Several sources report that U.S. President Barack Obama will anounce Phillip D. Murphy, a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs, as the new U.S. Ambassador to Germany.

Murphy, 52, has been in charge of the Democratic Party’s finances, after he left Goldman Sachs in 2006. As an investment banker, Murphy has headed the German branch of Goldman Sachs in the 90s, and was involved in several deals with the Treuhand-Anstalt.  He will replace William R. Timken, who has left Berlin in January.

Atlantic Review points out that the new man in the American embassy is a board member of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, which sounds like he might enjoy a smooth start in Berlin.

The nearly two-million-people following thronged the inauguration, each spectator defying the unendurable cold, and massive chaos in order to be able to utter three magic words: “I Was There!” Each one sincerely hoping that the substance of those words will become only more awe-inspiring in four or eight years.

Before even taking office, Obama is a worshipped symbol in the same league as Che Guevara, Martin Luther King, or John F. Kennedy. Among thousands of ingenious paintings of Obama, Shepard Fairey’s already iconic red-blue portrait of Obama, echoing Andy Warhol’s mass production art, has come to incarnate the transformation of the president from politician to pop icon. In the streets around The Mall on Tuesday, you could buy t-shirts, dolls, badges, and even condoms (!) bearing Obama’s name, while protest groups against Jesus, for Jesus, against homosexuality, and for homosexuality fought for the passer-bys’ attention.

Everywhere, Obama’s “fans” (they do indeed seem to be much more than merely voters) could be overheard talking of him in high-pitched terms, a bit too reminiscent of sectarian rhetoric. Then again: Who can blame people for embracing hope and change, as if it came from Jesus himself, when they are in the middle of two wars and economic despair, and have just gotten rid of a president, who leaves office just as unpopular as the criminalized former president Richard Nixon did? The immense excitement is in that sense much more than a psychological observation of mass and media hysteria.

On the one hand, the profound worshipping is paradoxical. Obama has stressed time and time again how his campaign was about the American people and not about himself, and, yet, he has become a mythical figure. He has pointed out the people as the true carriers of change, and they have pointed right back at him. But at the same time, people see themselves in the image of him. Obama has created a sense of solidarity, and a willingness to sacrifice, which was clearly felt in the Capital’s streets during the inaugural events. Walking in the city’s broad, car-empty highways with hordes of people on Tuesday was like being in a catastrophe movie, only with hope instead of fear leading the march.

While the freezing temperatures did prevent an unrestrained street party to break out, the genuine and persistent enthusiasm was in itself impressive. Thousands of people waited outside eight to ten hours in order to see the big parade from front row, while thousands more waited several hours to get just a three second view of the leading character through fences and spectator stands. Far more people had volunteered to help out around the city than were needed. It was all about being there, even though, for most people, that meant seeing the swearing in on a jumbotron far, far away from the main stage on Capitol.

Luckily, “No Drama Obama” is well aware that, in the long run, the intense fandom can quickly evaporate if political results do not materialize. In press conferences before his inauguration, as well as in his inaugural address, his rhetoric was relatively somber, doing his best to sound like what he is: A political, rather than a spiritual, leader. Many people will undoubtedly have a hard time taking this fact in, when this – through political compromises and less popular decisions – becomes obvious over the next four years. And the pundits will, with some delight, say that Obama isn’t all he was cracked up to be.

By Jacob Ludvigsen

Jacob Ludvigsen is a film critic, has a BA in Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen, and is currently a graduate student at the University of Maryland.

As the days of George W. Bush as President of the U.S.A. draw to an end, every part of the transition process takes on historic proportions. Nobody knows how many people will turn out on January 20 to see Obama take over the White House. It will probably be the biggest crowd ever at any Presidential Inauguration, which will also make it the costliest Inauguration ever. We tell you where to watch the celebration in Berlin!

Still-President Bush has declared the state of emergency for the District of Columbia during the weekend. 11,500 troops are assigned inaugural duties, aided by another 8,000 police men.

Meanwhile, Obama merchandise is in hot demand and might qualify as an economic stimulus. The Washington Post will print almost three times as many copies as usually and raise its cover price from 75 cents to $2 for the Inauguration issue. Needless to say, finding a a place to stay in D.C. borders on impossible.

Luckily, there are lots of alternatives in Berlin to join the festivities, so you can fall into your own bed at the end of the night.

UPDATE
I added the CARTA event, because they also screen the Inauguration.

