Think of this as your FULL FRONTAL FASHION cliff notes.

Street Peeper, Seoul Korea

This man looks incredibly modern to me, feel free to disagree. [Street Peeper]

Finally, Hillary Clinton is in Vogue, literally. [Vogue]

Watch fashion designer Gareth Pugh make a one of kind garment, ask him questions about it, then buy it online. [SHOWstudio]

Congrats to French designer Sophie Theallet for winning the 6th annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund! [Style.com]

DJ AM’s shoes are on ebay, fab or foul? [Ebay]

We thought about adding John McCain to the Winners list, as his loss on Tuesday assured that he won’t have the unenviable task of fixing the colossal clusterf@&% left behind by the Bush administration. But then we’d have to add Barack Obama to the Losers list (congratulations bub, it’s your problem now), and that just doesn’t seem right, because if anyone deserves to be at the top of the Winners list, it’s……:

Barack Obama

MT: Whatever Barack Obama has for breakfast, that’s what you should be ordering. Because whatever it is, it tastes like WIN. Who got the right position on Iraq – don’t go –from the very start, without which there is no room for a Democrat to run and beat Hillary Clinton? WIN. Who intuitively knew what message Americans were looking for and had the intellectual and charismatic talents to deliver it? WIN. Who showed his critics what community organizer can do with a few million passionate campaign workers? WIN. Who made a series of one smart decision after another in a campaign that will be studied for years to come? WIN. Who overcame racial and ideological barriers to chart a career that almost looks like a 90* angle? Barack Hussein Obama, that’s who. And what did he do when his opponents said “Obama cannot win?” WIN.

JW: Few people, if any, in the world have ever made so many billions of people happy. It’s that simple. This is the kind of feat that has traditionally been reserved for people like the Dali Lama, Pele or Oprah. But now the person who should have the popular support of the world will: the president of the United States. Obama has also appeared to have weathered one of the most brutal campaign cycles of all time. His family is still intact, his daughters aren’t knocked up and he still talks to Joe Biden. Barack Obama may have been the best presidential candidate in my lifetime, but the McCain camp certainly did set a low bar.

MT: Adding:

The World

JW: This is what the world looked like upon hearing that Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States of America, the streets of the world looked something like a combination of The World Cup (in which every country has won) and New Years Eve (if it occurred only once in a lifetime), except that it actually mattered. Barack Obama’s personal background is the most international of any president of the United States. His ability to break down racial, cultural and political barriers make him not only a citizen of the United States, but also of the world.

MT: Relax, world. Like the man said, he’s got this. “Americans can always be relied upon to do the right thing”, said Winston Churchill, “but only after they have exhausted every other alternative.” Maybe so, but just when the global community thinks we’ve lost our mojo, when our critics and friends alike think we’re incapable of achieving the seemingly impossible, when the limit of our potential appears to have been reached, we find something more. Yes we can.

Democrats

MT: By the mid-90’s, complacency and a lost sense of purpose had relegated the once dominant Democratic Party to a congressional minority. Why should voters go for Republican Lite when they could have the real thing? Democrats responded to Republican bait, and talked about issues in Republican frames. They worried more that Republicans would call them names than how best to serve the country. More than anything, they forgot they were Democrats. And while it took the unmitigated failure of the Bush administration to remind them, they found their voice and realized a clear contrast with Republicans based on big-D Democratic principles was a winner with voters. The call for “more and better Democrats” was answered. And people responded. Allow me to demonstrate:

With the exception of Appalachia, Arkansas, Oklahoma and some scattered areas of the deep South, America is voting more Democratic. So congratulations, Donks. Don’t forget how you got here.

JW: Well, Dems, you finally pulled it together. You got technology, many Republicans the world on your side, and harnessed these special ingredients for a well-deserved win. While the Republican Primary stand-off became a choice between the lesser of the evils, your lot of choices—at least two of them—were top-notch. While the Republican National Convention looked and sounded like a hood-less KKK board meeting inside a small-town bank, your convention made the light show at Disneyland look anti-climactic. You won over people from the Republic Party the Independent Party and the Green Party. If you were on a high school football team, you would get the award for the “Most Improved Player.”

Howard Dean

MT: When Gov. Howard Dean was in the middle of the 2004 campaign rant that would forever be known as the “Dean Scream,” he was describing what would later be termed the “50-state strategy.” Just prior to the “Yeeeeaaarrrrghhh!!!”, he was running down a list of traditionally red states that he thought Democrats should be competitive in, and that would be the key to putting a Dem in the White House. People laughed, “Oh, that nutty Howard Dean! Spreading out money in resources where Republicans are stronger and more likely to say mean things to us. Hahahahaha! That’ll never work!” Dean didn’t secure the 2004 nomination, but his 50-state strategy and mastery of new online fundraising and organizing tools was the blueprint that Barack Obama followed, and it paid off big time. He who screams first, laughs last.

