Zeba Khan started the website Muslim Americans for Obama, which continues to be active though the election is over.
There were throngs of fans, an army of supporters and a sea of volunteers working, sacrificing much of their lives to help Barack Obama emerge victorious from the presidential election.
When he won, it was pure exhilaration. But now what?
"Honestly, the next day there was a little bit of a deflation," Obama volunteer Zeba Khan told "Good Morning America," "like we were down a little."
Khan, 28, is one of a number of Obama activists who have found themselves at a loss. Their mission accomplished, there is no longer that cause to throw their enthusiasm behind.
"It became my life," said Khan, who knocked on doors in Ohio and even set up a Web site to solicit support from Muslim Americans. "It literally was."
The Obama campaign built an unprecedented network of support, which included an e-mail list with 10 million names and cell phone numbers, had 3 million donors and 1.5 million active volunteers.
"No president in history has ever had anything close to this," said ABC News political correspondent Rick Klein.
The challenge for Obama's transition team now is to try and figure out how to harness the support and turn it into a tool for governing.
"He's got the potential to go directly to the people with his message, solicit input, solicit advice and then put them out there to work on behalf of an Obama agenda," Klein said.
Not to be immodest about the US progressive movement's efficacy, but we apparently didn't just win this for America's sake. That's some powerful good we worked in the world. :-)
Obama's victory stirs Europe to confront race issue
LONDON - For months before Barack Obama's election last week, his popularity ratings in Europe soared to levels never matched in America. Now that Obama is headed to the Oval Office as the first African-American president, his victory is prompting Europeans to confront some uncomfortable questions about race within their own countries.
In Britain, the head of the government's Equality and Human Rights Commission sparked a public debate for saying that a minority politician as "brilliant" as Obama would struggle to "break through the institutional stranglehold on power within the Labor Party."
"The problem is not the electorate, the problem is the machine," Trevor Phillips, who is black, told The Times of London. "It's institutional racism" that extends beyond a single political party, he said.
In France, meanwhile, the wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy has thrown her support behind a new campaign that seeks to wipe out racism and end the white stranglehold on France's elite political and social institutions. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a musician and former model, is backing a manifesto published over the weekend that is subtitled "Oui, nous pouvons!" (French for "Yes, we can!").
Obama's victory "highlights via a cruel contrast the shortcomings of the French Republic, and the distance that separates us from a country whose citizens knew how to go beyond the racial question and elect a man who happens to be black as president," the statement said.
The manifesto urged the adoption of U.S.-style affirmative-action programs to promote minorities in education and workplaces -- a radical departure for France, which does not even record race in its national census. The French manifesto was launched by Yazid Sabeg, a millionaire who is the son of Algerian immigrants, and is backed by many members of the French elite,
Community groups in Britain and France, which are home to some of Europe's most racially mixed cities, have long urged an increase in what is now a minuscule minority presence in politics. They have seized on Obama's victory as a means to energize minority communities.
About 8 percent of the British population is non-white, but only 15 of the 646 members of parliament - just 2 percent _are non-white. In France, the non-white population is estimated at 12 percent, but there is only one non-white member of the National Assembly. By comparison, there will be 75 non-whites out of 435 representatives in the new U.S. House of Representatives and five non-whites in the 100-member Senate.
Mark Lattimer, executive director of Minority Rights Group, an international non-profit, says "structural obstacles" partly account for the lack of advancement among minority politicians in Europe. These range from the way that party insiders pick candidates for national office, to the lack of official recognition of racial or ethnic minorities in France, to nationality laws in Germany that were traditionally based on descent (rather than place of birth, which has hindered immigrants from Turkey and elsewhere).
"You need more than role models" to elevate more minorities to the elite ranks of politics in Europe, according to Lattimer.
David Lammy, a black minister in Britain's Labor government, says he rejoices in Obama's message of hope. Lammy, who first met Obama at a Harvard alumni event several years ago and went to Wisconsin to observe his campaign last winter, says Britain can learn from Obama's success. For instance, he says a closed "political class," supported by a patronage system, discourages newcomers from getting involved in politics.
