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How did Barack Hussein Obama win in 2008? Here's a reprise of the reasons, if you haven't been paying attention over the 80 blog entries that I have posted the last year and a half.First is the Tiger Woods as Precursor effect. Woods had become a cultural icon over the last decade, winning the hearts and minds of all the white businessmen out there, including, most importantly, CEOs. He was/is their hero. Woods is the same sort of transnational, globalized, biracial figure, one who triumphed in the White World. Woods blazed the trail for Obama. Obama has the same profile, triumphing in the elite world. Columbia, Harvard, president of the law review. What is different is their wives. Just as Bill Clinton knew he needed to marry a serious woman like Hillary, instead of the bimbos he consorted with, if he wanted to succeed in politics, Barack's choice of Michelle prepared him for a future in politics. Imagine, if like Woods, he married a blonde Scandinavian type? Obama would not be president. Even Senator would be unlikely. Which brings me to the second attribute. No personal baggage. Unlike Clinton, who never gave up his bimbos, even though he married appropriately, Obama doesn't have a lot to hide. Clinton came into the office with secrets and those secrets were eventually exposed. At a cost to us all. The third thing was Obama being the Ebay president. The 2008 election was the first one that giving contributions over the internet was second-nature; no one hesitated to donate. The internet had matured. It allowed Obama to amass, or start to amass, the great amounts he spent; it was grass roots, but the grass was gold. That war chest gave cohesion to his campaign. The control exercised during the campaign was even highlighted by its last event in Grant Park. The theatrics, the set, the timing, the entrances and exits! It was Broadway at its best. And it was said to cost a million and a half. All of which bodes well for Obama's start in the White House, which, in Clinton's case, was a semi-disaster. Another unfortunate attribute of Clinton (in this case, both of them) is that they had a reluctance to put anyone smarter or more independent than/of them in high jobs. That resulted in the Zoe Baird problems of the attorney general post. It had been decided it would be a woman and the Clintons, two Yale lawyers!, had no one to put in the position they trusted; so they dipped down to those who would owe them the job. (Actually, Hillary would have been the best AG, but they didn't have the nerve.) It was a mess. Obama doesn't seem to have those insecurities. He doesn't seem afraid to put the best people forward. Another reason, one that I didn't tend to emphasize, was the so-called generational shift. As I did point out, the difficult campaign was the one to beat Hillary. And the generational shift showed itself there. A lot of Americans didn't want to revisit the 60s once again, didn't, especially, want to revisit the Clintons again. That was one reason why McCain's Billy Ayers attacks fell on such unproductive ground. Being the age I am today, it's hard to admit to the power of the generation shift, but I have already experienced it first hand. When I left the Sun-Times nearly 3 years ago, there was no love lost that a nearing 60 year old white male was leaving the scene. Make room for the young, etc. In publishing circles in general, white males in their 60s don't tempt many, unless they are already household names.

One reason early voting is reaching new heights of use is that so many people want this election to be over. Well, with any luck, it will be over on Tuesday. I have been sorely disappointed with the Indiana Democratic establishment this election cycle. Its support for Jill Long Thompson has been lukewarm throughout, since she wasn't their early ordained candidate. Jim Schellinger was the chosen token candidate, set to take a bullet for the party, let Mitch have his second term with as little embarrassment as possible. Daniels, by reputation, is a vindictive guy and the deal struck was to serve up Schellinger who would lose with dignity and Mitch would make nice with the Indianapolis Democratic businessmen Schellinger represented. But it didn't turn out that way. Hillary Clinton won the state in the Democratic primary contest and she helped JLT to vanquish Schellinger. The Obama camp hasn't acted that much better toward her, even though the presidential race is neck and neck. If there is a picture of Obama and JLT together looking friendly I haven't seen it, much less heart felt endorsements. Obama is protecting his brand. It's something politicians do. Back before Joe Donnelly won his 2nd district seat in Congress, Evan Bayh's people wouldn't let Donnelly use a picture of him and Bayh together. Bayh was protecting his brand. It's not pretty. Had Hillary won the primary, there would be pictures of her and JLT together. Female solidarity. But, truth be told, the state wouldn't be in play if she was the Democratic candidate. But the race is currently running in the mud, with the Republicans hurling the usual socialist epithets Obama-ward. But, there has been blowback from reality. The Sen. Ted Stevens conviction is more a national story because of the Palin pick. All eyes are on Alaska. Stevens, like many public figures, is tripped up because of a minor case of corruption. Al Capone was jailed finally because of tax evasion concerning a dog track. The irrepressible Palin is looking a bit cross-eyed (the small flaw which gives her an added kick and accounts for the famous glasses) toward 2012, upsetting the McCain flacks. But, it appears, instead of dropping Palin from the ticket, they are considering dropping McCain in place of Joe the Plumber.

The presidential race is full of symmetries. So is the Indiana's governor race. In Tuesday night's debate in Bloomington, Jill Long Thompson once again brought up Mitch Daniels' role as budget director in the Bush II administration and stated, accurately, that he should be held responsible in part for the present debacle on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C. In response, Daniels did not utter Bush's name or refer to that service, but contested Long Thompson's remarks about Daniels' tax policies. The Bloomington debate for half its length was a 12 step encounter session, the moderator asking personal, confessional questions. The second half had more pertinent content. Daniels continues to praise his skill at amassing capital for Indiana, boasting of all the revenue his privatization of the Toll Road has brought to the state. Sort of like the heads of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG boasting of the bonuses and Golden Parachutes they received at their hasty departures. The big winner of the three debates has been the Libertarian candidate, Andy Hornung. The debates have been practically his only state-wide exposure. Whatever votes he gets, and he may get a few for speaking complete sentences, will be taken away from Our Man Mitch. Jill Long Thompson should profit, as she deserves to. In the presidential race, the symmetries are more startling (not just Daniels/Bush, Wall Street/Privatization cash rustling). Who would have ever imagined that the two Democratic presidents (given that Obama wins) both grew up without fathers? Clinton, like Obama, was raised as a child largely by his grandparents. Then both had step fathers, who played limited roles. Mothers dominated. On the Republican side, the last two losing campaigns (given that McCain loses) were both lost by damaged, older war veterans. Bob Dole and John McCain provide a default image when Republicans lose presidential races. And a third symmetry, is the one of the Republican bugaboo, Bill Ayers. Who Ayres most resembles is George W. Bush. Bill Ayres, it is seldom mentioned, is the son of the former chairman and CEO of Chicago's Consolidated Edison. Bill Ayers is what is known as a rich kid, a child of a good, prominent family. George W. was a wild youth, drinking and drugging, crashing cars, drunk till his fourth decade. Ayers channeled his discontents into even more self-destructive behavior, destructive of others. But, in both cases, when they both reformed, family connections and aura paved their ways to respectability. Fitting, I suppose, the degree of their youthful follies, one went to the presidency, the other to tenure at a university.

John McCain wanted many "Town Hall" style debates. Look out when you get what you wish for. One was more than enough. McCain must have liked them in the past, since he can, for the most part, vet the audience, fill it with friendly Republicans, and talk in a more relaxed manner. There was nothing relaxed about Tuesday night, unless it was The One leaning/sitting cooly on his chair, waiting for McCain to finish his latest attack. Obama was turned into That One, instead of just The One, by a frustrated McCain. In his happy campaign stop Town Hall meetings, McCain would only be shown giving an answer or two, in a close shot, on local and occasional national news. Little bits where he would look folksy and sincere. But Tuesday the scene looked like the set of Equus, currently remounted on Broadway. Tiers of seats surrounding an arena equipped with a hot red carpet, a space that McCain paced around like the damaged Richard III. There were few tight shots, many long shots. McCain's physical presence and body language did not play well in such a setting, especially in contrast to the lithe one, Barack Obama. So, along with the cratering Dow Jones, a lot of talkers are writing off McCain, describing his downward death spiral in the polls. Democrats shouldn't be so confident. Given the so-called Bradley effect (polls exaggerating a black man's actual potential vote), Obama will need about a ten percent lead to squeak by November 4.

Last night's vice presidential debate was to be either comedy or tragedy and it turned out to be a bit of both. You betcha, as one possible future vice president would say. Sarah Palin came out wearing a black outfit that appeared taken from the back of Cindy McCain's closet. I was hoping for red shoes, but at first glance they looked black. In 2000 there was a lot of discussion about what Al Gore would be wearing for the presidential debates. "Earth tones" were mentioned often back then. The color of ties was deemed important. This time around there was almost no discussion of outfits, which is a shame. The press has been cowed, wanting not to look overly sexist. The McCain team did a good job of lowering expectations, and giving the press the heebeejeebees. Even Gwen Ifill fell under attack for her future book on black politicians. The format of the veep debate had been worked out to Palin's advantage. She could give canned speechettes from behind a podium. I kept wondering what papers she kept glancing at and flipping through that were on her podium. Cheat sheets? I didn't see her making notes, as Joe Biden did. Luckily, Biden did an admirable job, so the contrast between the two candidates was more than clear. Palin, unfortunately, now sounds like she's doing a Tina Fey impersonation. Her most "effective" answers weren't answers at all, but descriptions. Soccer moms and fear. She can describe. The attack on Ifill did its job; she didn't probe or ask for more detail, except on an exchange about vice-presidential power. It's likely Palin won't be put in front of an aggressive press corps asking for specifics. Palin's dithering to Katie Couric came after Couric continued to press for a direct and specific answer. Ifill didn'tand Palin turned on her replies. Palin did gain energy as the debate neared its end. The finish line obviously cheered her up. At that point her shoes began to look a little red, took on a glow.

Well, where to begin? The kind of capitalism the Bush crowd practices is the game of musical chairs sort. In the present case, depending how you look at it, the government (aka the folk who pay taxes) are left without a chair, or it/they are supposed to supply the chair that isn't there. For the last eight years, at least, thanks, in part, to McCain's economic guru, Phil Gramm, Wall Street has managed to leverage assets far beyond what the assets are worth. All this has been done with those often mentioned complicated (to whom, non criminals?) derivatives, swaps, etc. Of course, these "instruments" are valuable to the people who sell them to one another, since they take out large profits when they make the transactions. Yippi-yi-yay! This is an example of blood out of a turnip, and, now, the world is about to come to an end. President Diminished, George W. Bush, gave his scare talk the other night, eerily reminiscent of a speech Morgan Freeman gives in a 1996 movie called Chain Reaction. Freeman gives W.'s talk almost word for word, except the cause is the fear of free energy forever, something the One before he became the One (Keanu Reeves) has helped invent, rather than the Wall Street meltdown. Though the idea of meltdown is kept intact. John McCain then galloped into town, since that's where the cameras were, and, at this moment at least, he'll high tail it to Mississippi for tonight's debate. Can't wait.