"Finishing Our Work", Thomas Friedman, New York Times: talks about the "Buffet Effect," in which old white guys claimed to be voting for John McCain in the country club locker room, but actually voted for Obama.

Why? Some did it because they sensed how inspired and hopeful their kids were about an Obama presidency, and they not only didn’t want to dash those hopes, they secretly wanted to share them. Others 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.

"Transformational Presidency", Katrina Vanden Huevel, The Nation: tells Democrats they should not fear their mandate; they should exploit it for change.

Already we hear calls that the new Democratic majority must not "overreach." That is code for "do not use your mandate." Ignore those calls—- this election was a referendum on conservatism that has guided American politics since 1980.
After years of playing defense, it is time to unshackle our imaginations, build coalitions and craft creative strategies that will move, persuade and push President Obama and a new Congress to seize the mandate they have been offered.

"Brilliant", Rolling Stone:

"Race, Post Race", Michael Eric Dyson, Los Angeles Times: Quotes Langston Hughes and Tupac, credits an Obama victory with reviving our nation's image, but cautions that we should not think racism no longer exists.

Obama, something of a re-founding father, now joins the pantheon of white men who have cast a bright light or negative shadow over the nation's political landscape. His interpretation of America's ideals and destiny will enliven the creeds that have shaped the nation's self-image.

"President Obama", Washington Post: Obama has the chance to repair America's fractured image in the rest of the world.

Mr. Obama cannot erase Mr. Bush's legacy, but he has a chance to improve America's standing in the world, ending such noxious practices as torture and indefinite detention with minimal review that have diminished this country in the eyes of its allies. He has the opportunity finally to set the country on a path to help reduce global warming. He has far-reaching plans on energy, health care and education, but also a realistic understanding that the state of the economy will delimit his ambitions.

"Living History", Anna Quindlen, Newsweek: America is simultaneously concept and country, and it has historically fallen short of its conceptual image. Obama's victory helps forge the gap between concept and reality.

He made the political spiritual. "In the end, then," he said, "what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand—that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us." He asked the American people to be fair and just, to be kind and generous, to put prejudice behind them and be one people because that is, not a legal or social imperative, but a moral one.

"The Next President", New York Times: Obama's victory was such a landslide because America under Bush has failed to protect its citizens.

His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He offered a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.

"Conservatism Isn't Finished", Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal: Doesn't trust Obama's healing rhetoric, thinks the country is still bitterly divided, but conservatives have also been deeply irresponsible.

Turning our eyes from the presidential campaign to conservative Washington generally, we can see the same overripeness, the same flamboyant contradictions that have long since become too great to paper over. The conservative movement, after all, came to Washington under a banner of "reform" but promptly turned Congress over to lobbyists and opened countless regulatory agencies to the industries they regulated. The movement clamored for fiscal responsibility and proceeded to outsource, at vast expense, every government operation it could.

"The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace", Jeffery Scott Shapiro, WSJ: People have shown the great Dubya "classless disrespect" despite the fact that Bush literally drove the country into the ground. Apparently we should feel bad for Bush because he tried very hard to reach across the aisle and was rebuffed by dem mean old Democrats.

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

"Obama's Victory Ushers in a New America", Joe Klein, Time: Focuses on the story of Obama organizer Nate Hundt, who campaigned for Barack in Algona, Iowa and really became part of the community. Hundt and his fellow Obama staffers are the future of American politics.

Indeed, there are — an army of them, untold thousands of young organizers operating out of more than 700 offices nationwide. And they have delivered a message to Rudy Giuliani, who sneered during the Republican National Convention that he didn't even know "what a community organizer is." This is who they are: they are the people who won this election. They were the heart and soul and backbone of Barack Obama's victory. They are destined to emerge as the next significant generation of American political operatives — similar to the antiwar and antisegregation baby boomers who dominated the Democratic Party after cutting their teeth on the Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy campaigns of 1968, similar to the pro-life, antitax Reaganauts who dominated the Republican Party and American politics from the election of 1980 ... until now. They are a preview of the style and substance of the Obama Administration.