Yet racism has reared its head in the days since Obama was elected. A Polish legislator told his colleagues in parliament last week that Obama's victory meant "the end of the white man's civilization". A well-known Austrian journalist said on television that he "wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man."
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) says Obama is planning to create a American Gestapo.
"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force. I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may -- may not, I hope not -- but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism. That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."
Last Tuesday, America was at its best again-brimming with hope and possibility; the very qualities that drove my Pashtun parents-and all American immigrants throughout history-to leave their homes in other countries and seek a new idealism and way of life in the United States; the very qualities that make me proud to be an American.
Mahvish Rukhsana Khan writes: Last Tuesday night, we the people, redeemed the notion that America is more than a great country, but also a raw and innate idealism-a dream-that thrives within us all. It expands beyond "the land of opportunity" and speaks to our innate sense of justice and equality; that men and women should only be judged on their merits, not their skin color or religious faith.
Yes, there is much mess of the past decade that needs an urgent clean-up: we have shameful institutions like Guantanamo Bay, secret prisons littered across the planet, codified torture and an economy in shambles. But in the moments following the election of the first African-American president, when millions of united Americans of all colors, ages, and religious beliefs cried and celebrated Barack Obama, the latent American idealism within us emerged reinvigorated, that despite our shortcomings-everything had become possible once again.
As a Muslim born and raised in America, Barack Obama's election has allowed a renewed trust that the religious barriers and appalling vilification faced by America's 8 million law-abiding and peaceful and Muslims will too subside.
With the divisive name-calling and hurtful anti-Islamic jeers, this election has been a tough one for Muslims. Sadly, the main stream media stood idle as heinous slurs linking Muslims with terrorism and anti-Americanism were flung.
No one batted an eye when the Republican supporters suggested that Obama secretly followed the teachings of the Qu'ran, as if it were an al-Qaeda training manual, or when he was sneeringly referred to as Barack Hussien Obama. How un-American to suggest that people like me are somehow not as patriotic or trustworthy as the Christian or Jewish friends I grew up with. Attacks on either of latter faiths would have been met with severe and appropriate reprisal.
The result was an outpouring of American Muslim support for Obama. The American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections reported that of more than 600 Muslims polled from more than 10 states, a whopping 89 percent voted for Obama. Just 2 percent of American Muslims gave their vote to McCain.
And Last Tuesday night, when the votes were in and the results were announced, America was at its best again-brimming with hope and possibility; the very qualities that drove my Pashtun parents-and all American immigrants throughout history-to leave their homes in other countries and seek a new idealism and way of life in the United States; the very qualities that make me proud to be an American.
Mahvish Rukhsana Khan is an American lawyer and author of the critically acclaimed memoir, "My Guantanamo Diary".
'That's something that should be very concerning to the Republican Party: They are losing support from both Asians and Latinos, the fastest growing population groups in the country.'
Sen. Barack Obama attracted tremendous support from African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans, and the strong turnout among black and Latino voters in key battleground states helped push him to victory, exit polls show.
The prominent participation of nonwhite voters - and their preference for Obama - is a demonstration of the increasing electoral strength of a multicultural America, a potency that will grow in coming years, analysts say.
Political analysts are studying exit polls and voter turnout data from Tuesday's election and beginning to discern who voted where and for whom.
While Obama attracted more support from white voters than did Sen. John Kerry in 2004, he garnered just 43 percent of the white vote while drawing almost all black voters and 2 out of 3 Asian and Latino voters, according to CNN exit polls.
"The playing field of presidential politics has changed," said David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a research center in Washington focused on the African American electorate. "There was a great deal of discontent with the state of the country and the economy; that was a big part of it. But this was a historic occasion with Obama being the first black major-party nominee."
Obama inspired African Americans to vote in record numbers this year, and analysts believe that will continue as more closely contested elections in Southern states are likely to keep black voters engaged. And the growing political muscle of Latino and Asian voters signals that, after decades of robust immigration, immigrants and their children and grandchildren are becoming full participants in the American political process.
All three groups turned away from the Republican Party definitively this year.
"That's something that should be very concerning to the Republican Party: They are losing support from both Asians and Latinos, the fastest growing population groups in the country," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of political science at UC Riverside.
