The United States of America has defied the expectations of many, defied many of its own imperfections, and while it has hardly exorcized its centuries of racial-based demons, it did become the first First World country to elect a man of color to its highest office, as Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States, in a resounding electoral victory. Spontaneous celebrations are afoot here in Brooklyn, as well as the organized celebration in Grant Park, where three weeks ago, I began and finished the Chicago Marathon. I learned much of the happy news while driving back...

And so, the Greatest Election Ever (TM) is around 36 hours or so from completion, and at least according to our friends at fivethrityeight.com, a McCain surge is under say (he appears to have doubled his chances for winning over the weekend, from around 3% to 6%)… as the late Tim Russert posited in 2000 that it was “Florida, Florida, Florida” and as John Kerry moved to Ohio in 2004, in 2008, it might be “the commonwealths,” Virginia and Pennsylvania (in our two other commonwealth/states, Mass. is in the bag for Obama and Kentucky for McCain). He who wins both...

Thus sayeth Studs Terkel (one of his book titles, actually). An expression our friend Candace was fond of, as well. Studs finally shed his own mortal coil, and passed away at 96. Studs (actually born “Louis,” Studs was his adoption from the novel “Studs Lonigan”) interviewed and wrote about the common and working man and woman, wherever he or she might be… Just someone who’s been around forever, who I had always assumed would be around forever. He hadn’t been doing well of late, and was actually hoping to live long enough to see his fellow Chicagoan elected President. Well,...

The team from the City of Brotherly Love wins its first title since 1980, and its second title ever. Which segues into… you know what! My college classmate Barack took to the airwaves last night to demonstrate that cash = air superiority, and ran a half hour infomercial. For those of us who are quite-decided, this seemed overkill; then again, it will likely crowd the news cycle today, giving John McCain precious little time to come up with that last-minute smear (we’re running out of October for October surprises). Oh, and as to Philadelphia, as I did in 2006, despite...

First it was the rather grim diagnosis for Democratic stalwart Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy (D-MA) who was diagnosed with a brain tumor which will likely be terminal. And now, we have the conviction on all counts of corruption charges of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), the longest serving Republican in the history of the Senate. Stevens made a fundamental mistake: he let his ego get in the way, and insisted on testifying in what had been a rather weak case against him until he took the stand and convicted himself. Stevens, whose personality (the word “prick” comes to mind) has been...

Today, IIRC, “Grama Obama” (actually, Senator Barack Obama’s grandmother’s name is Madelyn Dunham) turns 86 (and get well soon, Ms. Dunham!), Senator Hillary Clinton turns 61, and your talking dog turns 46. Discuss.

Notwithstanding overwhelming public opposition, my fair city of New York’s City Council voted 29-22 in favor of amending a voter-referendum imposed law mandating term limits of two terms at the behest of the $20 billion man, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who, at around 65 years old, decided that he couldn’t do anything better with his time than, well… have a third term as mayor. And so there you have it. The same voting public that overwhelmingly opposes the change in the term limits law will almost certainly vote Mayor Bloomberg into a third term, particularly as much of the likely competition...

Shorter Alan Greenspan: I’m shocked, just shocked to find out that in the course of unleashing the unbridled avarice of unregulated free-market capitalism, those involved would take their greed and self-interest to the point where everything else goes to hell.

Clearly not Dick Cheney’s “Woman in HavanaGuantanamo,” convening authority Susan Crawford, who, as the official responsible for bringing show trials military commission hearings for made-up political reasons violations of the laws of war, has now decided to drop charges against five detainees (Binyam Mohammad, Noor Uthman Muhammed, Sufyiam Barhoumi, Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi, and Jabran Said Bin al Qahtani) on the apparent basis of prosecutorial misconduct and political intervention as recently raised by former GTMO prosecutor (until he resigned) Lt. Col. Darrell Vandeveld. Well, well, well. It was seemingly these commission hearings that were supposed to justify the whole GTMO...

Not the kind we’ve come to expect, insofar as it will not help the Republicans. … Former Secretary of State Colin Powell (who went to college with TD Mom… and from Powell’s wiki bio, he appears to be from the same neighborhood and is about the same age as TD Dad) just endorsed (TD’s college classmate) Barack Obama. This comes the same day that the Obama campaign announced that September fundraising blew away all previous records and came in at over $150 million. A huge part of this involved the early Sarah Palin post-GOP Convention momentum which excited the base...