• “Der Digitale Präsident” – Carta Diskussionsveranstaltung
  Haus der Bundespressekonferenz, Raum 0107
  Schiffbauerdamm 40
  10117 Berlin
  With live screening and a panel featuring:
  - Björn Böhning, Bundestagskandidat SPD
  - Mercedes Bunz, Tagesspiegel Online
  - Tobias Moorstedt, Journalist and Author (we interviewed him last year)
  6.00pm, free admission but you need to RSVP
  more info
• Inauguration Celebration of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy
  Amerika Haus Berlin (at Bahnhof Zoo)
  Hardenbergstraße 22-24
  10623 Berlin
  > 4.00pm
  doors open
  > 4.30pm
  Panel discussion on the significance of President Obama for Germany and Africa
  > 5.30pm
  Screening of the Inauguration
  > 7.00pm
  Panel discussion on the significance of the Obama’s presidency for the global African diaspora
  >8.30pm
  Concert, Jazz, R&B
  free admission, more info
  
• Democrats Abroad Inauguration Party
  GOYA ClubNollendorfplatz 5
  10777 Berlin
  > 4.30pm
  Doors open, projection of the entire ceremony on a large screen
  > 4.00pm
  Ceremony starts and ends at 20:00 (according to a press release from Washington D.C.)
  > 8.00pm
  Guest speakers from the different American abroad organizations. There is the POSSIBILITY the Governor Mayor of Berlin will make an appearance. THIS IS NOT CONFIRMED AT THE MOMENT!
  > 9.00pm
  Live Music from FOLKADELIC
  > 10.30pm
  DJ “Daddy-O,” Funky Soul Classics
  Tickets: 10-,€,  6-,€ after 21:00
  To reserve a ticket send a message to chair@demsinberlin.de
  There will be an after party at SURPRISE Club & Disco. A shuttle vehicle will be available for door to door transport from 10.00pm till midnight. Entrance and shuttle ride is free when you have a ticket for the Event in GOYA.
  more info
  
• Obama Kaffeklatsch at the JFK Institute
  Caféte at the John F. Kennedy Institute
  Lansstr. 5-9
  14159 Berlin
  There will be cake and coffee.
  free admission, starts 4pm
• Your place
  You can simply stay home and watch the Inauguration online. Read here where to access live streams of the ceremony and of several Inauguration parties in D.C.

In the good tradition of lists at the end of the year, we bring you the most memorable moments of the already historic 2008 US Presidential election. One media phenomenon was especially salient—Sarah Palin, who will be remembered for putting both hockey moms and Wasilla, Alaska on the political map.

She also sparked a movement of Sarah Palin lookalikes and video spoofs, that succeeded to push the frenzy of Obama music videos from the youtube agenda. The magnitude of her online appeal is so great that after the election, American video websites like Hulu.com have seen their traffic drop due to a post-Sarah-Palin slump.

So, without further ado, our ten favorite videos with or inspired by the moose hunter of the year. Tell us about your favorites and suggest more videos in the comments. Merry Christmas everyone!

1. Sarah Palin herself

2. Tina Fey on SNL
If you can’t watch the clip, read here how to bypass the regional limitation.

3. Is McCain Sarah Palin’s bitch?

4. From Russia with Love

5. Terry Tate: Reading is Fundamental
Note: Might be funnier if you know Terry’s other clips.

6. McCain/Obama Dance Off

7. Obama Girl does Palin

8. Paper Planes Palin

9. The Daily Show: McCain picks Running Mate

10. Sarah Palin at a turkey farm

Instead, applicants for seats within an Obama Administration have to bare it all, as the New York Times reports. Questions extend not only to all of one’s own past, but to the spouses’ as well. One can just imagine those in question wishing they hadn’t uploaded all those pictures of them getting wasted at a frat house onto facebook! Oh yeah, the glories of the communication age. Also, any pseudonyms that “might cause embarassement to you, your family, or the president-elect” need to be named (been chatting with Mandy lately?).

Note to anyone interested in a future job with the White House: Watch what you say, post, upload, or pass yourself of as. It’ll come back to haunt you one day.

At U Street Corridor, Reps Won't Find Rest

Black Broadway
3:40 p.m.: Green line from College Park, Maryland, to Washington, D.C.
Greenbelt metro station: the beginning and end of the Green Line. I am struggling to find an analogy more befitting this day: “The beginning and end.”