If Republicans can't regain their appeal to those groups, they might become a party of white voters in an increasingly minor role, said several analysts.
Popular statement: 'Our health care system needs fundamental reform, we should regulate insurance companies and give everyone a choice between a public plan or what they have right now.'
Several in the media have claimed that President-elect Barack Obama won the election because he ran as a conservative and that notwithstanding Obama's victory, the United States is a conservative country. In claiming that Obama ran as a conservative, these media figures ignore the central components of his platform, including repeal of tax cuts for the wealthy, near-universal health-care coverage, and redeployment of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Democracy Corps, a Democratic polling group, released a poll on November 7 that showed strong support for the positions that Obama has articulated on these issues.
The poll also included questions that provided a direct choice between the position taken by Obama on a given issue and that taken by Sen. John McCain (without referring to Obama or McCain) -- with the more progressive choice echoing Obama's position and the more conservative echoing McCain's. For most questions that juxtaposed a clear progressive view with a clear conservative view, the progressive position was more popular. A list of positions Obama took on major issues during the campaign makes it clear that he did not run as a conservative, and the Democracy Corps poll results rebut the claim that Obama ran as a conservative and that the United States is a conservative country.
Democracy Corps polled 2,000 voters November 4-5 and posed several questions as direct contrasts between a conservative approach and a progressive approach, some of which were directly drawn from the arguments made by Obama and McCain. The poll asked which statement "comes closer to your own view, even if neither is exactly right."
Trade The poll asked respondents to choose between these two statements -- "I'm more worried that we will do too little to require fair trade and enforce worker and consumer protections" and "I'm more worried that we will got too far burdening free trade accords with protections for consumers and labor." Fifty-three percent of respondents said the first statement was closer to their point of view, compared with 34 percent who chose the second statement. During the October 16 presidential debate at Hofstra University, Obama said: "I believe in free trade. But I also believe that for far too long, certainly during the course of the Bush administration with the support of Senator McCain, the attitude has been that any trade agreement is a good trade agreement. And NAFTA doesn't have -- did not have enforceable labor agreements and environmental agreements." McCain, for his part, attacked Obama for "oppos[ing] the Colombia Free Trade Agreement."
Social Security The Democracy Corps survey asked respondents to choose between one statement on Social Security, "We need to reform Social Security and protect it to ensure that it's a safety net the American people can count on," and a second, more conservative statement: "We need to reform Social Security and establish personal savings accounts so individuals have more options." The first statement, supported by 63 percent of respondents, is similar to Obama's proposal to "protect Social Security" and "ensur[e] Social Security is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the future." The second statement, involving Social Security private accounts, was supported by 35 percent of respondents. As recently as July 8, McCain said on CNN's American Morning that he supports allowing workers to divert part of their payroll taxes into private accounts: "I want young workers to be able to, if they so choose, to take part of their own money, which is their taxes, and put it into an account, which has their name on it. Now, that's a voluntary thing, it's for younger people. It would not affect any -- any present-day retirees or the system as necessary."
Health care Regarding health care, the Democracy Corps survey offered a relatively progressive statement, which was supported by 58 percent of respondents: "Our health care system needs fundamental reform, we should regulate insurance companies and give everyone a choice between a public plan or what they have right now." This statement is similar to Obama's proposal for health-care reform, which "[r]equire[s] insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions"; allows individuals to keep their current health-care coverage if they choose to do so; and establishes "a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage." The other statement offered by the survey -- "Our health care system needs fundamental reform; we should give American families more choice by giving individuals a tax credit to choose their own coverage" -- was supported by 38 percent of respondents. That relatively conservative statement was similar to McCain's proposal: "While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit -- effectively cash -- of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider."
Priorities The Democracy Corps survey also specifically tested many of the policies Obama has proposed, asking voters whether each should be "the SINGLE highest priority, one of the TOP FEW priorities, but not the highest, NEAR THE TOP of the list, in the MIDDLE OF THE LIST, or TOWARD THE BOTTOM of the list of priorities for the new president." If a respondent actually disagreed with an item on the agenda, he or she would presumably place the goal "toward the bottom of the list of priorities." The data demonstrate that the public appears to want action on many of the key pieces of Obama's agenda.