"Hail To The Chief", Michael Gerson, Washington Post: Gerson was one of Sarah Palin's earliest and most vocal supporters so it's no surprise that he's acting like someone peed in his cornflakes. He sees no healing, only increasing polarization.

His victory is likely to unleash an ideological and vengeful Democratic Congress. In the testing of a long campaign, Barack Obama has seemed thoughtful but sometimes hesitant and unsure of his bearings. He promises outreach and healing but holds to a liberalism that sees no need for innovation…After a deserved honeymoon, the new president is likely to find that the intensity of this bitterness has only gathered. Because of the ideological polarization of cable television news, talk radio and the Internet, Americans can now get their information from entirely partisan sources.

"Obama and America", Chicago Tribune: Obama's hometown paper disagrees with Gerson. They believe Obama's unwillingness to participate in negative campaigning has already helped raise the level of political discourse, but they warn that America will need time to recoup.

By winning, he raises the hope of a more civil polity. His moderate tone may also ease the pain felt by John McCain's supporters, who will be waiting to see whether his administration is as inclusive as his rhetoric…[But] America's political rancor won't instantly disappear. Pollster Peter Hart recently found that one-third of each candidate's supporters have come to "detest" McCain or Obama so thoroughly that they couldn't accept him as president. Hart asked a Wall Street Journal reporter, "How do you knit a nation back together with this kind of animosity?"

"Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress", The Onion: 'Nuff said.

The Good:

[Images via Getty ]

Click on a photo below to begin the gallery view.

In case you missed it: Here are the Election Day photos Part One and Part Two.

Target Women: The View [Current]
Earlier: Condoms, Cleaning Supplies & Crap: A Q&A With Sarah Haskins

She then tells the following anecdote about her friend's toddler: "At first, he drew a stick figure with its arms raised. 'That's Obama,' he said to nobody. Then the stick figure reappeared, lying prone. 'Dead McCain,' he muttered." Rut Roh! Salon's Sarah Hepola is also worried about parents' political persuasions corrupting the youngins. Hepola watched this video from Babble full of assorted wee ones saying "Bawwwaack Obama" and found it sort of disturbing. "I know everyone else thinks it's cuter than puppies and rainbows, but there's something disturbing to me about children who have no agency parroting a political platform," Hepola wrote, "Like, what if my parents were Hitler fans and there was videotape of me as an adorable toddler, cake on my face, talking about loving Hitler?"

The other ladies of Salon's Broadsheet blog talk Hepola down from the ledge. Kate Harding implies that Hitler talk is a leeetle histrionic. "Despite my parents' best efforts at indoctrination, as soon as I developed a concept of the world beyond our suburban home, I became the flaming liberal you know and love. The Reagan propaganda really, really didn't take," she writes.

Moms over at NPR take the middle road and say that even if your kid is drawing two dimensional McCain death wishes, you can make it into a "teachable moment" about civics and tolerance. The question remains: how much do your parents politics influence you, whether consciously or unconsciously?

[Image via Shakesville]

Embarrassing Obama Kids [Slate]
Babies For Barack Obama [Babble]
Babies For Bwackobama [Salon]
Moms Discuss Parenting Kids With An Appetite For Politics [NPR]

Click on a picture below to begin the gallery view.

In case you missed it, here are the photos from earlier today: Yes We Can Happily Wait In Line To Vote.

"The silence of Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren on the subject of abortion in this election has been notable," Miller writes. "In 2004, Warren sent an e-mail around listing the five "non-negotiables" for any evangelical voter, and abortion was of course high on that list. This year, he has made no such pronouncement." Unfortunately, Miller doesn't think the abortion battle is anywhere near over, despite the fact that it has not been an overarching issue during this election.

