Precisely one week ago, Obama declared that “change has come to America,” as he became the first black president of the United States. On the very same day, Nov. 4th, 2008, the state of California voted yes on Proposition 8, legally restricting the sanctity of marriage to heterosexual couples only.
“Just how much change can a nation take in one day?” I’m ironically tempted to ask…
Prop 8: Like Icing on the Change?
Government officials today announced the highest unemployment rate, 6.5 percent, the country has seen since 1994. October thus marked the tenth consecutive month of decline. President-elect Barack Obama is facing what might well be the greatest challenge of his presidency – while scrambling to put together a team that will calm the markets.
November 4th, 2008. What better place to be on Election Day, than the place they promise to change: Washington, D.C.?
At U Street Corridor, Reps Won't Find Rest
After following this election campaign closely for what seems like forever, we woke up this morning wondering… what will we do with all this newly free time? Suggestions after the jump.
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. [Read more]
One indicator for the influence of a nation in the world is the number of people willing to devote their academic career to the studies of said nation. According to this measure, the future isn’t looking very bright for the United States, if you follow this article in Time magazine. Applications for American Studies have significantly dropped in Great Britain in the last years, even though regional studies are still in fashion.
source: UCASPrinceton professor, New York Times columnist and prime economic liberal voice Paul Krugman has won the Nobel Prize for economics. Due vindication for this fervent Bush critic, although he has won it for his remarks on trade theory and not his opposition to the Bush administration. Congratulations! Read more about his assessment of US politics in this liveblog from his speech at the Freie Universität Berlin, which he held just this May.
Grand seigneur of the intellectual left in the US, Noam Chomsky has given the Spiegel an interview. He makes it pretty clear that Europeans shouldn’t hope for much from a possible President Obama.
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.
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