The train is almost empty, save a few voices announcing their soon arrival at friends’ or families’, eager to watch as the nation turns the page on a new chapter of American history. It is rainy and gray. I squint my eyes, hoping that might magically turn the gloomy downpour into drops of catharsis. In America, today is the day of reckoning – the “final verdict on eight years [of failed policies],” as Obama likes to call it. Regardless of where one stands, November 4th, 2008, will be a day of either gloom or catharsis – the beginning or end. Some things not even man can control, no matter how hard we try. But today, that won’t keep people from at least trying.

4:00 p.m.: Arrival at the U Street Corridor.
“Black Broadway,” as it was known in its heyday during the first half of the 20th century. The home of legends: Jazz greats Duke Ellington (a D.C. native), Sarah Vaughn, Billy Holiday, and Miles Davis were U Street staples, and, as the story goes, it is where Dr. Martin Luther King grabbed a spoon at Ben’s Chili Bowl after his “I Have a Dream” speech.

After the assassination of Dr. King on April 4th, 1968, U Street erupted into 4 days of riots, destroying businesses, and causing both unemployment and insurance rates to reach for the sky. Meanwhile, the gates to an inferno of drugs and prostitution seemed to open ever wider as investors fled “Black Broadway.” The winds of change first swept through the Corridor with the onset of the 1990s, and today is considered to have just the right degree of luring-but-safe ruggedness to make it hip in a city which, on the surface, tends to get lost in suits, ties and pearly whites.

Politics is for people, by people; a perpetual negotiation of grants – of trust, of power, and of liberty. Win some, lose some. While former D.C. mayor Marion Barry was shunned for being caught smoking crack cocaine at downtown Vista International Hotel in 1990, black Washingtonians assured his 1995 reelection despite a 6 months prison stint: Barry had reached out to the black community, he had created jobs. As gentrification has pushed housing prices up, and the prostitutes down a few blocks, many of the neighborhood’s black residents fear to be pushed away.

U Street is all about politics. And here, as in the rest of country, the people have learned about the proteanism of politics the hard way. And yet, on this rainy day, no one squints. On Black Broadway, everyone is eagerly anticipating the biggest show in town: The 2008 Presidential Election. Judgment Day is here.

The Other Bradley Effect
50-year-old Bradley rests in the rain outside of Garnett Patterson Jr. High School, doubling today as “Precinct 22” polling station. He has just voted for Obama, and has been voting since he was 18.  To him, this election is about redemption – he has said his final prayer in the voting booth, and now it is in God’s hands. We both ponder the scene before us in bemusement: I, 26, white, and ever so European; Bradley, 50, black, and a D.C. native, telling me that the fate of the nation is in the hands of God.

“They could put both in office, for all I care,” says a withered voice behind me. A short man slides by me, and joins Bradley in contained excitement. He is easily in his late-60s, with keen eyes behind tinted glasses in brown plastic rims, gleaming from under a red baseball cap. They shake hands, and nod consentient. “But you just voted, so you must believe there is something you can do, right?” I try. “Well, I’m voting for everybody else; for the future generation. Obama, a black person, that’s historical,” says Bradley as he shakes my hand goodbye.

Captain Crystal
Inside the polling station, a speech-impaired woman greets me warmly over a steaming Styrofoam box. Admittedly, reports of endless lines and long waiting hours had me bracing for a long, busy day “in the field.” “It’s been crazy out here,” Captain Crystal, three-time Precinct Captain, reassures me, as I, to my great surprise, discover a meager line of 6 people waiting to vote – in 5 minutes, it will be down to 2, tops.  “It’s the rain,” the Captain insists, “just give it another hour.”

Crystal boasts how this year, they have done their best to accommodate the large turn-out by providing Optical Scan screens to ensure that impaired voters, too, get to cast their ballot. “Everybody wants to vote,” Captain Crystal tells a small team of local young journalists from Howard University and myself, “so we’ve trained volunteers, line control workers, and hired management to make sure to help them – the elderly, the illiterate, disabled people, and the deaf and blind. We’ll help them vote, but we’re not going to tell them who to vote for.”

Captain Crystal is markedly proud. She and her team has been at the station since 6 a.m., and do not expect to leave Precinct 22 before 10 p.m. She bolts to and fro.

“International man! Over there, that’s the press area,” the Captain demands, navigating me to a green paper patch stretched along one side of the polling room floor. “International man,” that is me. I hear the budding journalists from Howard U giggle behind me, strutting their notebooks and digital cameras. They are not a day over 20. Meanwhile, I try to “capture the moment” with my 2 megapixel camera on my Nokia phone. My digital camera ditched me last weekend at the Beauty Bar in the Big Apple, and has probably been living it up with Cosmo-sipping hipsters ever since.

