Either Relevant or True » What’s Next?

Tie: Hey, that’s new! It’s orange, red, white and silver.
Music: Bobby Darin - “Splish Splash” [thank you, Becky & zoz]
Worst Person: Keith addresses Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly. Quoth the dickish winner, “You don’t matter any more.”

Thank you, America. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yeah, so … it’s over. I feel lighter. Do you feel lighter? I feel lighter.

It’s 76 days until the inauguration of President Barack Obama. With one state yet to be called, the final(ish) numbers stand at Obama 52% with 63,878,236 votes, and McCain 46% with 56,394,736 votes. Which just goes to show you … there are a damn lot of people in this country.

Today President-elect Obama woke up, had breakfast with the kids, and then went to the gym before going around and thanking campaign staff. Can I still be in the tank for Obama? I have gotten super comfortable here.

Obama wants Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff, because reality is now a Sorkin-y moebius strip.

Still President Bush made a gracious statement today on Obama’s election, as did Secretary Rice.

Aw hey, there’s Richard Wolffe. Good to see him again.

Heh. They show the last scene from The Candidate. A movie notable, too, today for its tagline: “Too Handsome. Too Young. Too Liberal. Doesn’t have a chance. He’s PERFECT!”

In addition to Emanuel, word is we’ll know a lot about Obama’s cabinet as soon as this week. While almost every “who could it be?!” article about the cabinet’s possible makeup varies, some names include: Lugar, Corzine, the possibility of Gates staying on, Powell, Richardson, Caroline Kennedy, RFK … Junior, I assume - and I know Junior looks a whole lot like Senior did but dang that just looked like a photo of Senior. [Fixed on the re-air to show RFK, Jr.]

Yeah, so the election’s not actually over just yet. There are four senate races still in limbo, including the Coleman/Franken race. Liddy Dole did, however, lose lose lose! Making this the first time since 1952 a Bush or Dole won’t be in office.

Chris Cilizza is there and said “we made it!” and — you know, that’s something. I’m exhausted, and that’s just from watching. Kudos to the newsfolk for getting through this.

No Oddball, because … I guess we’ll get our show back, just not right away. Instead, a discussion on how PSYCHED most of the rest of the world is about Obama’s win. A German paper said Obama had resurrected the American Dream. *whistles* Nelson Mandela wrote a letter! Oh crap, I’m crying again.

Heh, someone asked Sarah Palin if she cost McCain the presidency. Even I don’t think that’s fair. Oh my god. From here: An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.” It may have been more than 150K after all. Damn. Now that it literally is inconsequential, I’m interested in seeing what comes of this.

She asked Steve Schmidt if she could talk at the concession speech last night? Who is this person??

This article is awfully comprehensive & interesting.

Vice President Cheney is FIGHTING First Lady Laura Bush about SHARKS’ RIGHTS. \o/

Finally tonight, the last Campaign Comment, on how we got to watch history yesterday, and we’ve got it on tape. And film. And we can watch and look back all we want. And that’s magic.

I’m crying again. That’s ok. God willing, I’ll remember what this felt like for the rest of my life.

Keith’s sign off today was lovely, and I’ll leave you with it: So, from inside the box, an honor to have joined you electronically in this most unlikely of American journeys, and a hope that you will continue with me as we walk the even longer path now clear and unmistakable, just there at the horizon.

Segue music: Bobby Darin singing “Splish Splash”, which was a gigantic hit in the 1950s. Thanks a lot for reminding me that I am a million years old and can remember when he first sang (okay, lip-synced) it on “American Bandstand”!

Keith has saved my sanity ever since I started watching regularly in fall of 2006. Great, great thanks, sir.

Hey, thanks for noticing Keith’s beautiful send-off…Is that a quotation or is it his original line?

When I google part of it, my recap comes up and not much else, so I’m guessing it was all Keith. :)

Was it just me or was Keith just absolutely giddy tonight? As I was watching I wondered what tonight’s episode would have been like had McCain pulled it off.