JW: If any single person paved the way for Obama’s win on Tuesday, it was Howard Dean. His grassroots organizing, appeal to the youth and ability to energize the base was unprecedented in the early days of the DNC primary campaign season. Obama ceased on this unfulfilled potential, which had grown after nearly four more years of Bush. Dean also has demonstrated strong leadership as the DNC Chair and has helped lead the party to where it is today.

Obama Supporters

MT: Speaking of what Obama has for breakfast, these people were hungry. From the phone banking to the fundraising, from spreading the message on message boards and blogs to knocking on doors in an unprecedented ground game, those people who got out and hustled to make Tuesday happen deserve a clap on the back. The last few years have been bleak, with America’s moral and financial credibility on the brink of the abyss. It’s easy in this culture to be uninvolved, distracted, and before you know it, we’re over the edge. More than just those who voted, the people who put Barack Obama on their collective backs and dragged him to the dance in the first place did us all a great favor. Cheers, mates.

JW: Never before had I personally known so many people who were so active in this campaign. To support the presidential candidate in the case of Obama had gone from something passive to an active way of life. “Supporting” went from meaning “voting for” or “putting a yard sign in front of my house” to “phone banking, driving to swing states, canvassing, donating my much-needed and hard-earned dollars to the campaign,” “throwing fundraisers,’ “Facebooking,” and “declaring far and wide that Obama was the best choice.” As a reward, not only do Obama supporters get to see their choice in the White House come January, but they have the satisfaction of knowing they personally and directly help put him there.

America

MT: Aside from the relief of having an adult in charge that doesn’t look at actual governing like the continuation of one long political campaign, America can now start to heal itself from eight years of mis-rule. The importance of having an actual Constitutional scholar in charge of defending the Constitution cannot be understated. The effect of Obama’s election will have a profound impact on the American psyche, all of it good. America can take pride in showing to the world, once again, what it’s like to truly lead. It’s cool to be an American again.

JW: The American people have finally taken steps to reclaiming their country with the election of Obama. Of course there were several set-backs in this election, including the ban of gay marriage in three states, but overall, America has come out of the 2008 as a champion. With a high voter turnout, more people now have their say in the policies and people who lead this country, and more people can sleep better at night knowing that the president-to-be represent more of them.

Dogs

JW: As if the Obama girls’ choice of a puppy over a kitten didn’t generate enough publicity for dogs after Obama’s speech, the media worldwide has been going nuts with turning Obama’s puppy statement into a story [news.google.com].

MT: I always had a soft spot for Barney, ever since President Klutz dropped him on the tarmac after getting off Air Force One once, but biting a Reuters reporter covering his daily walk for a fluff story? [wonkette.com] That’s just awesome. I’ll bet Bush wishes he could do that.

Nate Silver

JW: This guy. His projections were more accurate than any single pollster’s in the election. His path to successful political forecasting began as a baseball statistician working for a think tank in Chicago. He began applying the same strategies to the political polls on his website, fivethirtyeight.com [fivethirtyeight.com] and ended up predicting the final breakdown of electoral and popular votes one-tenth of a point off from what actually occurred.

MT: Seriously, this guy is scary accurate. What he did was the polling equivalent of hitting a three point shot from a passing airplane. John Zogby is eating his dust right now. 538 is now going to be the go-to source for the next few election cycles. Congrats.

Katie Couric

JW: Despite Sarah Palin’s $150,000 plus clothing budget, CBS Evening News anchor, Katie Couric showed the world that the empress, indeed, has no clothes. In her series of interviews [www.cbsnews.com] she let Palin speak for herself and expose her true ineptness and ignorance in a way that no strategist, aid or national presidential campaign could cover up. Even when it came time for the variety shows to parody these interviews, they drew directly from the Couric/Palin script [www.huffingtonpost.com].

MT: If there’s a “Showed Most Improvement” award for the national media, Katie Couric won it hands down. I’ve never been much of a fan of Katie’s brand of Journalism Lite, but, perhaps awareness of her reputation as a media lightweight and sense that she wasn’t going to out-perk Sarah Palin, Katie stepped up her game and actually took it to the Thrilla from Wasilla. Watching her press Palin to name McCain’s reform accomplishments until she essentially cried “uncle!” was a classic campaign moment and a feather in Couric’s cap.

Hawaii

JW: The union’s 50th state will never again be thought of merely for its exotic vacation destinations and production of sugar. We now will think of it as home to many, including white people from Kansas! Hawaii also showed us where its heart is by giving the highest share of its votes [www.cqpolitics.com] to Obama. Just don’t expect Obama to exploit grass skirts and leis the way Connecticut native George W. Bush popularized cowboy boots and belt buckles, Obama is the real deal.

MT: Hawaii. Not just for elitists anymore [www.huffingtonpost.com] Shaka bra.

Jamie Wong and Michael Turner

To our readers and those who have followed BACK TALK this last month or so, the pleasure was all ours. Thanks for your comments, thank you for voting and thanks for being so damned good-looking. You know you are. And thanks to the Sundance Channel for giving us the opportunity to riff on this special moment in American history. It was fun. Be sure to check out the fine programming on the Sundance Channel now that you’re not glued to the nightly news for campaign updates. And if you don’t have the Sundance Channel, call your local cable carrier. You’ll be glad you did. [/shameless plug]

Peace out.