Among the proposals the survey presented that a majority of respondents considered at least "near the top" of their priorities:
"Repeal the Bush tax cuts for those making over 250,000 dollars and cut taxes for middle class families and anyone making under 200,000 dollars." Sixty percent said this was at least "near the top" of their priorities. Obama proposed "broad-based tax relief to middle class families" and raising taxes on individuals earning more than $200,000 per year and families earning more than $250,000 per year.
"Make health insurance affordable and accessible to all Americans." Seventy-two percent said this was at least "near the top" of their priorities. As noted above, Obama proposed "a National Health Insurance Exchange ... that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage."
"End the war in Iraq responsibly and redeploy our troops from Iraq to Afghanistan." Seventy-six percent said this was at least "near the top" of their priorities. Obama proposed withdrawing troops from Iraq in a way that is "responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government." Obama has also proposed "providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan."
"Repeal tax breaks that benefit companies that move jobs overseas." Fifty-nine percent said this was at least "near the top" of their priorities. Obama has said, "I want to end the tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas and provide a tax credit for every company that's creating a job right here in America."
"End dependence on foreign oil by 2025 by requiring one quarter of U.S. electric power to come from alternative energy where new investments will create new jobs." Eighty-one percent said this was at least "near the top" of their priorities. Obama's energy plan proposes that "10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025."
"Make job-creating investments in America's aging roads and transportation systems and stimulate new economic activity." Fifty-nine percent said this was at least "near the top" of their priorities. Obama's energy plan calls for "devot[ing] substantial resources to repairing our roads and bridges."
Further undermining media claims that Obama ran as a conservative in an effort to appeal to a conservative country are statements by Media Research Center president L. Brent Bozell III and Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner before the election attacking Obama for embracing "socialism" or espousing views that were contrary to conservatism. As Media Matters noted, after the election, Bozell claimed that Obama ran as a conservative -- a sharp departure from his accusation before the election that Obama was espousing "socialism" throughout the "entirety of the campaign."
Similarly, in a November 7 Washington Times column, Feulner claimed that Obama "campaigned on conservative themes throughout the fall" and that Obama "took some conservative positions on issues like taxes (promising to cut them)." Yet prior to the election, in an August 10 column, Feulner had claimed that by "unveil[ing] an economic plan that revolves around raising taxes on the wealthy," Obama indicated that he "want[s] to go back to the policies of the 1970s" under former President Jimmy Carter. Feulner also asserted in the August column that "Mr. Obama promises to 'soak the rich.' "
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/7/2008) - The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) today released the results of a poll indicating that almost 90 percent of American Muslim voters picked Barack Obama in Tuesday's election. That survey of more than 600 American Muslim voters also indicated that just two percent of respondents cast their ballots for Sen. John McCain.
Poll Findings:
Of those who voted, 89 percent cast their ballot for Barack Obama.
Just two percent of respondents said they voted for John McCain.
Most of the respondents (78 percent) reside in ten states: Illinois, New York, Virginia, Michigan, California, Texas, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
Ninety-five percent of respondents said they voted in the presidential election, whether at the polls or by absentee ballot. This is the highest American Muslim voter turnout ever reported.
Of those who voted, almost 14 percent said they did so for the first time.
One-fourth of respondents said they volunteered for or donated money to a political campaign in this election.
American Muslim voters are increasingly identifying themselves with the Democratic Party. More than two-thirds said they consider themselves Democrats. Most of the rest, or 29 percent, still consider themselves independent. Only four percent said they are Republicans.
More than two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents said the economy was the most important issue that affected their voting decision. This was followed by 16 percent who said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the most important. (In January 2008, a sample of 1000 Muslim voters rated education and civil rights as the top issues.)
Obama's victory creates the prospect of a new "real" America. We can't possibly know its contours yet, although I suspect the headline is that it is no longer homogeneous.
