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Sunday, November 16, 2008

News Nuggets 52 [with a NEW FEATURE!]


Obama's Visit to the White House 

To help people decide whether an article is worth checking out, I've included a key sentence or two from each to give a better sense of what each article covers.  We'll see if this works for everyone (including myself).

After Obama Victory, an Outbreak of Racial Anger from the Austin American-Statesman
"Crosses burning. Children chanting, "Assassinate Obama." Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.  Reports of incidents such as those across the country are dampening the glow of racial progress and harmony that bloomed after the election of Democrat Barack Obama, an African American, to the presidency."

The Moose Stops Here (Frank Rich) from the New York Times
"ELECTION junkies in acute withdrawal need suffer no longer. Though the exciting Obama-McCain race is over, the cockfight among the losers has only just begun. The conservative crackup may be ugly, but as entertainment, it’s two thumbs up!"

A Hard-Headed Strategy Of Inclusion from the National Journal
"Reaching beyond his core supporters is Obama's best hope of advancing his policy agenda."

"Presidents typically say they want to be surrounded by strong-willed people who have the courage to disagree with them. President-elect Barack Obama, reaching out to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans, actually might mean it."

"As an African-American man and Barack Obama supporter, Farajii Muhammad sensed early on that the presidential election was about to change his world - well before the first votes were cast on Election Day."

"Surveying the wreckage after American voters gave their party the bum's rush, Republican thinkers have pondered what went wrong, searched their souls -- and decided that the way to regain power is to move further to the right."

Obama Thinking Big, Despite Crisis from the Agence France-Presse
"Signs coming out of Barack Obama's transition conclave in Chicago suggest he has no intention of lowering his sights for an activist, big ideas, presidency despite the deep economic crisis."

Change (Ron Suskind) from the New York Times Sunday Magazine
"Not every president gets an era. Bush 41 didn’t. Reagan did, F.D.R. certainly did and L.B.J. did, too, by virtue of having presided during havoc. Clinton yearns for his eight years to be called an era but knows he fell short, and often says that a president needs to have governed during crisis to be considered great. Or at least consequential. Much like Lyndon Johnson’s, George W. Bush’s tenure was the drama of a president devoured by titanic events — forces that overwhelmed best-laid plans and even the soundest of intentions, and magnified errors."

Europe Wants to Cooperate Closely with Obama from Der Spiegel (in English)
"The European Union is seeking a close working relationship with US President-elect Barack Obama, but it wants to do so with equal footing. In a strategy paper developed by EU foreign ministers, Europe says it is ready for closer cooperation on a number of difficult issues."

Unsettling Times for Jihadists (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"The upsetting news for our imaginary jihadist is the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. This wasn't supposed to happen, in al-Qaeda's playbook."

Obama's Extended Family Rejoices from the Chicago Sun-Times
"The jubilant cries that rocked Grant Park in Chicago on election night echoed across the world, but perhaps nowhere more deeply than in this small village in western Kenya, the ancestral home of the Obama clan."

Obama's Victory: A Change the World Should Believe In from the Financial Times [of London]
"The world looks anew at its sole superpower. For the past several years America’s most formidable adversary has not been al-Qaeda, North Korea or Iran. The strategic threat to US power has come from rising anti-Americanism. The election of Barack Obama has disarmed it."

Obama's Journey: He Gets It from the Financial Times [of London]
"These people depict a man who, in Mr Brzezinski’s words, is “better equipped in temperament and intellect for the highest office than anyone I can think of in recent memory”. Close friends describe someone who is so self-possessed that nothing appears to rattle him."

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