– Jamie Wong & Michael Turner

This is where the rubber meets the road. After the dizzying drama of the last 12 months – John McCain’s campaign left for dead in the early primaries before pulling off the comeback; the epic struggle between the two historic candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – we are hours away from the thrilling conclusion. The first fusillade of early voting complete, the two armies are now fully engaged. The Republican party’s formidable 72-hour Get Out the Vote program, perfected by Karl Rove, meets Barack Obama’s highly touted ground game, set in place during that grueling primary fight, following mad scientist Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy. It’s irresistible force meets immovable object. Partisan emotions are at a fever pitch as everyone’s efforts over the last several months, if not years, come to fruition.

Oh, it’s on.

I don’t know for sure how McCain supporters are feeling today, but I hope they’re feeling good. I want them to feel good. More than that, I want them to bring it. I want to know Republicans brought their best game at this key moment in American history. I understand John McCain is not the best candidate the Republican party has ever fielded, nor is his campaign the most competent they’ve ever run. But you go to Election Day with the candidate and campaign you have, not the ones you wish you had. And it’s not like McCain and the GOP haven’t been given heavy, if repulsive, ammunition for this particular battle and been afraid to use it. An inexperienced black man with the middle name “Hussein,” palling around with terrorists, forcing people to have abortions and gay marriages, robbing from the rich to give to those shifty poor people, laughing with their elite friends at “real” Americans. And that’s fine. That’s good. Bring it. And bring the usual Election Day voter suppression too. Bring the fixed ballots, the robocalls, the racist flyers from “unknown” sources. Bring the cultural divisions, the racial mistrust and the fear of real change.

Just. Bring. It.

Because Obama supporters will. Democrats have found a once in a generation leader, a mix of intelligence, judgment and charisma that has the opportunity to not just take this country in a different direction, but change the very nature of our culture for the better. Barack Obama’s story could not be written in any other country, and there’s no small amount of pride his supporters have for that. There will be record turnout for him, like nothing anyone has seen. Because he’s Shane riding in to clean up the town. He’s the Natural. He’s Bruce frickin’ Lee. And after eight years of watching Republicans systematically lay to waste everything they touched, Democrats are as primed as they’ll ever be to take back the reins and keep us from going over the cliff. And if he loses? We can all enjoy the view on the way down. I hear it’s nice.

But regardless of the outcome, I need to know that Republicans brought their best and we brought ours. I need to know if we truly have a fatal flaw that will forever keep us from moving forward. I need to know the measure of this country, if enough people will answer the better angels of their nature. I’m going now to answer mine. If you haven’t already, what are you waiting for?

Bring it.

– Michael Turner

We are now in the most intense part of the most intense campaign season I have ever seen in my short 23-year long lifespan. In January, people were saying that Hillary Clinton would be the democratic nominee, and that John McCain’s campaign was dead in the water. In March, while Obama’s star was rising fast, Clinton supporters were still adamant that Obama’s best hope was the Vice-Presidential nomination. Meanwhile, Republicans hailed Fred Thompson as the last best hope for the party. Come summer time, up is down, left is right (figuratively, of course), McCain is the Republican nominee, and Barack Obama the hope of the Democrats.

Man, it’s been a really long year.

It’s no wonder people are so frustrated. If there is one thing the Bush years hammered into Americans on both sides of the isle, it’s that the President really does determine the direction America travels. Just look at the changes in the structure of our government since 2001. While the 9/11 attacks were certainly the impetus for most of those changes, there were a thousand different ways to respond to those attacks. Is there national consensus on whether the Department of Homeland Security was a bad idea? Certainly the words, “the Patriot Act” have become synonymous with tyranny in certain social circles (and on television, just watch an episode of Law & Order), but does that qualify for national consensus?

I think not.

Which is why everyone is so frustrated.

You know that feeling you get when you know you’re right about something and the person you’re disagreeing with refuses to acknowledge it? That slow building frustration you experience as you explain the issue to them from every possible perspective and know in your heart that the answer should be clearer to them than the alphabet – but they still refuse to acknowledge you are correct?

Now magnify that to half the country. Imagine that half the country felt that the other half were all “complete idiots” and all that frustration was just building up, maybe over, say, an eight year period.

And to make it even worse, those “complete idiots” that are “causing all the problems” feel just as frustrated about the first half, because from their point of view, those “smart guys” are the real “complete idiots.”

Wow. How in the world are we going to get through this?

Maybe the politicians can save us!

Ha! I think not.
In 2000, conservatives were extremely excited to get one of their own into office. While he certainly did enact many of their policies (particularly in his early years), how many conservatives do you know that are coming off the Bush years totally satisfied and happy with their government?

Democrats were chomping at the bit in 2006 to retake the congress, which they did. Yet what has changed? Even from their perspective, what has improved? They still curse the Bush administration, and they still claim an inability to enact the policies they believe to be absolutely necessary.