Though some older pro-life Catholics have been able to get past Obama's pro-choice stances because they agree with him on the economy and the environment, it seems that the anti-choice conviction of many young Evangelicals remains strong. Miller reports, "According to research by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, young evangelicals are as conservative—if not more so—than their parents on abortion."

With the overwhelming popularity of Barack Obama among people of my generation, I really thought that after years of an increasingly socially conservative country we were in for a swing to the left. But according to Miller, just as the left has been galvanized by Obama, the right was galvanized by Jerry Fallwell and the moral majority in the 80s. "Young evangelicals, especially, who were raised in that environment talk about how difficult it is to see abortion in anything but black-and-white terms," Miller says. "Gov. Sarah Palin, whose family portrait contains the silent but not hidden message, 'I didn't have an abortion and neither did my teenage daughter,' speaks directly to these Christians and echoes the messages they've heard their whole lives—at home, in Sunday school, at youth group and at church. "

Knock on the hardest piece of oak in existence, we will be seeing an Obama administration stride into the White House in 2009, and if that's the case, our right to chose will be relatively safe for a prolonged period of time. But don't ever fool yourself into thinking that the battle has been won. Those nuns do not fuck around.

The Silent Issue [Newsweek]

Earlier: South Dakota Will Vote On Measure Basically Banning Abortion
Sarah Palin: Obama Has Left Behind Even The Middle Ground When It Comes To Abortion
Some Pro-Life Catholics Have Become Obama Grandmamas

Click a picture to start the gallery view.

New York's Lower East Side, 9:00am, November 4

[Image via AP.]

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., arrives at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday, Oct. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong). — AP

[Image via AP.]

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks at a rally at the Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008. His wife, Cindy, is at right. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) — AP

• We spent way too much time talking about Sarah Palin's sexy secretary garb and how much it cost and/or did not cost. But what we really want to know is how Palin gets her hair so big. Maybe her bouffant is built out of campaign secrets and the souls of unborn babies.
• Maybe all Sarah needs is a good talking to from Tyra and Judge Judy. Then she'd learn to keep her receipts in order!
• She has about as much sense as these crazy cat people. (We kid, we love them.)
• But probably a lot more sense than Elisabeth Hasselbeck, whose t-shirt wearing antics have torn The View asunder.
• Breaking: Goop makes us gassy.

• Maybe that's why these Urban Outfitters moddles look so bummed out: they're suffering from a severe case of soy farts!
• Also a bummer: potential voter suppression.
• Interviewing Sarah Haskings confirmed our suspicions that she is awesome.
• Attention It Girls, it's Friday. So rock out with your grillz out and have a great weekend.

They call it "obnoxiously retrograde", "gross", and firebrand Rebcca Traister remarks, "the idea of any kind of political action is being taken to impress the opposite sex — or that guys would only vote a certain way if a woman promised sex at the end (that's also totally the only way you get them to pay for dinner, incidentally) — sort of makes me want to drown myself."

Personally, I think it's a little self-consciously cutesy, certainly derivative and ironically playing into outdated sexual mores, but ultimately harmless. However, these ladies are not the first to give the election a sexual tint. Radar has a roundup of politically-themed porn, and writer Erica Sackin asks, "When did we start channeling support for candidates through our Kegel muscles?" She also wonders whether or not political porn is partisan.

"The difference in what appeals to people seems to have less to do with if they're Republicans or Democrats and more to do with how old they are—the younger they are, the more enthusiastic they are for somewhat ribald takes on the election," she argues. Aw, porn: reaching down pants on both sides of the aisle!

Girls Say Yes [Bust]
Putting Out For Barack [Salon]
Sexual Politics [Radar]

• Less than a month until the election, folks, and it's getting really ugly.
• John McCain sounding like a total loon during the debates, calling Obama "That One": ugly.
• Illogical republican strategists yelling at Newsweek for putting a (gasp!) un-retouched photo of Sarah Palin on the cover: ugly!
• Nikki Blonsky kicking Bianca Golden's mom in the vagina at an airport: ugly!
• At least we have the unarguably awesome Sarah Vowell and Donna Brazile to guide us through the ugliness.
• Though they can't really fix the ugly in this mess of the economy... or this Free People catalog.