I too was moved by Keith’s sign-off this evening.
“…and a hope that you will continue with me as we walk the even longer path now clear and unmistakable, just there at the horizon.” He is a man with a gift for words - a natural orator. Throughout the entire election process of the past two years, he has said things that needed to be said with eloquence rarely found in journalism today.

And now we do indeed walk the longer path “now clean and unmistakable, just there at the horizon” - and we all walk it together with the hope and optimism of a nation that can finally shake off the dark cynicism that has become, for most of us, a habit. Now, we must unlearn that habit and look at our country, and each other, with a newfound clarity of conscious and a reborn sense of what it is to be a citizen of the United States of America. The Republican party ruled our last 8 years with fear and intimidation and it made us bitchy and mean - and that’s not who we are. It’s not who we are as citizens, and it’s surely not who we are as humans. Now, we must walk that long road to unlearn our cynicism and look to hope to be our knee-jerk reaction, not skepticism. “How can I help?” and “How can I change things for the better?” Those are the questions we now have to start asking ourselves, and in doing that we will begin this new era and rebuild our citizenry, country and the world on the foundation of “yes we can”. No more anger, no more fear – we don’t need that anymore. Now, we must look at our actions on a daily basis and ask ourselves “Am I making my community better by my actions?” and “Am I making this world a better place by my reactions?”

It’s going to be difficult to unlearn our cynicism, but if we don’t, every future generation will pay the price of our laziness. So turn off the television, put down the distractions and let’s do our part – every day, to make our communities, our cities, our states, our nation and yes – our world, a place we want to live in again.

And it starts now.

What Keith should have said in WPitW was “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK, JABRONI!”

KO as Barack Obama’s press secretary? Thoughts?

Nick, “giddy” was exactly the word that came to me.

Not a new tie, just a long time since we have seen it.(I don’t like it, but then, I do not like orange, even when it is found in a small stripe. Shuddering to remember a huge apricot one Bill Clinton wore during some of the primaries. Talk about using neckwear as a phallic symbol!)

No to KO as Press Secretary. 1) He is a controversial and divisive figure to far too many and would become the issue instead of what he was announcing. 2) Can you see him being a bland mouthpiece?
3) We need him where he is.

The Worst Person in the World was perfect. Not only do none of those people and what they say matter, but we need to turn the page and move forward, which is what that closing eloquent comment was about. It is also a large part of what Obama has been about.

When those who have been out of power take power, how they treat those who suppressed them says a lot about who they are.

We no longer need to waste time and energy on these people unless they do something newsworthy, and to do so just because they are idiots gives them some of their old power back and allows them to distract us.

For some reason a Spiro Agnew comment re the press occurs to me: The nattering nabobs of negativity. Probably created by Pat Buchanan. It fits that very small segment such as Hannity, etc.

The issue of negativity and spreading fear will continue, of course, and while we need to keep an eye on it, we no longer need to obsess over it.

The moment Hume told Rove that Obama had won Ohio, it was as if someone had suddenly let all the air out of that huge conceit that has been ruling through fear and intimidation.

Look at how the American people refused to be taken in by that last minute Rev. Wright ad, the use of Obama’s middle name, and all of the other fear bating that went on.

Part of this is the youngest voters who have come of age and become involved and understand exactly how this crap works and refuse to allow it to shift them into fear.

While there are still over two months (75 days) to go before the Inauguration, the country has spoken so clearly that it wants a new way.

We do not need revenge nor to become mired in our own petty version of the crap of the far right, but to move forward in a productive manner to seek resolutions to the many problems that assail us.

I think that that final comment was Keith saying that his program is going to change, to move forward in a positive and constructive manner.

We have been empowered by this election.

I welcome it and am eager to stride out and seek what lies beyond that horizon.

I thought there was a Murrow callback, but I guess it’s just evocative of, not actual quotage.
I think that thought is a compliment to KO’s skills, Olberfann, but even C.J. Cregg had to lie.
I think the level of bull…excreta required to be a press sec. would give Keith a condition.

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