The politicians cannot save us. The American people themselves need to decide which direction they want the country take. Sadly, people have begun to view the candidates not in terms of what positions they take, but on their “public persona.” Obama is the young lion who will come into Washington bringing sweeping change. McCain is the aged warrior who no one listens to but should because he has the wisdom of experience. It was clear in the primaries that Americans wanted new blood, and since John McCain is anything but, he’s attempted to use the rhetoric that the press created for him in 2000, referring to himself as a “maverick.”

In reality, this is just a race between a one-term senator from Illinois and one of the oldest (and most boring) members of the Senate. Ironic that such a high-stakes race should come down to two very unlikely candidates. Can McCain beat Obama? Either way, I really do not think it will bring an end to America’s frustration. No matter the outcome, it will only be intensified.

-Daniel Noa

You could make a strong argument that the presidential candidate with the greatest influence on the current tone of the election is the one who is no longer running. Hillary Clinton, despite her faults, courted the middle class more effectively than either ticket is currently doing. Don’t get me wrong—both the Republicans and the Democrats are trying their hardest to secure the market on middle class voters. Both campaigns are doing a lot to attract the middle class, but neither campaign is truly engaging the middle class and telling them what they need to hear.

McCain proved just how mavericky he can be when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Back in August, that choice appeared to be extremely astute. Obama had just chosen Biden as his running mate, and the Palin choice was clearly intended to cut into Biden’s draw on the middle class voting block. The secondary purpose for Sarah Palin was to energize the conservative base, some members of which were reticent to actively support McCain and his truly bipartisan record.

There were two results, neither of which was entirely expected. First, Palin excited the base and solidified McCain’s grasp on conservatives to an extent that has been compared to Reagan’s administration and the Republican Revolution of ‘94. On the other hand, Palin has had a much more marginal draw with moderates than I’m sure the McCain campaign had hoped she would.

In David Brooks’ column, he astutely summarized Palin’s usefulness thus [www.nytimes.com]: “Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin.” In my opinion, Sarah Palin has tried too hard to remind everyone that she’s average. While she is arguably the most “average” of all the candidates (in terms of education, family roots, and income), her incessant appeal to Joe Sixpack and hockey moms was tiresome after the first or second use.

The main reason Obama/Biden are absolutely crushing McCain/Palin in the polls is that they have convinced the middle class that they are best prepared to deal with the economic crisis. Obvious electioneering aside, while Obama was talking about how he was going to handle the economic failure two weeks ago, McCain actually went to Washington and tried to do something about it. Yet, in an era of pop tarts and TV dinners, that is simply not enough. You have to tell the public what you are going to do, then do it. Or, at least just tell them what you are going to do.

John McCain finally made the smart move and announced [thehill.com] a real plan that is aimed directly at the middle class and their economic interests. This is the first real effort the Republicans have made, and a much better effort than the Democrats have made, at actually engaging the middle class and burning the cue-cards. As Christopher Hitchens recently noted [www.slate.com], neither candidate has actually engaged the middle class and told them what they need to hear. It has been an endless source of frustration for me to see both Presidential candidates stick to their talking points even after being pressed for a real answer by Jim Lehrer and Tom Brokaw (who are both fantastic moderators).

As we approach the final presidential debate before the election, both candidates have a final chance to court Joe Sixpack. Neither candidate can win the election without him. While it seems unlikely that John McCain and Sarah Palin will be able to turn their campaign around now, the only chance they have to do so is by convincing the middle-class that Republicans have the nitty-gritty answers. John McCain needs to come out swinging, and give us a glimpse of the fighter he once was. Sarah Palin needs to focus on energizing the conservatives and focus less on reminding everyone how average she is.

- Shant Boyajian

Supported by a new round of polls showing her pulling away from her Republican rival, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton today expressed disappointment in the type of campaign John McCain was running.

“After the extremely competitive primary fight I had with Barack Obama, I know the McCain campaign would be hoping I’d come out too bloodied to fight back against their smears, but as you can all see, we’re doing just fine, thank you very much,” the junior senator from New York told a rally of several thousand supporters today in Lansing, MI. “We knew they’d bring up every old rumor and conspiracy theory dating back to the first Clinton presidency, and they have, but even I was surprised at the recent tone of the McCain campaign and the frankly appalling message they’re sending American voters.”

Clinton was referring to the recent McCain web-only ad, “28 Days,” a not-too-subtle suggestion that a Hillary Clinton presidency would be risky due to alleged “mood swings” of the first female presidential candidate in American history.

“We’re not saying that Hillary Clinton would demonstrate a tendency to be irrational on a regular basis just because she’s a woman,” said McCain campaign senior strategist Rick Davis. ”Anyone suggesting we are has no journalistic credibility whatsoever and should go back to street-walking for the ACLU. We have documented proof that periodically, about once a month, Hillary Clinton makes seriously questionable judgment calls that undermine her claim to be ready to lead on day one. Sure, maybe she’d be a good leader that day. But what about, say, Day 28? I don’t think so.”

John McCain’s vice presidential pick Alan Keyes has made similar claims at recent campaign stops, saying Clinton would be better suited “kicking off her shoes and doing her senatorial duties at home in the kitchen, maybe giving Chelsea that little brother she’s always wanted,” instead of leading the nation from the White House. Clinton’s own VP choice, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, has denounced Keyes’ remarks as “offensive” and “absurd.”

“Really, everything out of that guy’s mouth is just nuts. In my neighborhood of Wilmington, or even before that in Scranton, PA, you just don’t talk like that. I know I didn’t go into this in my debate with Alan, but there’s only two reasons he’s on the ticket with John McCain, a man I respect and admire dearly, but who’s shown poor judgment all year long: Alan Keyes is a darling of the hardcore religious rightwing Republican base, and he’s black. It’s as simple as that,” said Biden in a recent interview with Katie Couric. “After the historic duel between Hillary and Barack Obama, they’re desperately trying to pick up some of the disaffected Obama supporters to try and keep this thing close.

And any African-American Democrat, or even independent, that thinks a McCain / Keyes ticket is going to look out for their best interests or address the issues that Barack Obama champions and spoke so passionately about in the primaries…Well, I just don’t know how any of them could think that.”

Even so, the McCain / Keyes campaign is actively pursuing the group of Obama voters who call themselves the EBONY Panthers (for Elect Barack Obama Now, Yo). While no reliable statistics have been compiled to show just how many voters fall into this category, the anger at losing such a close contest to Hillary Clinton has caused many of them to consider voting Republican for the first time in their lives.

“It’s a phenomenon unlike any I’ve ever seen,” said political blogger Michael Turner. “I mean, Alan Keyes has zero, and I mean zero economic policy experience. His claim to have the requisite experience because he balanced his family’s budget regularly for the last seven years is one of the most patently absurd things anyone has ever heard. He and McCain say they’re a good match because they’re both “mavericks,” but any so-called Democrat that supports a guy like Keyes who thinks Senators should be appointed and wants to abolish the income tax ought to have their head examined. And don’t even get me started on Keyes’ positions on social issues. We still haven’t seen John McCain’s health records. The idea that someone as manifestly unqualified as Alan Keyes is a heartbeat away from the presidency is terrifying. Talk about a return to the dark ages.”

Turner added, “And, no, that wasn’t a racial comment.”

Between fomenting racial divisions and the accusations of sexism, it’s unclear, however, if the current strategy of the McCain / Keyes campaign is having a positive effect. The red meat that Keyes throws to their increasingly riled up base is creating anxiety among some less fire-and-brimstone Republicans. McCain, by seemingly pandering to the portion of his base that sees women as inferior to men, is losing undecided voters in droves.

As Turner points out, “The reality is, Hillary Clinton outpolls John McCain on just about every issue. The enthusiasm of these sexist knuckle-draggers is the only thing McCain has left, and win or lose, it risks setting back gender relations in this country by a century or so. It’s a Democrat’s year, but either way, I’m a little concerned.

And just imagine how bad it’d be right now if Obama had won the nomination? (low whistle) Crazy.”

– Michael Turner

Finally someone has come out and exposed something that has recently been on the minds of countless women throughout the world: Sarah Palin is a “disgrace to women” [afp.google.com] It took a foreigner—French actress and activist, Brigitte Bardot—however, to proclaim it publicly. Her decry of the Republican vice-presidential candidate has been syndicated throughout the globe, not because Bardot has a say in American politics, but because her feelings toward Palin resonate unsettlingly well for many of us, myself included.

On Tuesday Bardot wrote: “By denying the responsibility of man in global warming, by advocating gun rights and making statements that are disconcertingly stupid, you are a disgrace to women and you alone represent a terrible threat, a true environmental catastrophe.”

When pundits have attempted this argument, they have been called sexist. If Hillary Clinton were to make such a statement, she would further inflate the image of her as a sore loser. And of course, who are Barack Obama and Joe Biden to assert what disgraces women? Michele Obama and Jill Biden are genetically poised to make the claim, but politically they risk making their husbands campaign vulnerable to the sexism attack. Then of course there are Bardot’s American counterparts, such as Susan Sarandon and Angelina Jolie, to say, “I hope you lose these elections because that would be a victory for the world,” might be a bit too incendiary, even for them.

For some time now, political correctness has cultivated an American culture and ethos that on the one hand, has modified the framework of our thinking to allows people like Barack Obama to run for president. It has also, however, disabled us from having a discourse necessary in a democracy. Bardot’s comments and the ripple it has made throughout the international media attests to this idea that Americans cannot claim to be living in a post-politically correct era. Instead we must embrace the substance of a politically correct message, but do away for its form when it is inhibits a truly substantial message—such as Palin’s digrace to women and her threat to the world—from emerging within our borders. That would be a true disgrace.

