrow morning.

* Rich (NYT): Obama is the strongest leader to dig us out of the deep ditch Bush-Mccain have put us into

Frank Rich writes in the NYT …

• Once Obama wrested the nomination from Clinton by surpassing her in organization, cash and black votes, he was still often seen as too wimpy to take on the Republicans.
• But certainly the single most revelatory moment of the campaign — about the political establishment, not Obama — arrived in June when he reversed his position on taking public financing. This was a huge flip-flop (if no bigger than McCain’s on the Bush tax cuts). But the reaction was priceless.
• Suddenly the political world discovered that far from being some exotic hothouse flower, Obama was a pol from Chicago.
• Up until then it rarely occurred to anyone that he had to be a ruthless competitor, not merely a sweet-talking orator, to reach the top of a political machine even rougher than the Clinton machine he had brought down.
• Obama’s message and genealogy alike embody what has changed in the decades since. When he speaks of red and blue America being seamlessly woven into the United States of America, it is always shorthand for the reconciliation of black and white and brown and yellow America as well.
• Demographically, that’s where America is heading in the new century, and that will be its destiny no matter who wins the election this year.
• What we have learned about Obama so far — and what may most account for his victory, should he achieve it — is that he had both the brains and the muscle to outsmart, outmaneuver and outlast some of the smartest people in the country, starting with the Clintons.
• We know that he ran a brilliant campaign that remained sane and kept to its initial plan even when his Republican opponent and his own allies were panicking all around him.
• We know that that plan was based on the premise that Americans actually are sick of the divisive wedge issues that have defined the past couple of decades, of which race is the most divisive of all.
• Should Barack Obama win the White House on Tuesday, many will cheer and more than a few will cry as history moves inexorably forward.
• But we are a people as practical as we are dreamy. We’ll soon remember that the country is in a deep ditch, and that we turned to the black guy not only because we hoped he would lift us up but because he looked like the strongest leader to dig us out.

LMW COMMENT: there is little to add to a Frank Rich column. He is one of the best.

Read the entire column at … http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/opinion/02rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin