By Andrew Zajac

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, cuts a figure of no-nonsense, Midwestern rectitude.

Middle of the road, plain-spoken, competent. Yeah, her husband likes rock, Gary Sebelius.doc but he's a federal magistrate, so how wild is he going to get?

If there is a provocateur gene in the family, it may have gone to son John, who caused a stir last year when he began marketing "Don't Drop the Soap", a prison board game he created, out of the governor's mansion.

By Andrew Zajac

Chicago's Northern Trust Corp. now under fire for excessive merrymaking after collecting federal TARP money, earlier was under scrutiny for the favorable mortgage terms it granted to now-President Barack Obama when he bought his Hyde Park personal residence in 2005.

When they bought the $1.65 million property, the Obamas took out a $1.32 million mortgage for 5.67 percent.

At the time, jumbo mortgages in the Chicago area averaged 5.93 to 6 percent, according a Washington Post story detailing the transaction.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission alleging that the mortgage rate amounted to an illegal corporate campaign contribution by Northern Trust.

by James Oliphant

ABC's Brian Ross has gotten a hold of a campaign ad that Sen. John McCain refused to air that involves the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President-elect Barack Obama's former pastor. As McCain's prospects turned increasingly bleak prior to the election, many in the GOP were clamoring that such a weapon be deployed. It apparently got off the drawing board.

by Laura Olson

A majority of American women voted for President-elect Barack Obama, but that doesn't mean they liked how the female candidates were treated during the 2008 campaign.

Women surveyed in a poll released this morning by Lifetime Networks as a part of its "Every Woman Counts" campaign said they feel coverage of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was too negative and focused excessively on her looks and wardrobe.

That goes for coverage of her female counterpart on the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton, as well.

"It was a post-gender election in terms of women looking beyond their gender as voters, but not in how women believe that male and female candidates were treated differently," said pollster Kellyanne Conway of WomanTrend.

Pollsters from Lake Research Partners and WomanTrend, a division of the polling company, inc., spoke with 600 women across the U.S. between November 21 and 24, asking about the impact of the recent economic downturn as well as their impressions of the presidential election.

by William Neikirk

The time has come to take another look at the 20th amendment to the U.S. constitution that established Jan. 20 as the date for newly elected presidents to take office.

President-elect Barack Obama is having to wait more than two months before taking charge as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression rages. He has said little while a lame-duck president and divided Congress try to cope.

With businesses failing and jobs declining while economic gloom spreads, the country feels absolutely leaderless. Divisions are deep over helping the auto industry and preventing foreclosures. Each piece of bad news builds on another and leads to fears of a devastating deflation.

With deep stock market plunges, a sense of urgency exists. Yet there can be no new president for another two months, a man by the way who won the election because of his stands on the economic issue.

by Frank James

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, raises an important question about the possibility that President-elect Barack Obama could name Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state.

Friedman questions whether the relationship between Obama and Clinton can become so close that Clinton would be viewed by foreign leaders as speaking for Obama, of having his full backing, when she enunciates policy, or if there would always be some doubt about that.

My question is whether a President Obama and a Secretary of State Clinton, given all that has gone down between them and their staffs, can have that kind of relationship, particularly with Mrs. Clinton always thinking four to eight years ahead, and the possibility that she may run again for the presidency. I just don't know.

When it comes to appointing a secretary of state, you do not want a team of rivals.

That's the rub. To be effective, a secretary of state can't be thought to be freelancing or have an agenda other than that of the president's. If nothing else, it prevents confusion and the kind of misunderstanding that can literally prove deadly to someone.

A successful secretary of state almost needs to be a president's alter ego or right hand, as James Baker was to the first President Bush or Madeleine Albright was to President Bill Clinton, knowing what the president wants to accomplish and doing it. Because of the decline in U.S. standing abroad and the challenges of terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan, among others, there's little margin for error or infighting.

Is it possible for Clinton to be throw herself completely into the task of making Obama's foreign policy a success is the key question before Obama right now in these days before he makes his choice for the State Department officially known.

by Jason George

The Illinois ball for president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration might be Washington D.C.'s hottest ticket, but the event's headliners aren't exactly Kanye, The Boss or any of those A-list entertainers who've endorsed Obama.

In fact, wedding singers, corporate-events crooners and bar mitzvah bands make up the list of the musicians scheduled to perform at the Illinois State Society's Jan. 19 Inaugural Gala, according to a partial list obtained by the Tribune.

Planners say they are still hoping to hire a handful more professional acts, who will also be joined by two high school choirs.

Of course, it's not the musical entertainment that's making the D.C. event so popular but the assumption that Obama will keep with inaugural tradition and hit his home state's party. In 2001 and 2005, Texas' "Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball" reigned as the not-miss affair because of Pres. George W. Bush's Lone Star connections. In 2005, headliners at that ball included Asleep at the Wheel, Lyle Lovett and Clay Walker.

by Jason George

Mike Huckabee's new book about the 2008 primary race is titled "Do the Right Thing," although the 'right thing' might have been to name the book, "Mitt Romney is a Big Fat Spender."

Romney's expensive media consultants?
His 40 rented golf carts at the Iowa Straw Poll?
The fact that he spent multi-millions to lose the nomination?

All that perceived profligacy and ineptitude appears to delight Huckabee to no end and few pages in the book pass without a mention of 'ol Mitt's mistakes.
In fact, Romney appears more in "Do the Right Thing" than any person except Huckabee himself, according to the book's own index, and about 99.9 percent of Romney's appearances ain't pretty, of course.

For literary benefit, all this focus on big-bad Romney allows the former Arkansas governor to somewhat accurately paint the 2008 race as a financial David vs. Goliath affair. (It's 'somewhat' because Romney's and Giuliani's well-funded losses, obviously, did not translate into a Huckabee nomination.) But it's within this prism of the campaign inequalities, that Huckabee's 2007 ascent from obscurity to winning eight state contests seems even more remarkable than it did when it actually occurred last winter.
Certainly, Huckabee's wins remain a great story of campaign grit, gab and Chuck Norris.
(Norris first appears in DRT on Page 3.)

Saying all that though, the fact that Huckabee's distaste for Romney appears so often in "Do the Right Thing," probably has less to do this year's campaign than one four years from now...

by Mark Silva

The view from Sarah Palin's kitchen: She would have been happy to speak out for herself more during the presidential campaign.

President-elect Barack Obama did "a great job'' of speaking for himself, the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee said in an interview with Matt Lauer of NBC's Today Show that ranged from the governor's office in Alaska to the kitchen at home where Palin was whipping up a meal for her family.

"He did a great job of articulating his ability to usher in change,'' said Palin, maintaining that she had no rift with the senior senator from Arizona at the top of the ticket. "Sen. McCain and I had a great relationship'' and it remains "very warm and friendly.''

Lauer went to great lengths in this interview to ferret out why people within the McCain-Palin campaign appear so intent on dragging Palin down, but didn't get much in the way of answers. And that includes the stories about the money spent dressing Palin.

"I'm flabbergasted,'' Palin said, that people think she ordered any fancy clothes for herself. "When I arrived at the Republican National Convention, there were stylists there, there were wardrobes.... What is patently false is that I ever asked anyone at the convention to go out and buy anything for me.''

by Frank James

Being that it's Armistice Day, it seems like perfect timing for Politico's piece on the complicated, uneasy truce between the Obamas and their team and the Clintons and their people. Definitely a clash of personalities between the worlds of No-Drama Obama and All-Drama Bubba and Hillary.