–Jamie Wong

In the beginning, there were the multitudes, and they were all running for president. Always great lovers of tradition, the Grand Old Party went their “classic” lineup: Old White Guy, Old White Guy, Old White Guy, Old White Guy (famous), Old White Guy, Old White Guy (9/11), Old White Guy (Mormon), Old White Guy and Alan Keyes. In a surprise move, they went with Old White Guy. Meanwhile, Democrats’ attempt to shatter every glass ceiling at once left voters picking shards out of their eyes for months.

A history-making election was afoot. For the first time, both parties nominated someone born outside of the continental United States; John McCain in the Panama Canal Zone (or as it was known at the time, Western Pangea), and Barack Obama in Kenya Hawaii. Also, one of them is black.

Voters have made it quite clear they’re seeking change they can believe in. Given the state of the economy, even loose change would be welcomed. But mostly they seek change from the current administration, which exists as a pariah, shunned by both parties as it looks on from the bell tower. Change is very popular among the political parties as well. Republicans are eager to present themselves as agents of change from the Republican way of doing things. At the same time, they seek to change President Bush into a Democrat, or better yet, a Socialist. For their part, Democrats are offering change from a demoralized, unfocused party to one with a spine. So “change” is the word, but who can deliver?

The Key Players

Barack Obama: Since his star-making turn in the Democratic National Convention’s keynote address in 2004, Obama’s stock has been on the rise; one of the few stocks to go up during Bush’s tenure. A formidable orator, Obama’s golden tongue may yet be his undoing, as any American knows, if you speak well, you must be trying to trick them. The primary battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton, who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit,” was widely seen as the playoff game that will outshine the Super Bowl in terms of competitiveness. Not that having every political indicator known to mankind favoring Democrats means they can’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The surprising secret is that many Americans, including “liberal” Democrats and famously wise “independents,” will not, under any circumstances, vote for a black man. On top of that, some people believe him to be a radical black nationalist Christian, a communist, or an Islamic terrorist; sometimes all three at once. Since enough people believe Obama is really, say, Muslim, then the possibility that just one of those people may be right cannot be dismissed. In accordance with Dick Cheney’s 1% Doctrine, America must accept and prepare for the fact that Obama’s first act as president would be to subject the entire U.S. to strict sharia law. Despite these misgivings, Barack Hussein Obama has so far refused to legally change his name to “Unnamed Democrat.”

Joe Biden: The senior senator from Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, “Smilin’” Joe Biden is to knowledgeable foreign policy what Tiger Woods is to golf. Unfortunately, Joe Biden is also to cringe-inducing verbal gaffes what Tiger Woods is to golf. His only hope of being able to deliver Delaware’s all-important 3 electoral votes to Obama is that Americans find his habitual foot-in-mouth routine to be endearing, like a crackpot uncle who can call a black candidate “well spoken” and “articulate” and still be his pick for Vice President.

John McCain: John McCain was a P.O.W. One might think that would be qualification enough for the leader of the free world, but for some reason, John McCain is being forced to actually compete against some young whippersnapper. John McCain believes this is deeply unfair. John McCain’s position is that John McCain deserves this election, so don’t make him mad. He gets a temper when he’s tired, because John McCain is old. He is older than ball point pens, the Hindenburg disaster and the state of Alaska. By his own admission, the multiple-cancer survivor is “older than dirt,” but this is an unfair characterization. There is, in fact, dirt that is older than John McCain. It is more accurate to say that John McCain is “older than some dirt.” John McCain is also a maverick. Mavericks buck the trends and do the unexpected. Like opening a walnut with a .45. They’re untamed. Wild. Frighteningly sporadic. Only a maverick could hold opposing positions on almost every major issue without their head exploding in a flaming ball of contradiction. Only a maverick would spend the last several years watching George W. Bush’s approval ratings plummet like a dead sparrow and still vote with him 90% of the time. And only a true maverick, whose motto is “Country First,” would shock the political establishment by picking an absolute naif to serve as the VP to the oldest first term president in history.

Sarah Palin: Wave of the future! The draft pick from the Republican farm team (bats right, throws even further right) has had a steep learning curve on the national stage, but really has nothing to prove to anyone. In a country where smart, capable, non-judgmental people are derided as “elitist” and “latte sipping,” voters have shown a tendency to entrust the country to someone who can give them a heightened sense of adequacy. If the average beauty-contestant / hockey mom / PTA gossip can be a heartbeat away from the presidency, then anyone can! There is also the added benefit of a seamless transition to a Palin Vice-Presidency. A loathing of the press; vindictiveness, obsessive secrecy, justice obstruction and the belief that the office of the Vice President occupies that netherworld between the Executive and Legislative branches – Sarah Palin is more Dick Cheney than Dick Cheney. She has more foreign policy experience too, as Palin can see Russia from her house, while Cheney can only see stalactites.

George W. Bush: What more can be said about the 43rd president that hasn’t already been said in best-selling tell-all books from former employees concerned about their reputations? His list of accomplishments will be hard for either candidate to duplicate: Iraq, Katrina, Wall Street, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Valerie Plame, Walter Reed, torture, warrantless domestic spying…and that’s just scratching the surface. It’s difficult to imagine another president in our lifetime having such a profound impact on the people who elected him. Twice.

