Obama is cheap! AND - they care about DC!

Two relatively unsung bits of the Obamas' interview on 60 minutes that I LURVE:

1) The President-Elect is one cheap-ass motherfucker! Watching this with my husband, he was like, "He's cheaper than you!"

On the hovel he lived in in DC, which nearly burned down (but he moved back in after the fire!):
Michelle Obama: It reminded me of a little better version of the apartment you were in when we first started dating. That was a dump too.

Mr. Obama: Right near Harold’s Chicken Shack.

Michelle Obama: Yeah.

Mr. Obama: Yeah. That’s when I had the car with the hole in it.

Michelle Obama: And you could see the sidewalk, because the rust had gone through.

Mr. Obama: The air-conditioning.

Michelle Obama: So that was my side. I would look and see the ground going past.

I [HEART] a President who uses shit till it FALLS APART.

2) -- and this one seriously makes me stop and have one of those 'Whoa, we really get this President!?' moments -- We're going to have a President who gives a shit about DC!

Michelle: I, both Barack and I, believe that we can have an impact in the D.C. area. You know, in terms of making sure we’re contributing to the community that we immediately live in.

Do you guys get that, what she said just there? The President is going to care about DC. The President is going to give a shit about that poorest, blackest, most fucked-over, disenfranchised colonial territory of the federal government -- the junkies and tranny prostitutes and immigrants and service workers and struggling families who don't even get an autonomous city government or representation in congress -- the fucking President of the fucking United States is going to GIVE A SHIT what happens to them, how they are.

I was making my coffee this morning and I remembered this, as it crosses my mind periodically, and I stopped - as I stop every time I remember it - and just sobbed. I'm crying right now, at my keyboard. The President is going to give a shit about DC. Unless you're way older than I am, you've never seen that. I don't know if we've EVER seen that in the whole history of this republic and that poor, fucked-over city.

I love cities; the very best of America to me is embodied in its cities. To have a President who is of the city, who is aware of the city he lives in, and who loves cities too -- well, it's even better than having a President who once drove a car with a HOLE in it (and that's pretty great)!

It still seems too good to be true, y'all, but it isn't -- we worked our asses off and we earned ourselves the chance to make a new country.

It's still Rock Obama Day in our hearts...

yay! swoon.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2008/11/17/60_minutes/index.html

http://gawker.com/5090639/obama-and-his-kids-single+handedly-prop-up-print

one of the most heart-wrenching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMEEP4uLZzk
of a pretty fucking cute genre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DMiAeUG0IM

election-year weltschmerz

IS OVER!!! We fucking won, everybody! We CHANGED THE DEFINITION OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN AMERICAN. We MADE it CHANGE. We saved our country, and took our future back from the haters and warmongers. Good job, everybody!

Yes We Can, Except for Californians who voted for Proposition 8 -- Seriously, you guys suck the worst of all. Fucking bigots.

awesome post about gross old racists and how much better we are than them! :)

this will warm your heart, thrill you, and get you fired up for your GET OUT THE VOTE EFFORTS, whatever they may be:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/big-empty.html

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, EVERYONE WHO IS NOT A CONFIRMED EVIL -- GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND TAKE YOUR COUNTRY BACK! Go here now:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/actioncenter

Happy Election Day weekend. It's been a long time coming - I'm headed to Las Vegas to get out the vote tomorrow!

he's not a plumber, he's a lying, tax-evading republican!

who was PRETENDING NOT TO UNDERSTAND THE TAX STRUCTURE, because he would actually get a tax exemption under Obama's plan.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/joe-in-the-spotlight/?em

love the RACIST JOKE he cracks at the end of the article (NOT).

also, his name is only *nominally* JOE!

she's not a 'poor woman,' she's a disingenuous, ignorant, hubristic liar!

Rebecca Traister ('Please. Cry me a freaking river.') UP:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/index.html

Emily Bazelon DOWN on this one:
http://www.slate.com/id/2201330/

Judith Warner DOUBLE DOWN, OMG can't you see this kind of thinking is the exact problem?!
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/poor-sarah/

Barack Obama *dominates* on the O'Reilly Factor!

In the middle of the idiocy that passes for campaign coverage in the mainstream media these days, I recently got a HUGE charge of hope and encouragement for this election from an unexpected source -- have you guys SEEN Barack Obama on bill o'reilly's show on fox news?? He KILLS. I wish this were getting bigger coverage.

I'm posting the entire interview so you can watch it easily - IF you can stomach that much of Bill O'Reilly, though it's really not very long.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

O'Reilly has really met his match and more here; it is amazing how an interview subject as smart as Obama is just makes O'Reilly's twisted rhetorical smokescreening TOTALLY visible for the substance-free drivel that it is. It is really heartening to watch how good Obama is at refusing to get sidetracked or stereotyped or trapped, and at getting his message across with clarity, control, and panache...

If this is any indication, the debates are going to be awesome and this whole pancake is about to FLIP... (sorry, was that a sexist figure of speech??) ;)