A lot of it comes down to money which, as we all know, has ruined many a good relationship. Evidently, the Clinton people would like to see a lot more help from Obama in retiring the huge campaign debt she ran up trying to destroy Obama.

As Politico reports:

These tensions have created a somewhat schizoid relationship between Clinton and the Obamas - warm on personal matters, warier on political ones, and downright frosty on the still-unresolved issue of Clinton's mountainous campaign debt, which Barack Obama had pledged to help reduce.

Since the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton headlined about three dozen rallies and fundraisers - working rope-lines where well-wishers often lamented her exit from the race.

by Frank James

Good luck getting a ticket to President-elect Obama's inaugural. The demand for them is extraordinary, with some would-be profiteers asking as much as $40,000 for tickets that won't be available until January.

Reports that some people are trying to gain a big payday by selling tickets congressional offices will be giving away, has drawn the attention of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The California Democrat plans to submit legislation that would make such opportunism illegal.

An excerot from The Hill newspaper:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is drafting legislation that would make it illegal to sell tickets to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony.

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin didn't ask for the clothes.

Sarah Palin knows Africa is a continent.

Sarah Palin, the first-term governor of Alaska and losing Republican nominee for vice president, says so, in an interview with FOX News Channel's Greta Van Susteren airing tonight at 10 pm EST.

In FOX's On the Record, taped in Alaska, Palin attempts to refute stories that disgruntled members of the McCain-Palin campaign have been spreading about she and her family going on a shopping spree for the $150,000 in clothing that the Republican National Committee bought for them, or the contention that she didn't know from countries when it came to Africa and the nations that are parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"I did not order the clothes,'' Palin tells Van Susteren. "Did not ask for the clothes...

"And never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is (Africa) a country or is it a continent.''

Asked about the election, Palin says, "At the end of the day, American voters spoke.'' Asked about her own intentions for 2012: "I can't predict what's going to happen a day from now, much less four years from now.''

In an extensive interview, Palin discusses this and more, with some excerpts here, courtesy of FOX:

Iraqi municipal workers begin the task of clearing up the debris of several restaurants following a twin bombing when a car first detonated in the Sunni district of Adhamiyah in Baghdad, followed by a suicide bomber on November 10, 2008. (Photo credit should read KHALIL AL-MURSHIDI/AFP/Getty Images)

Today's bombings in Iraq which left dozens dead is a stark and horrible reminder that, while violence has dropped significantly there as a result of the U.S. military's surge, that country is still very dangerous.

It's a measure of progress that today's blasts, which killed at least 31 people in Baghdad and more elsewhere, according to the Associated Press, represented the worst day of violence since June. Less than two years ago such a time gap in major attacks was unheard of.

But it's also true that the continuing violence indicates how difficult the challenge will be for President-elect Barack Obama.

He has promised to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by early 2010. But if removing U.S. forces were to result in increased violence and instability, that decision could result in criticism from not just Republicans who would say "I told you so" but foreign allies too, especially those in the region who would face the greatest risk from an increasingly unstable Iraq.

By Jim Tankersley

Forget "hope" and "change" and "yes we can." The word that will matter most, when Barack Obama assumes the Oval Office, is "doable."

Teary-eyed jubilation is giving way to clear-eyed realism. As his campaign rhetoric runs into governing reality, Obama will have to contend with a set of political and practical restrictions that are perhaps more daunting than any faced by an incoming president since Franklin Roosevelt took over amid the Great Depression. And he will have to tailor his early policy agenda accordingly.

Obama is set to inherit a plunging economy, ongoing wars and a massive federal deficit coupled with a long national wish list. His party owns large House and Senate majorities, but the numbers hide major disagreements over priorities. He will be pulled by core Democratic groups who have waited years to advance their interests, by the weight of his campaign promises and by the expectations of a beleaguered electorate.

So what can he do? With those constraints and history in mind, politicians and policy experts suggest several domestic and foreign initiatives, costing relatively modest amounts by today's spending standards, many of them tinged in green. Read on for their full list, from today's Chicago Tribune.

by Mark Silva

President-elect Barack Obama's closest campaign advisers suggest that one of their successes was not becoming obsessed with any question of race, CBS News' 60 Minutes will report Sunday evening.

"Not getting obsessed about Barack Obama's race was one of the secrets'' of a campaign that will deliver the first African American president to the White House, aides tell CBS's Steve Kroft. The president-elect's four top campaign aides, political advisors David Axelrod and Anita Dunn, Campaign Manager David Plouffe and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, spoke with Kroft on election night for 60 Minutes this weekend.

Answering Kroft's question about whether race was a part of planning the campaign, Plouffe replies, "No, honestly, you had to take a leap of faith in the beginning that the people will get by race. And I think the number of meetings we had about race was zero.''

Axelrod tells Kroft: "The only time we got involved in a discussion of race was when people asked us about it. It was a fascination of the news media...the political community. But internally, it was not an obsession of ours."

The only time that Obama's race became a campaign issue for them was when the media began playing video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, excoriating America's treatment of blacks from his pulpit, they say

"That was a terrible weekend," Dunn remembers. "The excerpts were endlessly looped on television." Then, said Axelrod, "[Obama] said 'I'm going to make a speech about race and talk about Jeremiah Wright and the perspective of the larger issue...And either the people will accept it or I won't be president.''

"There wasn't discussion [on whether he should make a racial speech]," remembers Gibbs. And it's a good thing, says Dunn: "If there had been a discussion, we've often joked, probably most of the people in the campaign would have advised against it,.

Yet the speech was crucial, Plouffe believes: "It was a moment of real leadership. I think when he gave that race speech in Philadelphia, people saw a president...out of the ashes really, he rose as the candidate.''

by Frank James

Curtis Gans, one of the nation's leading voter turnout experts and director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, says Americans didn't vote in the numbers that had been expected for this general election.

Indeed, he says this years turnout as a proportion of eligible voters may have only matched 2004 or slightly exceeded what was seen four years ago.

While Democrats were energized and turned out in larger numbers, the fall off in Republican turnout probably accounts for why turnout this year wasn't as spectacular as experts had forecast before Election Day.

Here's an excerpt from CSAE's report.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 6, 2008)--Despite lofty predictions by some academics, pundits, and practitioners that voter turnout would reach levels not seen since the turn of the last century, the percentage of eligible citizens casting ballots in the 2008 presidential election stayed at virtually the same relatively high level as it reached in the polarized election of 2004.

by John McCormick

Robert Gibbs, a top Barack Obama aide since 2004, is in discussions to be White House press secretary.

A top transition source says there has not yet been a formal offer or acceptance.

The position is considered one of the highest profile of any administration, routinely putting the person behind the podium on television screens worldwide.

by Frank James

One thing about being President-elect Obama is that you get a lot of advice, including potential to-do lists.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative agency, has just posted its list with supportive material on its website.

Here's GAO's list.

Many of the urgent policy concerns identified here are critical and time sensitive and require prioritized federal action. They include

rebuilding military readiness.

by Frank James

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the intense, profane yet quite personable Illinois congressman who normally is the one putting the pressure on, is now in the vise himself, with President-elect Obama asking him to be White House chief of staff.

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that when a president or president-elect asks you to take a key job in his administration, you don't say "no."

In this case, the pressure on Emanuel is even higher since he and President-elect Barack Obama are friends and top members of Chicago's tight-knit political aristocracy.

Let's say Emanuel were to politely refuse and Obama's second choice wound up making critical mistakes in a presidency that won't have much room for them.

Maybe Mayor Richard Daley would allow Emanuel to return to Chicago. Maybe. But the congressman would be well advised to not so much as double-park.

by Frank James

The autopsies of Sen. John McCain's failed presidential bid continue to roll in.

This morning, National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" aired an interview with John Weaver, a former McCain strategist who left the campaign last year when the Republican presidential nominee's campaign first imploded during the primaries.

Among the McCain campaign's mistakes, according to Weaver, was its failure to realize this year's contest wasn't a 'base election" like 2004 when President Bush won by energizing core Republican voters and increasing their turnout.

The Rovians in the Bush campaign basically were fighting the last war.

Another mistake, Weaver said, was that the McCain campaign waited too long to define President-elect Obama. By the time they got around to it, it was too late. Obama had already defined himself.

by Frank James

Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, warned early on Election Day that figuring out just how many of the eligible voters went to the polls wouldn't be simple since there are different ways to count the overall voting-age population.

And so in the wee hours Wednesday morning the Associated Press produced a story that gave us widely divergent voter participation comparisons based on the estimated number if voters who voted in this year's general election which ranged from 134 million to 135.6 million.

According to one estimate, voter turnout may have been the highest since 1908. But another estimate suggests the proper comparison was not to 100 years ago but to 44 years ago.

by Mark Silva

It wasn't only a big voter-turnout that drove Tuesday's election.

Tuesday night's election results drove a big viewer-turnout.

71.4 million people tuned into election coverage between 8 and 11 pm EST, according to Nielsen.

41.5 percent of all households.

This compares to 59.2 million in 2004 and 61.6 million in 2000.

by Mark Silva

Democrat Barack Obama won the White House "on the strength of a substantial electoral shift toward the Democratic Party and by winning a number of key groups in the middle of the electorate,'' the Pew Research Center reports today, based on exit polling.

Overall, 39 percent of those who voted were Democrats, 32 percent Republicans - "a dramatic shift from 2004 when the electorate was evenly divided.''

"Barack Obama gained the support of more voters in the ideological "middle" than did either John Kerry or Al Gore before him. He won at least half the votes of independents (52 percent vs. 49 percent for Kerry), suburban voters (50 percent vs. 47 percent for Kerry), Catholics (54 percent vs. 47 percent for Kerry), and other key swing groups in the electorate.
"Without a doubt,'' Pew adds, " the overwhelming backing of younger voters was a critical factor in Obama's victory, according to an analysis of National Election Pool exit polls.... Obama drew two-thirds (66 perecent) of the vote among those younger than age 30.

"Obama drew two-thirds (66 percent) of the Hispanic vote, a 13-point improvement over Democratic Sen. John Kerry's support in 2004. Obama also gained seven points among African American voters (95 percent vs. 88 percent for Kerry), and managed to slightly improve on Kerry's share of the white vote (43 percent vs. 41percent for Kerry).''

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin, the temporary sensation of the 2008 presidential campaign, was asked today what impact she might have had on the Republican Party's loss and what designs she might have on 2012.

Palin, the Alaska governor who served as John McCain's running mate, started the campaign in August as an instant celebrity among her party's most conservative base.

But by the end of the contest, she had become a cause of concern among a majority of all voters surveyed who believed she was unprepared for the presidency, should duty call.

"Well, you know, I don't think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit that I would trump an economic, woeful time in this nation that occurred about two months ago -- that my presence on the ticket would trump the economic crisis that America found itself in a couple of months ago and attribute John McCain's loss to me,'' Palin told CNN's Dana Bash in an Arizona hotel-lobby interview aired today.

"But now having said that, if I cost John McCain even one vote, I am sorry about that because John McCain, I believe, is the American hero,'' Palin said. "I had believed that it was his time. He being so full of courage and wisdom and experience. That valor that he just embodies. I believe he would have been the best pick. But that is not the Americans' choice at this time.''

Asked if she might consider a run in 2012, Palin said: "Well, you know, right now, I cannot even imagine running for national office in 2012.

"And I say that, though, of course, coming on the heels of an outcome that I certainly did not anticipate and had not hoped for. But this being a chapter now that is closed and realizing that it is a time to unite and all Americans need to get together and help with this new administration being ushered in. Policies that have got to help this nation to keep us secure. I mean it is a time for all of us to work together...

"Having said that,'' Palin said, "2012 sounds so far off that can't even imagine what I'd be doing then.''

President-elect Barack Obama in Union, Mo., Wednesday, July 30, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

by Frank James

I haven't had a chance to read as much of the day-after election coverage as I would've liked since I was traveling from traditionally Blue Illinois to nouveau Blue Virginia.

But one anecdote that stuck out in all the coverage I pored over today was in the New York Times' story about how President-elect Obama's campaign team ran a near perfect effort to win.

It was in what journalists call the "kicker" of the story.

Evidently, in recent weeks, people in the Obama and McCain campaigns saw whites who had revealed some racial bias in their survey responses start to shift to Obama.

Here's the great kicker:

In Mississippi, Stuart Stevens, a longtime political strategist who had worked for both Mr. McCain and Mitt Romney in the primaries, was surveying polling data for a Republican client. He was picking up on an unexpected shift for Mr. Obama, even among white voters. As he put it in an interview: If a house is on fire, the owner does not care what color the fireman is.

by Mark Silva and updated with ''poll'' and photo gallery

CHICAGO -- The first puppy must be a rescue puppy:

Among all the demands of interest groups placed upon the next president of the United States, the demand for a rescue puppy -- make that "a homeless animal'' -- in the new White House may stand out among the demands on the Top Dog..

President-elect Barack Obama, who promised his two young daughters a puppy if he won the White House, announced at his acceptance speech last night that he will be making good on that promise.

But that doesn't mean breeders should be sending their calling cards. Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States, reminds the Obama family today that they previously have spoken of making that puppy a rescue puppy.

Now, that doesn't rule out AKC pedigrees -- many dogs of pure lineage end up at shelters. But it suggests that the first pooch may not look like Barney and Miss Beazley, the Bush family's little Scotties. Unless, of course, the local pound has a show-dog ready to go.

Pacelle says the first family's pick of a puppy will send "a real message of hope and change for all the dogs in shelters waiting for a loving home and those currently suffering in abusive puppy mills,,.

"Most presidents in recent times have had pets, and as the next president, Barack Obama can set a tremendous example for the rest of Americans by adopting a homeless animal. The Humane Society of the United States looks forward to working with President Obama and watching his children bond with the newest member of their family."

We already have a little survey going on what kind of puppy the president should pick, and also a photo gallery of presidential puppies..

by Mark Silva

CHICAGO -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson cried last night.

Jackson, who waged his own campaigns for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the 1980s, stood in Chicago's Grant Park with a quarter-million other cheering people to see Sen. Barack Obama on the night of his election as president. And he, like others, including retired Gen. Colin Powell, watching from afar, cried.

Jackson, asked about his tears in an interview aired by National Public Radio this morning, said: "Well, on the one hand, I saw President Barack Obama standing there looking so majestic. And I knew that people in the villages of Kenya and Haiti, and mansions and palaces in Europe and China, were all watching this young African-American male assume the leadership to take our nation out of a pit to a higher place.

"And then, I thought of who was not there,'' Jackson said on NPR News' Tell Me More. "As mentioned, Medgar Evers, the husband of Sister Myrlie. ...So the martyrs and murdered whose blood made last night possible. I could not help think that this was their night.

"And if I had one wish: if Medgar, or if Dr. King could have just been there for a second in time, would have made my heart rejoice. And so it was kind of duo-fold - his ascension into leadership and the price that was paid to get him there."

On his own role in the ongoing Civil Rights movement, Jackson had this to say: "Well, in some sense to play the role of conscience, to play the role of supporter.

"Dr. King fervently supported Kennedy over Nixon. We still had to march for a public accommodations bill. He supported President Johnson over Goldwater. We still had to march for the right to vote. Now when Mr. Barack Obama gets to Washington, there'll be competition for his attention. And so the Civil Rights Movement must make its presence felt. And the labor movement. And the women's movement."

(The Rev. Jesse Jackson reacts to projections that Sen. Barack Obama will be elected president during the Grant Park rally on election night. Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

(White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

by Mark Silva

Lately, whenever President Bush has stepped out into the Rose Garden to address the nation, the economic meltdown has been foremost on his mind and at the front of his lips.

But today, on the first day of that phenomenon that is President-elect Barack Obama, Bush stepped out to the garden to address the transition already underway - and also acknowledge the historical significance of Obama's election.

"All Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday,'' Bush said. "They showed a watching world the vitality of Americas democracy and the strides we have made toward a more perfect union.'' Obama's life story, and his election, are a testament to the fulfillment of the American story, he said.

"Many of our citizens thought they would never live to see that day,'' said Bush, not specifically citing the election of the first African-American president but alluding to it with his words - "especially uplifting for a generation that witnessed the struggle for civil rights with their own eyes.''

The early-retiring and early-rising president didn't get much sleep last night at the White House - he telephoned the Democratic winner at 11 pm EST, and as the election contest was called for Obama a massive crowd assembled in the park and street out front of the White House with people chanting: "Yes, we did.''

by Frank James

The Democrats made big gains in Congress last night though they didn't get to the 60 votes they needed to be able to get legislation or judicial nominations through the Senate without Republican cooperation.

At last count, they hold 56 seats, with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman getting 762 more votes in a tight-as-a-tick race in Minnesota. But there will be an automatic recount and the race may not be certified until December.

Here's an excerpt of an Associated Press report:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ Republican Norm Coleman outlasted Democrat Al Franken in one of Minnesota's tightest Senate elections ever, squeaking past the former comedian early Wednesday by a margin that appeared certain to trigger a recount.

The margin was well within a threshold set by state law for an automatic recount. If it holds up, Coleman would be among the fortunate Republicans who survived big gains by Democrats nationwide.

President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago's Grant Park on Election Night. (Chicago Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzio.)

by Frank James

It's the morning after one of the most memorable days in American history and we're still too close to it to have as much perspective as we would like.

President-elect Obama. It still seems unreal to many of us that the nation will have a president who is African-American come January 20.

But the realities of what Obama faces are daunting: an economy in recession, two wars, an existential terrorist threat, an energy crisis, global warming, belligerent nation states with leaders who will indeed test him, a deeply divided nation.

Obama knows many of the details of what he faces. But so much is unknowable.

We can only hope that he's the right leader for the moment because many Americans have the sense that we have to get the next four years mostly right or face the real prospect of becoming a superpower in the declining phase of its trajectory.

Your thoughts?

by Mark Silva

After months of self-imposed silence, the "washed up terrorist'' of the 2008 presidential campaign - John McCain's name for Chicago's Bill Ayers - has spoken out. He did so with our friend, Peter Slevin, Chicago-based correspondent for the Washington Post.

Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and onetime radical anti-war protester in the 1960s, said that the Republicans had turned him into "a cartoon character'' this year.

Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, had accused Democrat Barack Obama of "palin' around with terrorists'' for working on civic boards in Chicago with Ayers and attending a campaign reception at Ayers' home during Obama's first bid for the state legislature.

"Pal around together? What does that mean? Share a milkshake with two straws? "Ayers told the Post. "I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago. And, like millions and millions of others, I wish I knew him better."

by Frank James

When should a dead voter's vote count and when shouldn't it? The question arises because of the news today that the absentee vote cast by Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, will be counted in Hawaii.

The reflexive answer is that it should never count. How can someone who's no longer among the living have a vote that counts like a living voter's? That would seem to be a violation of the constitutional requirement of one person, one vote.

But Slate's Trailhead blog explains why a vote by Obama's deceased grandmother will be counted:

So why was Dunham's vote allowed to count? Hawaii Chief Elections Officer Kevin Cronin tells Trailhead that, when an absentee voter dies, the ballot is not removed until Hawaii's Department of Health issues an official list of the names of deceased persons to the city clerk's office, which will not happen until later this month. Unlike Steen, who passed away several weeks prior to the election, the two-day turnaround in Dunham's case creates "a practical administrative problem," Cronin says, in fishing out her ballot out from among the tens of thousands of absentee ballots in Honolulu--even if her death had been officially reported by the Department of Health.

by Mark Silva

CHICAGO - "When the polls close, the journey ends,'' Sen. Barack Obama said today of the long presidential campaign's close, as he boarded a campaign plane home to Chicago to watch historic election returns.

But for one of these candidates, Obama or Sen. John McCain, the journey is just beginning. An intensive transition will get underway, and the 44th president will be inaugurated on Jan. 20 at a time of likely recession at home and protracted wars abroad.

The expectations surrounding the next president could be difficult for any one leader to meet.

Yet, after 21 months, in Obama's case, something indeed was ending today - and reporters could see it on Obama's face as he boarded his campaign plane in Springfield, Mo. (pictured here in photos by Emanuel Dumand of AFP Photo.)

For McCain, who formally launched his second campaign for the presidency last year - he fell short of the Republican Party's nomination in 2000 and finally claimed it in 2008 - another journey also was ending.

McCain, who had suffered the attacks of George W. Bush's successful campaign in 2000, waged his own high-flying assault against Obama in a campaign that pitted the relative experience of the two combatants against their visions for the nation. Yet in the end, McCain was able to joke about his own fortunes in a good-humored appearance on Saturday Night Live that also was evocative of a journey ending.

McCain staged his last campaign rally in Grand Junction, Colo., today (seen here shaking supporters hands, in a photo by Stephan Savoia of AP.)

He and wife Cindy shared a public, private moment there (captured in the picture by Robyn Beck of AFP / Getty Images.)

By Andrew Zajac

The Swamp offers this thought to cheer, or perhaps depress, students of the American political process now on the verge of a lull in the action after one of the longest presidential campaigns in U.S. history:

If John McCain wins, you're likely looking at a campaign to succeed him begin soon after he's sworn in, like maybe right after the dancing stops at the inaugural balls.

by James Oliphant

CHICAGO--Your correspondent is here, awaiting the results of today's presidential election.

Having lunch at a downtown Asian restaurant, I decided to see if the message inside the fortune cookie I received at the close of the meal offered any clue about the outcome tonight.

It read:

YOU WILL PASS A DIFFICULT TEST.

Make of that what you will.

by Frank James

There'll be a lot of memorable moments today, some of them captured on video.

Here's one. A Sen. Barack Obama's neighbors watched him arrive at the South Side Chicago school this morning to vote, an older white gentleman named Cliff Wilkerson marveled at what he was seeing, given that he grew up in Oklahoma in a sundown town, a place where blacks had better not be caught on the streets after sundown.

Meanwhile, Tamara Bennett, a middle-aged black woman, told Wilkerson she was sorry her mother and father didn't live to see today and never thought she would either to which Wilkerson said he was glad she did. And glad he did too. Just one of many moments that show America at its best.

Tom Krieglstein, 28, and Joe Musselman, 24, are first in line at Michigan Ave and Congress Pkwy, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. (Chicago Tribune photo by Michael Tercha.)

As many as a million people are expected at Grant Park tonight for what a lot of people expect will be a victory celebration.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is issuing about 75,000 tickets. Everyone else is going to have to line up and hope to get in.