The Media: The unseen hand that shapes the narratives that the country follows to keep abreast of what’s happening on the campaign trail. Ever mindful of their duty to be “fair” and “balanced,” the current journalistic establishment takes very seriously their role as judges of American Political Idol. People like David Broder, Ron Fournier, Bill Kristol, Mark Halperin, Chris Matthews, David Brooks and Peggy Noonan, all with their fingers tourniquet-tight on the pulse of the common man, know that issues and policy are unimportant in a crucial election. Unlike Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, they understand that a candidate’s “character,” flag pins and bowling ability are what really matter to voters, and they dutifully plug these daily mini-dramas into their decades-old narrative of “Republicans strong, Democrats weak.” It’s just easier for them that way. The horse race is all that matters; actual ability to govern, not so much. It remains to be seen whether or not the media can maintain their partiality in light of candidate McCain’s mortal sin of suddenly restricting access and playing them for fools. That’s their job with the American public, and they don’t like anyone horning in on their action.

Stay tuned.

– Michael Turner

ST. PAUL, Minnesota, June 4, 2008 (ENS) – The Democratic primary season officially ended Tuesday night as Senator Barack Obama declared victory before a jubilant crowd of some 17,000 at a rally at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul.

“This is America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past,” the Illinois senator told cheering supporters. “Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.”

Senator Barack Obama and his wife,
Michelle, applaud supporters in
St. Paul, Minnesota. June 3, 2008.
(Photo by Salvador García Bardon)

Obama acknowledged the accomplishments of his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton as he became the first black candidate in the nation’s history to be the presidential nominee of a major political party.

“You can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory,” he said. “When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen.”

Obama said, “Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Obama and Clinton have had their differences during this long primary campaign, but tonight they each said that the ways America uses energy will have to change in the near future.

“Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work and workers who created it,” said Obama, as he advocated “investing in our crumbling infrastructure, and transforming how we use energy, and improving our schools, and renewing our commitment to science and innovation.”

Speaking in her home state of New York, Clinton acknowledged the strength of her opponent, and then she highlighted similar issues when explaining “what Hillary wants.”

“I want an economy that works for all families,” she said. “That’s why I have been fighting to create millions of new jobs in clean energy and rebuilding our infrastructure, jobs to come to all of our states and urban and rural areas and suburban communities and small towns.”

Turning his attention to his next opponent, Obama deflected the critique of Republican presumptive nominee Senator John McCain of Arizona that he has not been to Iraq recently enough.

Instead, Obama said, it is McCain who would better understand the kind of change Americans want if he visited more places at home in America.

“Maybe if he went to Pennsylvania and met the man who lost his job but can’t even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one, he’d understand that we can’t afford four more years of our addiction to oil from dictators,” Obama said.

“That man needs us to pass an energy policy that works with automakers to raise fuel standards, and makes corporations pay for their pollution, and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future – an energy policy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced,” he said. “That’s the change we need.”

In New York, Clinton had a parallel message – the Bush years have left Americans impoverished.

Senator Hillary Clinton makes her way through
a crowd of supporters. June 3, 2008
(Photo credit unknown)

“For the past seven years, so many people in this country have felt invisible, like your president didn’t even really see you,” she said.

Then Clinton too sketched a picture of an energy-smart future that she says could replace today’s tough economy.

“I have seen the shuttered factories, the jobs shipped overseas, the families struggling to afford gas and groceries,” she said, “but I’ve also seen unions retraining workers to build energy efficient buildings, innovators designing cars that run on fuel cells and bio-fuels and electricity, cars that get more miles per gallon than ever before, cars that will cut the cost of driving, reduce our reliance on foreign oil and fight global warming.”

Speaking in Minneapolis from the Xcel Energy Center, the same building where the Republican National Convention will happen in September, Obama said, “The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people.”

In concluding, Obama presented his vision of what the future might hold and expressed confidence that both the economy and the environment could be healed.

“Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it,” he said, “then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.

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WASHINGTON, DC, February 4, 2008 (ENS) – Millions of Americans will vote in the Super Tuesday primary elections on February 5th, and many will consider the candidates’ shade of green before casting their ballots. From addressing climate change to touting biofuels, the presidential hopefuls promise a wide range of sustainable actions if elected. But which candidate is more likely to act once he or she is sworn into office?

If you listen to them speak, the remaining presidential candidates can sometimes sound like jolly green political giants. They discuss carbon caps, pledge to mandate renewable energy, and promote clean technology including solar, wind and biofuels.

Senator Barack Obama of
Illinois, Democratic
candidate (Photo
courtesy Office of
Senator Obama)

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have addressed green issues including carbon cap and trade systems, renewable energy, and biofuels much more frequently while campaigning than their Republican counterparts.

Republicans John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee have said comparatively little about climate change or clean energy during their debates or on the stump so far. Promoting clean energy for them is often in the context of energy independence and national security.