This election was about much more than issues. It was the ratification of an essential change in the nature of the country. I've seen two others in my lifetime. The election of John Kennedy ratified the new America that had emerged from war and depression - a place where more people owned homes and went to college, a place where young people had the affluence to be idealistic or to rebel, a place that was safe enough to get a little crazy, a sexier country. Ronald Reagan's election was a rebellion against that - an announcement that toughness had replaced idealism overseas, that individual economic freedom had replaced common economic purpose at home. It was an act of nostalgia, harking back to the "real" America - white, homogeneous, small-town - that the McCain campaign unsuccessfully tried to appeal to.
Obama's victory creates the prospect of a new "real" America. We can't possibly know its contours yet, although I suspect the headline is that it is no longer homogeneous. It is no longer a "white" country, even though whites remain the majority. It is a place where the primacy of racial identity - and this includes the old, Jesse Jackson version of black racial identity - has been replaced by the celebration of pluralism, of cross-racial synergy. After eight years of misgovernance, it has lost some of its global swagger ... but also some of its arrogance. It may no longer be as dominant, economically or diplomatically, as it once was. But it is younger, more optimistic, less cynical. It is a country that retains its ability to startle the world - and in a good way, with our freedom. It is a place, finally, where the content of our President's character is more important than the color of his skin.
From McClatchy Newspapers: In Iraq, some U.S. soldiers stayed up all night to await the announcement of their new commander in chief and when Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech he spoke to them.
"Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us," Obama said.
About 15 miles north of Baghdad at Camp Taji, Kevin Brooks, a 38-year-old staff sergeant from South Carolina, saw that Obama was the president elect just after 7 a.m.
"I'm really proud to be an American today," Brooks said. "Our country has come such a long way. It's incredible."
Brooks, an African American, woke up at 3 a.m. to watch the news at a recreation hall on the base in Taji.
"I just wish my own grandmother was here to see this," he said.
For some this meant change and a possible end in sight.
"I knew he'd win, but I'm still shocked," said Staff Sgt. Errol Watson, 34, of Georgetown, Del. "It's pretty huge, especially for people here ... Obviously an Obama win means we could be going home sooner, and I think everybody here wants a (withdrawal) timeline."
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In Baghdad, shop owners in the busy marketplace of Bab al Sharji tuned their televisions to the Arabic Satellite News stations monopolized by election coverage. The market is encased by towering concrete walls to protect shoppers from car bombs.
In one shop that specialized in the whole sale of two-way radios, Jassim al Saadi read the newspaper at 8:30 a.m. and gazed at the television where newscasters analyzed Obama's win.
"We will be liberated as Iraqis, we will get rid of this concrete, we will be capable of going to our jobs at normal times and not in darkness," al Saadi said. "I believe Obama is a man of politics not a man that desires wars, not like McCain or George Bush, the father and son."
As he spoke, Malek Fadel a young Iraqi soldier walked into the shop to buy batteries.
"Our future is connected to America not by our will and despite this connection this vote will not affect us," Fadel said. "No one hears us or cares for us as Iraqis."
As another customer walked in an employee called out to him.
"Congratulations the black man wins!" he said.
"He deserves it. He is one of our uncles," Sadiq al Dulaimy said, joking that next time a member of his tribe, the Dulaim could run for president.
Another patron joined in and his words dripped with sarcasm.
"Yes he's our president," said Mohammed Khalaf a bodyguard for a senior Iraqi official. "He's the man who can make a decision in Iraq. He's the man with the first and last word in this country."
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In western Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father, small crowds gathered at fairgrounds and in bars to watch the election returns trickle in. In Kisumu, the main town in the region, a few dozen young men watching on a small screen at the fairgrounds erupted in cheers and hoots shortly after 7 a.m. local time, when television networks called the election for Obama.
Kenyans wearing Obama pins, Obama stickers and Obama T-shirts expressed joy not only that a man they see as one of their own would occupy the White House, but also at the idea that American voters could see beyond a person's skin color.
"Kenyans have learned a lot about America," Lamek Onyango, a jobless 25-year-old. "It depends on the person, on how he is and the knowledge that somebody has, not if he is black or white."
Sensing a victory even before the polls had closed, The Standard, a national Kenyan daily, ran a one-word front-page headline: "Obama."