People started lining up early, like Monday night. Chicago Tribune journalists found the two earliest birds, the Brothers Kreiglstein -- Tom, 28, and Dan, 29 from Chicago.

Here's a report from the Tribune's Breaking News Desk.

by Jason George

WASILLA, Alaska -- Stopping for a coffee at the Mocha Moose, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told reporters she's not sure if she'll have a role in national politics if she and Sen. John McCain don't win today's election.

"You know if there is a role in national politics, it won't be so much partisan," she said, 15 minutes after voting at the Wasilla City Hall where she once served as mayor.

"My efforts have always been here in the state of Alaska to get everybody to unite and work together," she added. "It certainly would a uniter type of roll"

Asked if she had any regrets in this campaign, Palin first said wished she had "more hours in the day so we could've gotten around to more areas of our country." She then seemed to find her preferred answer: blaming the media.

Palin said she was disappointed with much of the reporting about her.

"The state of journalism today, the world, for the blogosphere, the 2-3-hour news cycles, where just too much is reported based on gossip and innuendo and things taken out of context," she said.

She then suggested that her next role might be righting the wrongs she sees in journalism.

"I'd like to help in that effort also because I have great respect for the world for journalism."

She then said no more questions and left.

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin may not have been saying who she was voting for today -- a privacy thing, perhaps.

But John McCain's body language in Phoenix today made his own vote pretty clear.

McCain will join Palin for a final campaign tour today.

by Rick Pearson

Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain were getting an 11th-hour pitch to call Colorado households on his behalf.

An e-mail to supporters contained the names and phone numbers of 10 Colorado voters, along with a script to make the sales pitch.

Polls have shown Colorado leaning toward Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Denver is where Obama accepted the Democratic nomination.

"Today is Election Day, and John McCain is the only candidate with the experience we can trust to bring real change to Washington and get our economy back on track," the Arizona Republican's supporters are supposed to say.

"The race is shaping up to be extremely close, and your vote will make a difference. Can we count on your vote?"

by Frank James

Citing her right to privacy, Gov. Sarah Palin refused to say who she voted for after emerging from her polling place in Wasilla, Alaska.

That's right, she wouldn't say she voted for her own presidential ticket. We assume she did, but she stood on principle and wouldn't say. She did say the secret ballot is one of the "cool" things about the U.S.

Agreed.

by James Oliphant

The Chicago Tribune's sister pub, RedEye, has compiled a list of words we will all be glad to see fade from scene once this campaign has ended.

They include, as you might guess:

"Maverick"
"Game-changer"
"Hockey Mom"

Here's a link to the rest.

by Mark Silva

CHICAGO -- One year ago today, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York was the widely favored Democratic candidate for president.

Today, at Griffin Elementary school in Chappaqua, N.Y., Clinton cast her presidential ballot for Sen. Barack Obama of Chicago, who voted in his Hyde Park neighborhood, not far from Park Ridge, where Clinton was born.

The former first lady's long pursuit of the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination ended in June, following a hard-fought contest with Obama. Clinton, voicing optimism about the next few years ahead, insisted today that she felt no regrets in her vote. Indeed, she said, she has appeared at some 75 events to promote the candidacy of the junior senator from Illinois.

"It is a very humbling and overwhelming experience to cast my vote,'' Clinton said, after leaving her polling place. "It's a really extraordinary day. It's a great tribute to our country.''

by Mark Silva

The outcome of today's election matters more than elections in the past, most voters say. And somewhat more of them are saying that this year than have said so in the recent past.

The Gallup Poll has found that 74 percent of those surveyed say this one matters more than previous elections. Fewer than half of those surveyed had said that about the 1996 or 2000 elections.

"Gallup has found an extraordinarily high level of interest in the election throughout this year, and its data also suggest turnout will exceed what it was in 2004,'' Gallup's Jeff Jones reports.

"Democrats (80 percent) are slightly more likely than Republicans (74 percent) to attribute greater importance to the 2008 election outcome. That is a similar pattern to what Gallup showed for the 2004 election.''

Voter concern is "further underscored'' by the fact that 92 percent of registered voters surveyed agree with the statement: 'The stakes in this presidential election are higher than in previous years,' including 76 percent who strongly agree.''

Fifty-four percent of voters surveyed say they are "afraid of what will happen if [their] candidate for president does not win." Another 22 percent agree somewhat. This matches what Gallup found in the 2004 election.

"It would appear that U.S. voters as a whole view the outcome of presidential elections as more consequential than they did in the recent past,'' Jones concludes. "This has fueled a surge in turnout in the 2004 election, which is likely to be repeated again this Election Day.

The survey of 957 registered voters was run Oct. 23-26, and carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

by Frank James

Pollster.com has one of the best websites for tracking polls and allocating states on the Electoral College map using the best available information.

Their Election Day map shows Sen. Barack Obama with 291 electoral votes (270 is the magic number) based on the most recent polls with Sen. John McCain at 142. Toss-up states number 105.

Obviously, even giving McCain all the toss-ups doesn't get him to 270. Just as obviously, EVs are allocated on real votes, not polls.

Among the most important changes to the Pollster.com map was Ohio, a state President Bush won in 2004, being moved to the "toss-up" category from "leans Obama" although Mark Blumenthal, the main analysts for the site says he thinks Ohio is still leaning Obama.

Also, because of the latest polling, Colorado, which Bush also won in 2004, is now seen as solid for Obama.

by Mark Silva and updated.

CHICAGO -- We think we know how this voter voted today.

The morning vote of Barack Obama in his Southside Chicago neighborhood capped a campaign that started 21 months ago for the junior senator from Illinois.

After a final round of Election Day campaigning, Obama planned a pick-up game of basketball with some friends today.

Someone else showed up at Obama's polling place this morning, too: Bill Ayers, the University of Illinois at Chicago education professor, former radical war protester from the Sixties and associate of Obama's on civic boards whom the McCain campaign attempted to make a central figure in the election contest. Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, had accused Obama of "palin' around with terrorists.''

A pool reporter at the polling place called out: "Mr. Ayers, who did you vote for?" Ayers turned around, but did not reply.

Obama arrived at the Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School polling location (precinct 24, ward 4) at 7:36 am CST, just minutes after Ayers had departed. Wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia accompanied him.

When Obama cast his ballot, he announced to the few dozen onlookers snapping photos with their camera phones, "I voted."

The crowd let out a big cheer.

Tonight, he would join an expected crowd of some 70,000 inside the fenced perimeter of his election night rally in Grant Park. But the city was girding for as many as one million people assembling along the Lake Michigan shoreline for an expected celebration.

(Photo of Michelle and Barack Obama voting by Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune.. Photo of Obama by Jae Hong / AP)

by Frank James

If you're the Obama campaign and want to get the highest turnout possible today, especially among first-time or infrequent voters, you have to be somewhat concerned about the precipitation expected or already falling in some key places, including Virginia, North Carolina and eastern Pennsylvania where Philadelphia is.

That's one reason there was such a push for early voting in the states that allow it.

Weather should not be a factor, however, in much of the rest of the country, especially the battleground states of the Midwest like Missouri, Indiana or Ohio.

A line of voters stretches around the corner as the polls open Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008 in Surfside, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

by Frank James

Election Day is finally here! And what a most historic one at that. The nation will either elect its first African-American president or its first woman vice president. Most of the reputable polls in recent days suggest it will be the former.

We had expected long lines at polling places and those expectations are being met judging by reports we are seeing from the East Coast and southern states already open.

Besides whether the next president will be Barack Obama or John McCain by the end of the day (we hope), we should also know whether the Democrats will fully control Congress, with a Senate majority large enough -- 60 seats -- to allow them to pass legislation and approve judicial nominations over the objections of Senate Republicans.

An exciting day. An historic day. There are moments that are milestones; this is one of those times.

Make sure you get out to vote if you haven't already. That is a right too many Americans have fought, bled and died for on foreign shores as well as our own, for it to be taken lightly.

by Mark Silva

The first votes of the long-awaited 2008 presidential election have been counted, from the first Election Day polls to open. In Dixville Notch, N.H.

It's Barack Obama 15, John McCain 6.

We guarantee you: That margin will narrow today, with polls now open in half the states. The outcome, which candidate comes out with more popular votes today -- and most importantly, the electoral college majority of 270 -- will take a while to glean tonight.

The vote caps a historic presidential campaign more than two years in the running and the costliest ever. It will conclude with either the election of the first African-American in a nation once riven by slavery and long plagued by racial strife, or with the election of the first female vice president in a nation where women won the right to vote only 88 years ago. Either way, the outcome of the 2008 presidential election would inspire people long denied a place in the national political arena.

It could end with the election of the oldest man ever to win a first term as president: John Sidney McCain III, 72, the senior senator from Arizona, who served a full career in the U.S. Navy - including five-and-a-half years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam - before beginning a congressional career that has spanned another quarter century. He is older than Ronald Reagan, then 69, was at his first election.

Or it could end with the selection of one of the youngest American presidents ever - only John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton were younger at election. Barack Hussein Obama II, 47, the junior senator from Illinois, has served less than four years in the Senate and served eight years as a state legislator before that.

But it is much more than age that divides Obama and McCain.

by Mark Silva

The Bradley effect? A problem or urban myth?

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked Democrat Barack Obama the question that many are asking about all those opinion polls which portray an advantage for the first African-American candidate for president. Pre-election polls showed that another African-American, former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, was favored in a 1982 California governor's race, only to lose the race.

(The so-called "Bradley effect'' of voters not leveling with pollsters about an African-American candidate has been disputed by many, including The Gallup Poll's Frank Newport -- suggesting that Bradley's own pollster invented a myth as a means of covering the tracks of his own bad polling. Others suggest that Obama may overcome any such reak factor with an extraordinary turnout of African-American voters.)

"There's been a debate about the Bradley effect, which as you know, in essence is when some respondents lie to pollsters and say "Sure, we'd vote for an African American candidate but on Election Day they just don't do it,'' Couric told Obama, in an interview conducted in Ohio and aired this evening. "A lot of people say it's a phenomenon that's outdated, overstated - and misunderstood. Having said that, do you think we'll see evidence of that on Election Day?''

"You know, I have to tell you, I'm in the camp that says it's outdated and overstated,'' Obama replied. "I mean, the fact of the matter is that people have been worrying and fussing about whether or not I'm hampered because I'm an African American since we were campaigning in Iowa.

"The reason I'm sitting here two days before the election as the Democratic nominee is because the American people ultimately care about whether or not you can do the job.''

by James Oliphant

Remember almost two weeks ago when Sarah Palin said she would release her medical records?

It still hasn't happened.

Early last week, a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign, Tracey Schmitt, said the campaign was working on it and it would be done "sooner rather than later." But since then, nothing.

Palin remains the only candidate on either the Democratic or Republican ticket who has released no personal health information, although critics have maintained that none of the four candidates have provided enough detail.

So, what's the hold up? Palin herself suggested that there was no there there.

"So be it, if that will allow some curiosity seekers, perhaps, to have one more thing that they can either check the box off that they can find something to criticize, perhaps, or find something to rest them assured over," she told NBC's Brian Williams. "Fine. I'm healthy, I'm happy, had five kids. That is going to be in the medical records. Never been seriously ill or hurt. You will see that in the medical records if they're released."

The operative word in that sentence now seems to be "if."

by James Janega

Seeking to squelch persistent rumors that Sen. Barack Obama isn't eligible to become president because he allegedly was born outside the United States, a Hawaiian official has confirmed she has "personally seen and verified" that the state "has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate" - meaning Obama was born in the Aloha state, and is therefore an American citizen.

"There have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's official birth certificate. State law (Hawai'i Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record," reads an Oct. 31 statement from Hawaii's Dr. Chiyome Fukino, who heads the Hawaii office that oversees health records -- including birth certificates.

"Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai'i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai'i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures," Fukino said in the three paragraph statement.

"No state official, including Governor Linda Lingle, has ever instructed that this vital record be handled in a manner different from any other vital record in the possession of the State of Hawai'i," the statement concludes.

Does this mean Obama was born in Hawaii?

"Yes," said Hawaii Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo, in both email and telephone interviews with the Tribune. "That's what Dr. Fukino is saying."

by Mark Silva and James Janega

It seems they have broken into song at Obama headquarters.

They are not sounding like Miserables over there, either.

The production is worth the click.

by Mark Silva

Most people are enthusiastic about the choices they face for the next president, but among supporters of Democrat Barack Obama, excitement is running at about twice the rate of enthusiasm for Republican John McCain's presidency.

These are among the findings of Marist Poll of voters nationally, released on the eve of a historic presidential election .

81 percent of those voters backing Obama are enthused about their vote, the survey found, compared with 37 percent of McCain's backers.

With 72 percent of the voters surveyed expecting lone lines at their polling place, 41 percent say they will stay as long as it takes to cast a ballot - including 48 percent of Obama's backers, 39 percent of McCain's. 38 percent are concerned about many people being told they are ineligible to vote - including 48 percent of Obama's backers, and 26 percent of McCain's.

The survey of 716 voters was conducted Oct. 29 and has a possible four percentage point margin of error.

by Jason George

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Hank Williams Jr. hit the high notes for the McCain-Palin ticket today, appearing here at a rally with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Williams performed the "National Anthem" and then segued right into "McCain - Palin Tradition," a song he wrote earlier this month that uses the melody from his '70s hit, "Family Tradition." Here's the first verse:

The left wing liberal media have
Always been a real close knit family
But, most of the American People
Don't believe em anyway ya see

Country music is pretty prevalent in Palin's recent events. She walked on stage today to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" and she campaigned all Sunday with Gretchen "Redneck Woman" Wilson.

(Photo of Sarah Palin by Charlie Riedel / AP)

by Mark Silva

In the end, a campaign is a family affair.

If the pursuit of the highest office in the land will not inexorably alter the family life of the candidate who wins it, the campaign will certainly consume it.

John McCain, senior senator from Arizona, has had the company and moral support of his wife Cindy on the campaign trail. She even performed a good-humored Vanna White-like cameo role on Saturday Night Live for the Republican nominee over the weekend, displaying his mock QVC line of McCain "Fine Gold."

Since the couple were married in 1980 - his second marriage - the former Cindy Hensley has supported the political career of the former Navy flier and prisoner of war in every way possible: Helping him finance his first campaign for Congress in 1982, helping him get a house in the district where he wanted to run and then raising their children in Phoenix while the congressman and then senator plugged away for nearly 26 years.

She was the 24-year-old daughter of a wealthy beer distributor when they met. He was 18 years her senior, a Navy captain. Both lied about their ages at their meeting in Hawaii. They have had three children together and adopted a fourth. All but the youngest sons and daughters of McCain's seven total, the adopted Bridget, a teenager, are adults now. For the McCain's the White House would largely be an adult affair.

Barack and Michelle Obama, on the other hand, are the parents of two young girls. He has often campaigned without the company of his family.