Precinct 22: No irregularities, no nothing. No 2004 voter suppression scenario, no dirt to dig up. This ship won’t sink on Captain Crystal’s watch.

The Promise
It is rainy still. A stocky, middle-aged man greets me with a gratified smile, and calmly seeks shelter under his umbrella. He lends an air of class to the grayness – no squinting necessary. Trivial exchanges give way to conversation. Meet Robert Harp, self-proclaimed long-time Democrat (with the exception of Gerald Ford in 1974).

“What’s your proudest moment during this election?” I ask him.

“Obama has run a noble campaign. He’s stuck with the issues, and stated them clearly. And he’s provided comprehensive solutions,” Robert begins. “He could’ve played the race-card, but he didn’t,” he continues, signaling a silent nod to the historicity of U Street, and the polling station behind me, where a majority of the voters I have witnessed today are African American.

We discuss John McCain and the early primary debates. “He could have made a good president,” Robert says, “but then he started bolting from one position to another,” reiterating the claims that McCain has appeared “erratic” in the final stages of the campaign. VP pick Palin, the negativity, and then the economic meltdown: “the darkest moments of the campaign.”

My jacket turns a darker shade of grey, as our conversation continues under the drizzling DC sky. From a working-class upbringing in Brooklyn, NY, through making peace with one’s roots, to a successful life in Boston and DC: Robert’s life reaffirms that the appeal of Obama’s story, in many ways, rests in the shared experience of the American people.

Our conversation makes a last stop at the debate over “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” as Palin dubbed him, in what seemed a blatant attempt to invoke fears so effectively aroused during the Red Scare of the 1940s and 50s.

“What about the American Dream? Is that why there’s so much focus on the middle-class?,” I ask. The idea of liberty – the freedom to succeed, and the freedom fail – is sacred to most Americans. “Are Americans afraid that if they take their eyes off the middle-class, they’ll loose sight of the American Dream?”

Robert looks up: “What I’ve learned from this election is that we are one nation. But in the last years, that has been constrained.”

For millions of Americans like Robert, the 2008 Election is not just about reclaiming Washington, but about reclaiming the nation – the promise. Or as Obama would have it: Reclaim the audacity of hope.

I bid Robert farewell, and head down U Street. Rain still. I squint my eyes as I pass a barbershop. Four kids are lined up, getting groomed for the moon landing of our time – a new frontier – while their parents are out trying to guide the hands of God.

By Peter Dahl

[Show as slideshow]

We remember watching the New Hamsphire primary and I’m sure government teachers around the world rejoice at how much students and the general public have learned this year about the US- election system. Also, pundits have regained credibility, if boringness, too, by spoiling the fun and calling the winner already before election day.

But for us – No more scanning the net for funny skits of candidates’ lapses, no more wondering how expensive a couple of suits need to be, or if a middle name has any implication for leadership qualities. Really, what now?

Tapmag will give you a roundup of election night in Berlin soon, but for the moment, we second what German media journalist and blogger Stefan Niggemeier has posted here.

And of course, not to forget more election fun coming up next year, this time in Germany. We only need Frank- Walter Steinmeier to be a little more like Barack Obama and it might actually be interesting.

This headline appeared in the New York Times on November 7, 1908. The paper had organized an election watch party (watching people read telegrams that is, of course) at Hotel Adlon. Around 200 American ex-pats partied the night away. When at 2 in the morning the victory of William Howard Taft was announced, a giant American flag was lowered and enthusiasm among the apparently heavily Republican crowd “rose to fever heat”. “Such scenes had never been witnessed in the memory of the oldest Berlin inhabitants,” the Times proclaimed.