In Nyangoma-Kogelo, the bucolic village where Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah, still lives, dozens of neighbors danced in celebration under a searing morning sun. The extended Obama clan made plans for an afternoon feast to include chapati, a fried flatbread that Sarah Obama said was the president-elect's favorite dish.
Obama's victory felt like redemption in western Kenya, where many in the predominant Luo tribe _ the ethnic group to which Obama's late father belonged _ is still smarting from Kenya's disputed presidential election last December. A loss by the Luo candidate, Raila Odinga, unleashed weeks of violence that killed more than 1,000 people and reignited tensions between Kenya's many diverse ethnicities.
"In this country politics is too much about ethnicity. America is showing that leadership has no color," said Samuel Otieno, an unemployed 23-year-old wearing an Obama pin. "Kenya can learn a lot."
Most Kenyans have come to grips with the fact that Obama isn't going to personally fix all of their country's problems. But some hoped that Democratic policies could enhance economic development in Africa.
"What is important to me is that an Obama victory will bring down the racial divide that the world has been suffering," said Mary Opere, 22, a tour company employee who was watching the returns early Wednesday morning at a bar in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. "I think Obama will also give us trade and not aid."
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A cheer went up among Obama supporters at a gathering of Americans and Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro every time CNN called another state for the Democratic candidate.
"I adore the United States, it's a spectacular country," said Italo Mazzoni, president of the Rio-based Brazilian-United States Institute. "But the United States' reputation has been sullied because of President Bush. Obama is capable of improving that image. He is young and has modern ideas. He can transmit a more positive image of the United States."
In recent days, ordinary Brazilians, unprompted, had been expressing their hopes in Obama.
"I think it will be good for the United States to have a black man as president," said Jorge Silva, who sells fruit from a cart in Rio. "The United States needs change, and Obama represents that."
Even Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been expressing hope in Obama.
Obama "has said interesting things, and I hope he'll follow through on them," Chavez said, citing Obama's promise to close Guantanamo as a center to detain terrorist suspects and to pull out U.S. troops from Iraq.
Chavez proposed that Obama work with the Venezuelan leader "against the ills of the world: hunger, AIDS, poverty and malnutrition."
Chavez has been the United States' biggest headache in Latin America. He regularly rails against Bush, free-trade and capitalism.
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Chinese and U.S. business executives gathered at a Beijing hotel to watch U.S. election returns voiced hope that an Obama administration would consult closely with China on economic matters.
"The United States and China more than ever need to have a positive partnership," said James M. Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, referring to the economic links between the countries.
Already, global financial turmoil is throwing Chinese out of work, and businessmen want the new U.S. administration to take strong action to stabilize markets and investments.
"The election was decided by the financial crisis," said Thomas Yin, executive director of United China Consultants, adding that Obama's lack of major management experience makes him nervous.
"He has to do something to save the economy, to save the (American) middle class," Yin said. "Some small factories here, such as toy manufacturers, have already gone bankrupt because they don't get any more orders from America."
Zhang Nan, a journalist from Beijing Today newspaper, said she has one major hope for an Obama administration: "Not so many wars. A more peaceful environment."
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Election-night parties were held in homes, bars and pubs across Europe. Given the time difference with America (Britain is five hours ahead of the US East Coast, and continental Europe is six hours ahead), the election result wasn't known until the early morning hours, but that didn't stop crowds of American expatriates and Europeans alike from staying up all night.
In London, home to the largest American community outside North America, hundreds of Obama fans held parties across the city. A mob crowded into The Hoop and Toy, a pub in South Kensington, to watch the night unfold on big-screen televisions. Cheers went up from the crowd each time key state victories were announced, and there was a champagne toast to victory. The event didn't break up until 6 a.m. when many had to start thinking about going to work.
Duane Mitchell, 45, was one of the American expats who stayed up all night in his London home watching the results roll in.
"I'm surprised and I'm really pleased by the result," said Mitchell, who is chief information officer of a law firm in London, originally hails from Philadelphia. "It was an amazing, amazing event." He voted by absentee ballot, as did many Americans abroad.
Britons, too, stayed up to see the conclusion of a campaign that has been closely followed for months.