Not since John Kennedy occupied the White House has the nation focused on a first family that included two picture-perfect young children. Barack Obama, junior senator from Illinois, has largely shielded his children from the glare of the campaign - cringing when interviewers elicited regretted personal information for a celebrity TV show, and turning guard-dog protective when press photographers got too close to last week's father-daughter Trick-or-Treating.

But in the White House, the Obamas would inevitably present a family tableau unseen for many years, an irresistible source of scrutiny for a nation already hosting a historic inheritor of the Oval Office, the first African-American president in a nation once riven by slavery and only lately providing legal protection for the voting rights of minorities.

For the Obama's, the White House would largely be a family affair, a family that they would be sharing, as much as they attempted to shield it, with a nation.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), wife Michelle and children Malia and Sasha arriving in Cleveland for a rally with balladeer Bruce Springsteen on Sunday. (Chicago Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak)

by Frank James

The Associated Press has a little news segment on the difficult state of affairs President Bush leaves his successor to deal with.

We all know the litany by now: the ailing economy and financial markets, Iraq, Afghanistan, global warming and so on.

The video includes a snippet of what looks to be a Bush press conference in the White House East Room in which he says his view of his job was "to confront problems, to not pass them on to future Congresses. Or a future president."

Obviously the president missed the mark on that goal.

The video led me to think. did Bush accomplish anything that could be viewed as helpful to his successor?

by Frank James

Adam Smith, the political editor for the St. Petersburg Times, was at a Sen. John McCain rally this morning in Tampa which he said was very poorly attended compared with a rally for President Bush four years ago.

"Maybe it's because it's Monday," he said on the Diane Rheem public-radio show this morning on his cell phone from the rally site. He said the McCain rally had about a thousand people while the Bush rally four years ago had about 15,000 people.

He hastened to add that he's not saying it's predictive of what the vote in the Tampa Bay area will be tomorrow. But it could be indicate a lack of excitement on the Republican side that could eat into Republican turnout tomorrow. Here's a posting he had up before the rally's start.

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin, stumping in Lakewood, Ohio, this morning, introduced her husband, Todd - "the First Dude,'' the governor of Alaska called him - a "blue-collar'' commercial fisherman and oil-field worker, Steelworkers Union member and champion snowmobile racer.

"He knows a little something about racing and how to win,'' Palin said this morning, appearing in a bellwether state that has voted the way the United States has in most modern elections - and which has been a necessary part of every Republican's winning presidential formula.

In Ohio, Palin launched a full-throated assault on Obama's tax plans -- "socialism'' -- and a pitch for her energy development.

"We'll drill, baby, drill, and mine, baby, mine,'' she said. "You betcha, we will.''

She drew boos from the audience for her talk of Democratic rival Barack Obama's tax-talk. And she revived that Obama primary talk about "the bitterness'' of blue-collar voters -- noting that he had said that in San Francisco, and recently told a San Francisco newspaper about his reticence on coal mining. "Something about San Francisco'' with this candidate, said Palin, without filling in her suggestion.

"Sen. Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes. It's like he just can't help himself,'' she said. "It's ideological with him....

by Frank James

The highly regarded Ohio Poll sponsored by the University of Cincinnati predicts that Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, will win Ohio.

If Obama does beat Sen. John McCain in Ohio, it would represent a seismic shift in presidential politics since no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio.

President Bush relied on Ohio to deliver the votes that allowed him to defeat Sen. John Kerry in 2004 and give him a second term. If Obama wins Ohio, it's difficult to see McCain winning in enough other places to capture 270 Electoral College votes and it could point to an Electoral College landslide and a relatively early call of the presidential race tomorrow evening.

An excerpt from their press release:

Cincinnati, OH--The final Ohio Poll for the 2008 election season finds Senator Barack Obama likely towin Ohio's 20 electoral votes.

In 95 of 100 cases, the statewide estimates will be accurate to plus or minus 2.7 percent.

by Mark Silva

Sen. Barack Obama, in an interview with CBS News, says his aunt from Kenya living in the United States without legal residency will have to face the same consequences as any other undocumented immigrant.

CBS anchor Katie Couric asked the Democratic presidential nominee, in an excerpt of the interview aired on the CBS Evening News, "You have an aunt who's been living in this country apparently illegally... Would you support her being deported to Kenya?''

"If she is violating laws, those laws have to be obeyed,'' Obama said. "We're a nation of laws.

"Obviously that doesn't lessen my concern for her,'' he added. "I haven't been able to be in touch with her. But I'm a strong believer you have to obey the law.''

More of Obama's interview with Couric will air on The Early Show this morning and on a special one-hour edition of the CBS Evening News tonight.

by Jason George

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- At Gov. Sarah Palin's Sunday rallies, she's earned big responses by repeating the line that an independent organization has found that Sen. Barack Obama's proposed policies "would destroy 6 million jobs over the next decade."

A quick search though finds that the only thing destroyed is the truth in that statement.

The facts: The "independent organization" Palin cites is actually the Center for Data Analysis, which is part of The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank.

Further, the figure is what the Heritage Foundation believes would be the amount of potential jobs not created if Obama changes tax law (including repealing the Bush tax cuts.)

by Mark Jacob

After days of refusing to say when it would issue tickets for its Grant Park rally Tuesday night, the Obama campaign has begun informing the recipients via e-mail.

One applicant was told today he could expect delivery by e-mail from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday. Each ticket will admit the ticketholder and a guest.

Personalized for the recipient, the ticket is nontransferable. The ticketholder must bring a photo ID to the event

by Mark Silva

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- John McCain's campaign may have refrained from playing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright against Barack Obama in election campaign ads.

But that hasn't stopped an independent group, the National Republican Trust PAC, from airing anti-Obama campaign ads labeling the Democratic senator from Illinois as "too radical'' and "too risky,'' including this one featuring the most inflammatory words of the former pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago -- the pastor whose words Obama has repudiated, at the church which Obama attended for many years.

The Wright ad is airing in battleground states such as Virginia at the close of the campaign, as Obama attempts to close the deal with voters in states such as this Old South bastion that long have voted Republican. Virginia hasn't voted Democratic in presidential elections since 1963, for Lyndon Johnson, but Obama holds an apparent advantage in the state -- with some polls portraying a narrowing gap in the closing days.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, voiced confidence in Obama's chances in the key states of Virginia, Florida and Nevada -- as well as in Pennsylvania -- today, in an interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe.

The PAC, which has aired a series of harsh attack ads against Obama, bills itself as "an independent organization to help promote American values.''

It is "committed to continuing the legacy of Ronald Reagan,'' it says.

And fighting Obama.

by Mark Silva

WASHINGTON--The view from the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2009: A nation in recession, a runaway federal budget deficit, spiraling national debt, two costly and frustrating wars, and the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks still at large.

Oh, and nearly 50 million Americans lack health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid are eating a growing share of the federal pie, and Social Security's bankruptcy looms just beyond the horizon.

So why would anyone want this job?

It's not only today's enormous challenges that will confront the 44th president, but also the near-certainty that some still-unknown crisis will erupt in the next four years.

"It's really the most difficult transition since Abraham Lincoln, to be honest with you," said Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University and an expert in presidential transitions. "Lincoln, between the time he was elected and inaugurated, witnessed seven states secede from the union."

See the report on the challenges confronting the next president in today's Tribune, with added commentary here in the Swamp:

by Mark Silva

See Sen. John McCain, peddling QVC goods such as those commemorative "Town Hall Debate Plates," blank China for debates that never were.

See the line of "McCain Fine Gold,'' displayed by the real Cindy McCain.