This is not a surprise since the environment is of greater importance to Democratic voters, according to author Terry Tamminen, who was the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“Sadly, Republican candidates believe that their ‘base’ voters don’t care about environmental issues in general and, in many cases, don’t believe in global warming,” Tamminen says.

Tamminen created a scorecard grading the candidates’ action plans for climate change and gave both Democrats a B and an F to all three Republicans.

Senator Hillary Clinton
of New York,
Democratic
candidate
(Photo courtesy
Clinton for
President)

Once the general election starts, he says the Republican nominee would likely become more vocal about climate change and related issues to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters.

Talk is cheap, however, especially when it comes to presidential campaigning.

“Part of the problem is that candidates say a lot of things that they don’t follow through on,” says George A. Gonzalez, an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Miami. “Can we understand how they will govern based on how they campaign? Unfortunately not.”

More telling of what the candidates would do as president are their connections to lobbyists and the record of their energy and environmental policies, according to experts.

Rich Gold, a partner at the law firm of Holland and Knight who practices in the area of legislative and environmental law, says voters should, “Look more at their historical relationships and their life experiences.”

Gold, who worked in the Clinton administration, says if there is a gap between what the candidates are saying during the primary season and what their political philosophy has traditionally been, believe their historical views.

For example, when George Bush was campaigning for president in 2000, he claimed to support a cap and trade system on carbon emissions, which contradicted his 20 years of working in the oil business. Gold says, it “shouldn’t have surprised people that he flip-flopped.”

A president who acts to limit carbon emissions or mandate renewable energy production would not be popular with the oil and gas crowd, especially if they helped to get him or her into the White House.

Senator John McCain
of Arizona,
Republican candidate
(Photo courtesy
Office of Senator
McCain)

When criticized for accepting money from energy companies, Hillary Clinton has protested that she makes her legislative decisions independent of campaign contributions.

Experts differ on the influence of oil, nuclear and coal industries on presidents. Professor Gonzalez says that “any president will have to take their counsel to a certain extent.”

According to author Tamminen, the oil industry contributed $186 million to congressional and presidential candidates during the past decade and received generous tax breaks in return, adding that, “While it’s hard to prove any specific act of money-in-favors-out, those numbers speak for themselves.”

Attorney Gold, however, says presidents act largely above the lobbyist fray. “I don’t think people at that level are making decisions based on who gave them money.”

The three senators who are running for president have considerable differences in their environmental voting records, according to data from the League of Conservation Voters, LCV.

According to the LCV scorecard, Obama had a perfect score during the 2006 congressional session – the last year that data was compiled. Clinton scored 71 percent, and McCain scored just 29 percent.

Despite Obama’s stellar environmental voting record, he supports clean coal and nuclear technologies that are important to the economy of his home state of Illinois, but that some environmentalists find objectionable.

In January of 2007, Obama co-sponsored the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007, which would provide funding to companies that convert coal to liquid diesel fuel. After taking heat on the bill, several months later Obama backtracked, saying he would only support clean coal initiatives that would reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent as compared with conventional fuels.

Mike Huckabee,
former governor
of Arkansas
(Photo courtesy
Huckabee for
President)

He has also supported incentives for nuclear energy. He voted for the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which, along with some funding for renewables, gave tax breaks to companies for expanding nuclear power.

Clinton has not authored any significant legislation concerning climate change or renewable energy. She has voted against funding coal to liquids technologies as well as the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that provided incentives for the nuclear industry. In 2007, she voted to expand offshore oil drilling.

McCain began sponsoring legislation to address climate change in 2003, before it became a popular subject in the Senate. The McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act of 2003 was revised and presented to the Senate again in 2005, but failed to pass. It provides for a cap on U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases and a trading system for emissions permits.

Like Clinton, McCain voted to expand offshore drilling, but unlike his two peers, he was not present to vote for the landmark 2007 energy bill that raised vehicle fuel economy standards.

Mitt Romney,
former governor
of Massachusetts
(Photo courtesy
Romney for President)

Both governors took measures to address climate change during their administrations. As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee adopted the National Governors Association’s 2006 policy position on climate change, promoted energy efficiency by switching to compact fluorescent lighting, and signed into law the Arkansas Renewable Energy Development Act.

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney promoted a Climate Protection Plan, which encouraged required state agencies and large businesses to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He supported an agreement of Northeastern states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Neither governor did much while in office to encourage the development of clean technology.

Whoever takes office in 2008 will have to prioritize energy and environmental concerns among many other issues and work closely with Congress to enact new laws.

Attorney Gold says that with a slipping economy, climate change legislation may have to take a back seat. Working with Congress during the “honeymoon days” that coincide with a new administration might be the best time to get green legislation passed, according to Gold.

Professor Gonzalez says the increased talk of clean energy and climate concerns on the campaign trail could result in new executive action. Once in the White House, Gonzalez says, a candidate who made promises to the electorate might do more than one who did not. He says, “I have more hope that someone who is talking about it more will take action.”

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