"The scenes I saw on the telly last night from America were extraordinary," said Simon Haymer, 45, who is managing director of an advertising agency in London and looked rather glassy-eyed as he waited for a bus near Trafalgar Square this morning. "It was like someone had won a war." The only similar displays of emotion he could recall in Britain were royal weddings or "when we do half decent at the Olympics." Haymer, who said he follows American politics closely, said "the best man won." He added "but the best thing is Bush won't be there."
Somit Prasad, a 31-year-old dentist, was snatching a cigarette outside London's Paddington train station during the morning rush hour. "I'm very pleased," he said with typical British understatement. "I've followed the race quite closely, and this is quite historic." He referred to Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. "Barack Obama is eloquent and very sincere, and I expect world relations will be much better with America."
Even passengers flying across the Atlantic were anxious to hear the news. When a British Airways flight from Boston to London landed at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, shortly after 5 a.m. British time, the pilot announced that Obama was the winner and applause broke out among the passengers. "Sweet," said Ramatsu Sowe, a 66-year-old grandmother with several missing teeth and a gold cap in the middle of her crooked smile, who was on the flight to visit her children in Britain. "I can't believe it." Originally from Sierra Leone, she moved to Massachusetts in 1996. This was the first time she was eligible to vote in a U.S. election, and she did so before boarding the flight. "Obama will be great," she said. Although she is looking forward to her visit in Britain she added that "I'm going back for the inauguration in America."
Despite polls across Europe in recent months showing Obama as the heavy favorite, there was some caution this morning, too. "I think the world's still going to be pretty skeptical about America, especially the fear that it might become isolationist," Haymer said. "There's going to be a huge anticlimax" for Obama, Prasad predicted. "He's inheriting so many problems."
Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, and the opposition Conservative leader David Cameron both met Obama during his European tour in July and issued statements on the election result. Brown said Obama ran "an inspirational campaign, energizing politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future." Cameron called Obama "the first of a new generation of world leaders."
Perhaps the most surprising praise came from France, long a thorn in America's side. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Obama when he visited Paris a few months ago, called the result "brilliant."
The video that Fox News is playing on an "endless loop."
Salaam writes: Salon.com has an ongoing live blog on the day's events. Hence the format with the two writers making reference to each others' comments.
Glenn Greenwald (4:19 p.m. EST): Joan -- I've been watching Fox much of the day (in Brazil, where I am today, one can only view Fox and, intermittently, CNN-U.S. (it's interspersed with CNN-International).
There is one message from Fox being repeated all day, and Karl Rove just did his part to bolster it: African-Americans aren't merely voting in droves, but are cheating and stealing the election for Obama. As part of that segment you described, Rove just "informed" Fox viewers not only that there are more registered voters than adults in Philadelphia (and made the same claim about Milwaukee), but also that voting precincts are in the homes and "barber shops" of Democratic ward leaders, that there are already votes in the voting machines before the day begins, that ACORN criminals control the process in many large cities, etc.
Obama is going to take away the white people's money and give it to African-Americans with a new welfare program, and to make sure it happens, whites are being cheated and intimidated out of their vote. The endlessly looped Black Panther video ("intimidating white voters from voting") provides the perfect visual aid to this claim.
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Joan Walsh (4:02 p.m. EST): Oh dear God, I took Glenn's advice and tuned to Fox, and they're endlessly showing video of "Black Panthers" allegedly intimidating voters outside a polling place in Philly. Two guys from the New Black Panther Party, one with a nightstick, were outside, and Fox got its cameras. They missed nightstick guy, but they got the other guy, looking like, well, a Black Panther sort, and they got what they needed.
Right after that, Karl Rove appeared to accuse Lake County, Ind. (dominated by the city of Gary) of getting ready to commit voter fraud for Obama, saying the county wouldn't commit to a voter tally until it was clear what Obama needed. (I wasn't taking notes, my jaw dropped.)
During MSNBC's coverage today, according to Media Matters, the cable news network continually aired "graphics that purported to show "POLL CLOSING" times for each state. But in states that cross over time zones, the times listed in the graphics reflected the western-most time zone in the state, in which polls close an hour later than the rest of the state. Thus, people watching MSNBC in the eastern portion of some states could be left with the impression that local polls would be open for an hour after they actually close."