• Questions about pelvic exams? We're at your cervix.
• Speaking of pelvic exploration, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist has an endearing and accurate depiction of teen sex.
• Thank jebus it's the weekend. So kick back with a career romance like the young modern you are, and have a fantastic 48 hours with Hortense!

The Globe attributes the female shift towards Obama to three things: the tanking economy, Obama's inclusive health care plan, and McCain's move to anti-choice land. "Obama has maintained a quieter but aggressive campaign through mail and radio ads to claim that his opponent 'will make abortion illegal,'" the Globe says. "McCain's strategists have conceded that the candidate's opposition to abortion has hurt his standing among suburban women."

At this point, Palin's support is far greater than men than among women, despite the reproductive equipment she shares with the latter group. As Megan noted in yesterday's News Roundup, McCain has adopted Hillary Clinton's mortgage buyout plan as an attempt to woo female voters, but we have our fingers crossed and salt thrown over our right shoulders and we're hoarding rabbit feet in the hopes that things continue trending in this utterly awesome way.

[Image via Yes We Can (Hold Babies)]

Losing Female Support, McCain Alters Approach [Boston Globe via Newser]
The Female Vote [Time]

According to the Washington Post, Hills took the stage in '92 with a 45% favorable rating and a 30% unfavorable rating. "After her speech, that initial 15-point net positive rating increased to a 27-point advantage." Michelle is going into her speech tonight with approval ratings similar to Hillary's and also similar to Cindy McCain's. Both women have a favorability rating hovering around 50%; 75% of people who back Barack have favorable views of Michelle, while 70% of those who back John have favorable views of Michelle.

So where does that leave Michelle this evening? With a great opportunity. While Michelle is indeed outspoken, she doesn't have the same haughty trappings that the uber-wealthy Teresa Heinz Kerry had. While Cindy McCain's background of privilege comes off as "sophisticated" rather than snotty, Michelle still doesn't come from a background that has provided her husband's campaign with private jets, and this is one of her greatest assets — one she obviously plans to exploit this evening.

Yesterday, "This American Life" aired an episode focusing on stereotypes in which Richard Price, the author of Lush Life and Clockers, told a story about riding around with some New York City cops and seeing them hassle a black man who was hanging out with a 9-year-old boy at midnight. They assumed something was hinky, when the black man was really just the kid's mother's boyfriend. Michelle Obama benefits from the fact that while there are many stereotypes of blacks in America, there are almost no preconceived notions of the black middle class. The Times of London quotes Wesleyan professor Gayle Pemberton, who says, "The black middle class is the most invisible, unknown group in the country. There are millions and millions of people in it, and yet we know nothing about them."

Michelle Obama, the daughter of a hardworking, blue collar dad who had multiple sclerosis and still provided for his family, has what she herself called on CNN "quintessential American stories." When speaking to hipster mama site Babble, Michelle said, "I'm grateful for the attention, because it lets me be a stronger voice for working women and military families. I can bring the issues that are important to them to the forefront of a national political discussion. It's a great gift." Her straightforward way of speaking and her focus on family will appear much more relatable than the wealthy upbringing of a beer heiress, and hopefully people wary of Michelle's ivy education and skin color will see that tonight at the convention. And if they don't: fingers crossed they listen to Oprah!

Michelle, Obama’s Iron Belle, Faces Her Big Test [Times of London]
Why Middle America Finds Genteel Laura So Appealing [Independent]
A Chance For The Candidates' Wives To Court Support [Washington Post]
Cindy McCain, Meet Everyone [NY Mag]
Michelle Obama: On The Campaign, Her Career, And Raising Kids In The Public Eye. [Babble]

Earlier: Spouse Wars! Who Needs A Female President When America Is Really Only Electing First Ladies Anymore?