While the Adlon for some reason won’t hold a gay party this election night, there are other options to have a gay good time on November 4:

Democrats Abroad Berlin
Public Multi-Media Viewing of Election Results
10.30 pm till Sunrise on the 5th
Advance tickets €3.50  Reservations: 0049 30 242 5969
Tickets €5 at the Door. All tickets include:
Obama button, DJ, Live Music, TV, etc. For Sale: Food and Sunrise Drinks, Raffle
Babylon Theater, Rosa Luxemburg Strasse 30, 10178 Berlin
U Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

Republicans Abroad Berlin
“November Surprise Election Party”.  “Watch live how the Republican ticket McCain/Palin comes from behind and leaves the ‘liberal elite media’ in Europe and the United States puzzled.”
Wahlkreis Café, Reinhardtstraße 37, 10117 Berlin
S+U Friedrichstraße
Note: RSVP to Jan Burdinski (jburdinski{ät}republicansabroad.de; 0049 170 440 3333)

John-F.-Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies.
Student-run election watch party, with film screenings and discussions.
Starts at 6 pm.
Free admittance
Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
U Dahlem Dorf

Election Night Lounge of the U.S. Embassy and the German Marshall Fund
Starts at 11.45 pm
Hauptstadtrepräsentanz Deutsche Telekom AG, Französische Straße 33, 10117 Berlin
U Hausvogteiplatz
Note: By invitation only

Amerikahaus Berlin
with interviews and discussions
Starts at 6pm
Hardenbergstraße 22-24, 10623 Berlin
S+U Zoologischer Garten
Note: Appears to be sold out!

Got more places to be? Write a comment or email us at editors{ät}tapmag.net

For the Dems, Jerry Gerber and Michael Steltzer, press secretary and chair of Democrats Abroad Berlin respectively, stepped into the ring. Republicans Abroad Germany sent vice-chair Stefan Prystawik and lawyer Paul Kiefer. Sadly, the format ensured that direct exchanges were kept to a minimum. Moderator Michael S. Cullen granted each side amble time for long monologues but little for an actual debate.

As was to be expected, the predominantly German audience in the packed to capacity auditorium was totally in the tank for Obama. Requests by Cullen to refrain from applauding were largely ignored, in fact the audience behaved very Un-German and made constant noises to indicate their support or disapproval.

Both sides mostly stuck to the usual talking points in their remarks, “McCain=Bush”, “Obama voted 94 times to increase taxes” and the like. It only got interesting when topics not discussed at the real debates came up.

The Republicans appeared to be on the defensive most of time. Especially Gerber visibly enjoyed taking shot after shot at John McCain and the Reps. Example: “McCain even seemed to have forgotten the name of current president. I’m older than he is, I know what it’s like”

Prystawik appeared to sense some ungratefulness in the audience given that “Berlin is the city that over the years has profited the most from Republican presidents.” This remark generated the most vivid discussion of the night, with Don Jordon, a journalist who was also on stage, pointing out that while there are a “John F. Kennedy High School, a John F. Kennedy square and a John F. Kennedy-Institute” in Berlin, Ronald Reagan, who “practically abolished the Wall”, is not honored in any way. Needless to say, the crowd was not pleased.

The ensuing question period was roughly equally split between fairly thoughtful questions and painful idiocy. Apparently, the intellectually challenged also feel the need to voice their opinions. The low point was a very German moron who with a pathetic attempt at irony proclaimed, “I’m about as educated as a citizen of the Midwest!”.

A more sensible audience member touched on the importance of race in the campaign, leading both Gerber and Jordan to remark that they believe Obama would have a hard time getting elected to high office in Germany because of his skin color.

All in all, nothing particularly new or earthshaking, but it was nice to see Germans so engaged for a change. Stefan Prystawik told us afterwards it’s because Germans and Americans are “way too similar”. But maybe it was only the wind chill 35°C inside the auditorium.

The debate was part of the series “Wie wählt Amerika?“, organized by the Initiative Amerika Haus Berlin. The series will continue this Wednesday, October 22nd, at 7pm with “Die Außenpolitik des neuen Präsidenten. Was die Welt von Obama oder McCain erwarten darf”,  Hardenbergstraße 22-24, 10623 Berlin.

SPIEGEL: “Change” is the slogan of this year’s presidential election. Do you see any chance for an immediate, tangible change in the United States? Or, to use use Obama’s battle cry: Are you “fired up”?

Chomsky: Not in the least. The European reaction to Obama is a European delusion.

SPIEGEL: But he does say things that Europe has long been waiting for. He talks about the trans-Atlantic partnership, the priority of diplomacy and the reconciling of American society.

Chomsky: That is all rhetoric. Who cares about that? This whole election campaign deals with soaring rhetoric, hope, change, all sorts of things, but not with issues.

He has more to say about the state of American democracy and the 2008 elections. Chomsky touches upon the role religion plays for campaign managers, the narrow spectre of choices voters are given and McCain’s honest suggestion that this election really is about personality and not issues, as the Obama campaign claims. The full interview is here.