If you are a progressive or a grassroots activist, and you expect unity and praise for your efforts afterward, then you are being very naïve. Tonight is the end of one phase of the fight for a progressive governing majority, and the full-fledged start of another.
Chris Bowers writes: Inevitably, there will be a plethora of talking heads tonight arguing that while Obama and Democrats won, this was really a center-right, "bi-partisan" victory. Or, at least, they will argue that Democrats better govern in a center-right, bi-partisanship fashion, or else. Such comments will, inevitably, be just about the least enjoyable part of what otherwise should be a fantastic night.
It will be a sad sight to see so many people praise certain sections of the Democratic effort this year, while dumping on the rest. Specifically, the left-wing and the netroots will be dumped on the most, as always. The Village must never credit the DFHs with anything (DFH stands for "dirty f---ing hippies, the image conservatives always try to smear progressives with). For example, Adam Nagourney is on MSNBC a few minutes ago talking about how Dean doesn't deserve any credit for the 50-state strategy, even though that was really the entirety of his tenure at the DNC.
This should be a victory for all Democrats, given how hard everyone has worked. However, it just won't be spun that way. It was clear in 2006, for example, that certain sections of the party were eager to demean all others after our victory. Jim Wallis's trumpeting 2006 as a defeat of the secular left, Rahm Emanuel's media deification, and the constant pundit drumbeat of just how conservative all these new Democrats were (a claim that was based almost entirely on Heath Shuler being anti-choice), are just some examples of what happened.
This time, it will be key for progressives and the netroots to claim victory, too. Republicans will be reduced to such small numbers in Congress, that Democrats will be governing virtually unopposed. As always happens in such situations, the dominant majority party will factionalize quite a bit. We have to be aware of this, and ready to fight. After today, the struggle will take place almost entirely within the Democratic Party, not between Democrats and Republicans. If you are a progressive or a grassroots activist, and you expect unity and praise for your efforts afterward, then you are being very naïve. Tonight is the end of one phase of the fight for a progressive governing majority, and the full-fledged start of another.
Last Friday, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer called the United States "the quintessential center-right country," and wondered why it was "poised to reject" Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), "the quintessential center-right candidate." Last week's Newsweek cover declared, "America remains a center-right nation - a fact that a President Obama would forget at his peril."
Ignoring the fact that a progressive majority won back Congress in 2006 - and that Democrats are expected to make dramatic gains in their majority today - conservatives continue to insist that Americans are fundamentally conservative and perpetually wary of Democrats:
FRED BARNES: In a center right country, I don't think American people really want the liberal agenda. But they may get it anyway because they're upset during the financial crisis. [Fox News, 10/11/08]
PAT BUCHANAN: The country is center right. As you can tell by the fact Obama's been moving to the center as fast as he can. [MSNBC, 10/16/08]
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The country is not center left. It is center right. This country is more conservative than it was when we took over in 1994 after two years of calamitous Democratic rule. It is a center-right country. [MSNBC, 10/29/08]
Watch a mashup:
As David Sirota has noted, the idea that Americans are fundamentally conservative is a myth. Indeed, a majority of Americans want progressive solutions to the nation's problems, supporting universal health care, expanded environmental protections, a higher minimum wage, the availability of safe and legal abortions, federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and the rights of same-sex couples to be legally recognized. Additionally, a majority opposes the Iraq War.
By insisting that - despite all appearances to the contrary - Americans favor conservatives, the right wing is trying to handicap the progressive agenda before it has a chance of being enacted. But today's election results are likely to throw an even greater wrench in the "center-right country" myth. The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne disputed the conservatives' entire premise, on MSNBC:
I disagree the notion that we are still a center-right country. We may have been a center-right country. But I think what you're seeing here, John McCain is running very clearly against Barack Obama as a redistributionist and a socialist. And if the country votes for Barack Obama, I think the country will be saying not that they move far to the left, but we're not center-right anymore. They want some government action to solve some of these problems.