Brown takes a page from Ralph Ellison and calls over-50 females "invisible women." Younger women aren't voting for Hillary, she posits, because "The very scar tissue that older women see as proof of her determination just embarrasses their daughters, killing off for them all the insouciant elation that ought to come with girl power in the White House." Brown suggests that Hillary team up with Chelsea and hold some mother-daughter rallies in Pennsylvania to appeal to the under-30 set.

And why isn't that generation voting for Hillary? Young Jessica Bennett treads on well-worn territory when she argues that the "universal sisterhood" idea doesn't appeal to 20-something female Obama-philes. In a Q& A with Newsweek, Hillary herself explains why young women do not flock to her: "It's hard for young women to really feel the emotional connection because they didn't live through what we lived through. When I was a young woman, there were colleges I couldn't go to, jobs that I couldn't have ever had, a set of expectations that were pretty much imposed—and so women my age, we have gone through this extraordinary movement ... But the true beneficiaries are our daughters and our granddaughters."

But these 20 and 30-somethings who vote for Obama still feel guilty about not voting for Hillary, perhaps, as Jessica Bennett argues, because "[We were] reared at a time when Hillary was ever present, a sort of surrogate mother to us all."

If the Hillary-as-mother trope makes women feel guilty, it makes men feel a Freudian rage, says Kathleen Deveny. Deveny believes that much of the sexism directed towards Hillary is based in men's primal feelings towards their mothers and these men "mean 'mother' in the nagging, scolding, mom-jean-wearing sense, and not in a reassuring, brave and noble 'founding father' sort of way. Because since our mothers were often the sole authority figures in our childhoods, powerful women can bring back uncomfortable, if not emasculating, memories."

Speaking of emasculating, many have compared Hillary to another powerful old broad, Margaret Thatcher. Writer Julia Baird makes the point that though Thatcher pranced around her home "peeling potatoes" and "baking cakes" to soften her iron-woman image, she's not the only politician to do so. "Like men, women have exploited their gender when it suits them," Baird says.

Anna Quindlen takes the idea of Hillary's gender role throughout this race and puts an interesting twist on it. Obama has been allowed to show a more feminine side to overwhelming praise because "while [Clinton] felt the need to prove muscle and mettle, he has been making human connections. Here's the deal: that's because he could afford to. A male candidate owns all the guy stuff simply by virtue of his birth; he can then go on to show that he's caring and communitarian."

By virtue of his birth, Obama is also a black man. For Allison Samuels, her desire to see someone in the White House who cares about black issues "trumps [her] desire to see a woman in the White House." Samuels continues, "I can't afford the luxury of fighting two battles when one is so clearly a matter of life and death."

Last but not least, Slate's Dahlia Lithwick wonders whether this year's election will settle the question of identity politics once and for all. "Perhaps," Lithwick wagers, "at the end of all these months of peering in the mirror, we can stop looking for the candidate who embodies every slight and insult we've ever encountered, and contemplate which of them is better suited to govern." What might fell Hillary is not her gender, says Eleanor Clift in yet another essay, it's her personality, marred by a combination of "hubris and naiveté". Focusing on the policy and the temperaments of the candidates instead of their genitalia or the color of their skin? Why would anyone want to do that!

Hillary And The Invisible Women [Newsweek]
Am I Betraying The 'Sisterhood'? [Newsweek]
'A Common Experience' [Newsweek]
Leave Your Mother Out Of It [Newsweek]
Still Stuck In Second [Newsweek]
The Legacy Of My Grandmother [Newsweek]
Scenes From a Tea for Two [Newsweek]
Enough About Us. What About Them? [Newsweek]

Earlier: 30 Women Hate On Hillary In 30 Different Ways