See Sarah Palin's "Ayers-freshener,'' which makes the room smell not quite right, see McCain's own pork knives and see Palin's side-line of Palin 2012 T-shirts -- for, one way or the other, Tina Fey says, Palin is "not going back to Alaska.'' She either runs in 2012, or she becomes "the white Oprah.'' Either way, she's OK.

And see McCain's eleventh-hour strategies for victory, including "the reverse maverick'' and the "double maverick.''

McCain, who was the first sitting senator ever to appear on Saturday Night Live several years ago, became the last candidate for president in the 2008 contest to appear on the show before Eleciton Day, with SNL's election-eve edition Saturday night capping a season of ratings boosted by parodies of McCain's running mate.

So who better to get things going than McCain himself and Fey, who has all but patented that Sarah imPalination that made SNL must-see TV in the final weeks of the election campaign.

Guest host Ben Affleck, noting that his many years of endorsements of Democratic candidates had seemed to backfire on him, joked that he was, for the reverse psychological effect it might have, endorsing McCain this evening

"Good evening, my fellow Americans, I'm John McCain,'' the Republican nominee for president said.

"And, you know, I'm just Sarah Palin,'' said Fey.

See the rest of the script of the opener below, the video above, and see McCain's stint on SNL's Weekend News Update here in the Swamp:

by Frank James

Brian Moore knows socialists. Socialists are friends of his. And he says that Sen. Barack Obama is no socialist.

And Moore should know since he's the Socialist Party candidate for president.

Moore was on C-Span's Washington Journal program yesterday when he was asked by a caller whether Obama was a socialist, a political philosophy the Democratic presidential nominee has been tagged with by Sen. John McCain because of the Illinois Democrat's "spread the wealth" comment to Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher.

Moore's answer:

First of all, Mr. Obama is not a socialist, he's a capitalist and a capitalist in the bad sense. He's received $25 million from contributions from Wall St. He's embraced the bailout, voted and supported the bailout. He's supporting a health-care system that would turn over authority back to the private insurance companies."

by Jim Tankersley

As the presidential race enters its final weekend after two years of battle, John McCain's best chance for a history-defying comeback rests in the greatest of electoral unknowns: voter turnout.

To win on Tuesday, analysts and polls suggest, the Republican nominee must win nearly all the remaining undecided voters in key swing states and peel a large chunk of "soft" supporters from Democratic rival Barack Obama. Then he must hope that his supporters vote in overwhelming numbers, and that more Obama supporters than expected stay home.

It would be a daunting task in any election, but it's particularly the case this year, when analysts predict the largest voter turnout ever, perhaps 130 million, and the biggest percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in a century.

"It would have to be almost like a perfect game," said Christopher Borick, a Muhlenberg College professor who conducts a daily tracking poll in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. "Everything would have to break his way."

A police officer on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 outside the public housing building in South Boston where Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango reportedly lives. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

by Frank James (updated at 12:48 pm ET with Sen. Obama's response.)

What impact will the Associated Press report that Sen. Barack Obama has an aunt who is an illegal Kenyan immigrant at last report living in Boston have on the presidential race?

It might have an impact if it could be shown that he aided in her lawbreaking. But since there are millions of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. years after immigration judges ordered them to leave the country, it's not a foregone conclusion that Obama did anything to help her stay.

**** Update -- Obama issued a statement saying he didn't know his aunt was in the U.S. illegally:

"Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed." *********

The more interesting question is what will become of Zeituni Onyango if her nephew is elected president? If he wins, she becomes (and already may be) the most famous illegal immigrant in the country. How her case is handled will be watched closely for evidence of favoritism. On the other hand, if it appears she's dealt with harshly in order to serve Obama's political needs, that could be problematic too.

Another interesting question, of course, is how information about Onyango made its way to the media within days of the election.

by Andrew Zajac

Earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune reported on a mysterious pattern of donations to the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain and other, mainly Republican causes from Shi Sheng Hao, of Roselle, Illinois, and people related to him.

The story pointed out that Hao has business ties to the family of Gene and Nora Lum, who were convicted in a Democratic fundraising scandal in the 1990s, and who, it turns out, have kept a family hand in the political money business.

by Dick Batchelor

One of the two major candidates for president has been kidnapped. The victim went along willingly, without a murmur of protest. He'll remain a hostage on Election Day. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to find him, and it's no mystery. The victim is in plain sight: It's John McCain.

The real John McCain was kidnapped by political-adviser Karl Rove and his cabal of mean-spirited and "no-holds-barred" consultants.

I always admired the McCain that America came to know and respect in his run for the GOP nomination in 2000. He was a candidate of honor and integrity. Yet he was smeared by members of his own party. Recall the rumor that McCain fathered an out-of-wedlock black child? That ugly lie was straight from the playbook of the late Lee Atwater's school of dirty tricks. In fact, McCain and his second wife, Cindy, are very proud of their adopted child -- who happens to be dark-skinned.

Time was when McCain disdained the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells, the pastors who forgot their first calling as disciples of Christ to embrace a worldly lust for power and a seat at the head of the Republican table. Time was when McCain co-sponsored sensible immigration reform with Sen. Ted Kennedy; he did the same for campaign-finance reform with Sen. Russ Feingold. He challenged Republican orthodoxy that would ignore the threat of global warming, and he rebuked the mindless patriotism that would make physical torture, which he himself endured, acceptable U.S. policy.

But then he kicked the hornets' nest on "K" Street -- or, as I like to call it, Gucci Gulley. When he did, McCain incited those powerful lobbying groups who will not be denied feeding at the public trough.

Dick Batchelor, a political analyst and former Democratic state legislator in Florida, wrote this commentary about the 'hijacking of John McCain' for the Orlando Sentinel.

by Frank James

Sen. John McCain and his team have talked in recent days about closing the polling gap with Sen. Barack Obama.

That may be true in some of the battleground state polls though even that is under some dispute between partisans on both sides.

But the Gallup Poll is suggesting that the race is not tightening, at least not on a national level.

An excerpt of Gallup's report:

PRINCETON, NJ -- The political landscape could be improving for Barack Obama in the waning days of the campaign. Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 28-30 shows him with an eight percentage point lead over John McCain among traditional likely voters -- 51% to 43% -- his largest margin to date using this historical Gallup Poll voter model.

Thursday night's interviews are the first conducted entirely after Obama's widely viewed 30-minute prime-time campaign ad, which ran on several television networks Wednesday evening. Obama held a substantial lead over McCain in last night's polling, however no greater than what Gallup found on Wednesday.

by Mark Silva

Barack Obama is getting a boost from Hispanic voters in early voting in South Florida, according to exit-polling that shows strong margins for the Democratic candidate among traditionally Republican voters.

If margins such as these hold true on Election Day in the Miami area, Obama could have a strong claim to Florida's 27 electoral votes.

The exit polling of 8,683 voters leaving most of the county's early-voting sites between Oct. 20-29 was sponsored by the political science class of Associate Professor Mike Abrams at the University of Miami and financed by Bendixen & Associates, a long-established polling firm working as a consultant to the Obama campaign.

The ability of any Democrat to claim a sizeable share of the Hispanic vote in South Florida is part of any winning formula there. The exit polling found winning numbers:

-- 60 percent of those voting early were Hispanic, in a county with a 55-percent Hispanic electorate.

-- Among all Hispanics voting, Obama was favored by 47 percent, McCain 53.

-- Among Cuban-born Hispanics, McCain 69 percent, Obama 31.

-- Among U.S.-born Hispanics, Obama 72 percent, McCain 28.

-- Among white, Anglo voters, Obama 64 percent, McCain 36.

-- Among African-American voters, Obama 98 percent.

by James Oliphant

Has John McCain thought of this?