There were some unique characteristics of TPM Café: First, we had depth of subject in our conversations, second, we had long threads, and third, we had a variety of subjects. The latter was made possible by having Discussion Posts that had to achieve enough votes to even get posted. And once up, they stayed for a very long time. The first was made possible by the second and third points. New visitors tended to comment that they had found nothing to equal TPM on the web, and I haven't heard about any serious competition since.

It was apparent that something had to change, when all ad content was server-delivered, content-linked, and needed fast-loading pages compatible with the system. And changes were made, but at the expense of most of the defining character of the Café.

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There are surely at least a couple of Americans out there who abominate, aghast with revulsion, the prospect of the spawn of interracial marriage as their president. As Barack Obama said in his first presser, he's a mutt, a mix, not hypo-allergenic and not safe for those with genetic disposition to reject, revile, denounce and despise the impure.

Most appropriately, our first non-pink president is not just a minority member of the body politic, but a cross, not just hyphenated but actually dual-nationality. He represents not just the ascension of the formerly lowly, but the apotheosis of the Unum out of our Pluribus. He is a Citizen of the World that happened to live in Chicago.

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New Mexico residents are used to confusion about whether they are actually part of the US. Hawaiians didn't have that worry, until they discovered their state was somewhere exotic. And now New Mexico is Blue, while Hawaii's natal son is the Prez.

Alaska will hear renewed calls from the secessionist Alaska Independence Party. Their leader, Joe Vogler, has been supposedly dead since 1993, but may be revived, having been preserved in an Alaskan glacier. Given arctic warming, it would be an easy PR move to "discover" him, those remains found in a gravel pit notwithstanding.

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No hanging chads, no court challenges, no lingering legitimacy questions. While maybe not landslide electoral numbers, it was large majority as these things go. It was mainly an early majority. Over with, resoundingly, by 12 pm EST, when the president-elect spoke.

Obama was perfect in tone with his acceptance speech, blending in Lincoln quotes seamlessly, using the old woman's experience of history as scaffold for his recounting of our journey.

This is the way things ought to be. Like remembering to breathe, as Obama's sister described meeting him.

 

 

Or will the South remain unreconstructed? The entire Northeast has given Obama its approval, but more importantly, working-class populations in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio seem to have finally voted their interests.

The North has again shown the South that its advantage in resources, wealth, and ingenuity is hard to fight. Obama used that advantage to make McCain defend in former strongholds. It was a reverse Southern Strategy, forcing McCain back onto his holdouts of white racists and jingoistic nationalists. Obama said: "You want the South? Fight for it!" And that forced McCain to settle for hoping in the swing states, with only his smearing whisper-ads to try and scare whites away from the obvious choice.

Obama's campaign was simultaneously top-down and bottom-up, with immensely broad financial support. Every small donation implied a volunteer for canvassing or calling. McCain had the equivalent of some plantation scions, contributing their money and a few of their sons, against the People's Army of eager Obama partisans. It should never have been close. Or, put another way, close ain't winning. It may have taken a few years for the North to wear down the South, but it did take Gen. Ulysses Grant to put the rabid dog down, for good.

Except we only thought that was it. We didn't understand that people who think they haven't lost, haven't. The Reconstruction fizzled. And the South has had a significant interest in national politics, which became dominant after Nixon. But not now. So much for Reagan Democrats.

Now can we stop trying to woo the leftovers of Jim Crow? Can we tell them to shut up and join the country, finally, and can we make the flag of traitors illegal? Or at least in really bad taste?

Will the South stay down, this time, never to rise again?

He feels pretty bad about trusting things to run themselves, although that's normal policy for Him (He's actually a Libertarian). But since Evil People gummed things up with vote suppression, flipping etc., He thought it might help if He arranged for better weather than one might otherwise expect in early November temperate zone. How about 70 degrees and sunny in Chicago? Who can argue that's not a miracle?

He wants His people to know that He can't shorten the voting lines without contradicting the other efforts He is engaged in. He anointed One to boost enthusiasm, which would make a liberal victory more complete. He arranged for more awareness, thus larger voter registration, which means long lines. (So does better weather.)

He apologizes for being Busy with these Good Works, and letting Madeleine Dunham slip away before tomorrow. So give the Big Guy a break, and watch the manna from Heaven fill the ballot boxes Tuesday.