On Friday night, Congress passed its third major piece of legislation under the Obama Administration: The Stimulus Package. Intended to help the country take baby steps towards economic recovery, the bill has been hotly debated in recent weeks as to whether or not it is the right way to get us back on our feet. Below is a list of links to give you the quick and dirty facts about this confusing process and its effects.

• THE REASON: Listen to THIS EPISODE and THIS EPISODE of “This American Life” to get a reasonable primer on why we needed a stimulus in the first place.
• THE CONTENT: Here’s an interactive chart that breaks down how much money went into the stimulus and where it went.
• THE EVENT: At 10:47 Friday, Congress passed the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
• THE SIGNING: Obama plans to sign the Stimulus Package in Denver on Tuesday.
• THE EFFECTS: The Stimulus will increase the federal debt but make some people rich.
• THE FIGHT: Even the NY Times can’t decide if the size of the stimulus should have been smaller or larger.
• NEXT: Now that Obama has addressed w omen’s salaries and the economy, will war be next or will it be Social Security?
• TRANSPARENCY: The Brits question whether the bill was as transparent as Obama promised.
• IDEOLOGY: The bill reflects a new idea of how central the federal government is to our economy.
• BRAND LOYALTY: Public support for the stimulus demonstrates that Obama’s “brand” isn’t as weak as Republicans hope it is.
• BIPARTISANSHIP: Dead or alive or does it even matter?
• LEFT OUT: Regardless of whether or not the Stimulus package was the right response to the economic crisis (includes Van Jones’ response), major education , health and job issues remain unaddressed.

Have other links or ideas about the stimulus? Please comment below!

Shepard Fairey’s iconic blue and red Obama “Hope” poster. Though not an official poster of the Obama campaign, it’s likely to be remembered as one of the coolest and most popular campaign posters ever. Even French President Sarkozy has ripped it off . And now you can too.

Thanks to Paste Magazine, all you have to do is come in out of the cold, hook up your webcam or grab an old photo, go to Obamiconme.pastemagazine.com, and strike a pose/upload and you’re set. You can adjust the amounts of red, white and blue that you like as well as the slogan at the bottom.

According to Josh Jackson, Editor-In-Chief of Paste magazine, “Shepard’s original Hope poster was so iconic, we thought people would have fun making their own version to make their own personal statements about politics, culture or whatever.” I think it just makes me look like I’m confused about J-term. What do you think?

After getting about 2.5 hours of sleep last night, I am absolutely exhausted, and I have an Art History exam tomorrow. (I spent about half the night at a convention center outside of Florence with way too many Americans watching CNN and BBC on big screens and then the other half of the night refreshing the SD Secretary of State election pages and chatting with friends online.) Thus, you will sadly have to wait a little while longer for my full reflections on what happened in America yesterday.

There is one point I want to make right now though.

I now know what it feels like to be patriotic.

I know that sounds a little weird and/or sappy, but the thought first hit me at Invesco Field, during Obama’s speech there, that, if he were to win, I might actually, you know, pull a Michelle Obama and be proud of America. I guess it turned out to be true. But what is weird is that I’m not the only one that it happened today. When I met a few other Midd students on the bus this morning on the way to class, the first thing one girl said was, “You know what’s weird? I actually think today I feel patriotic.” When talking to my friends on Skype this evening, people said the exact same thing. It’s also reflected in tons of people’s Facebook statuses.

In response to this, I find myself asking, is this a part of growing up, a part of having my own political opinions, a part of choosing to get involved? Or is this just Obama? Or is it both?

OK, more tomorrow.

Buona sera tutti!

-Em

PS: Don’t worry though, I don’t see myself becoming a Kenny Chesney supporting, flag toting, gun carrying citizen any time soon, or, like, ever.

So after two years of campaigning and all that jazz, Election Day in the United States has finally arrived. And I’m in Italy. Funny how things work.

Anyway, how I made it through classes today without suffering a nervous breakdown, I have no idea, but I survived all the same. I hope to do some sort of posting/live blogging much later in the evening (early morning in Florence), but I’m going out first with some friends to destress and hash through it all. In the meantime, I give you some sights to pay attention to as the night unfolds as well as interesting little tidbits.

• MiddBlog: My co-editors, along with some other students and professors, have a sweet liveblog setup for all day today. Look for me over there occasionally as well.
• Debatable: There is guaranteed to be interesting student commentary over at Debatable as the night goes on.
• Presidential Power: Though Prof. Dickenson will be providing commentary in the Grille tonight, look for his pre- and post-election analysis.
• Don’t forget CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Google, FiveThirtyEight and TPM as places to watch the votes come in online.
• And, finally, here’s a little interesting tidbit from two years ago when the first polls put McCain and Obama head to head. This should give some insight of just how strong Obama’s campaign strategy is. Name recognition like he has now compapred to the beginning doesn’t just appear overnight.

Have any other cool sites? Do share!

PS: VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE! If you haven’t already. Preferrably for Obama, but, who am I to judge?

PPS: Remember my survival guide for the 2006 elections? Yeah, it still totally applies.

Prematurely lauded as the most important vice presidential debate in the history of the universe, last night’s “disuscussion” between Democriatc VP nominee Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and Republican VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska largely fell flat.

As many have pointed out over the last few days, this was Palin’s debate to win (though, importantly, not necessarily Biden’s debate to lose). She is the darling child of the McCain ticket and consistently manages to increase his ratings higher than the governor’s hairstylist can pile her bun. However, in recent interviews, namely the one with Katie Couric, Palin has shown that she knows little to nothing about many of Americian’s biggest policies (read: the Bush Doctrine). Thus, last night, the bar for her was low. And, as many staunch conservatives held their breath and nervously sipped their whiskey all night, Palin slowly renewed their faith in her. She made no major gaffes other than decide to talk about Gen. McClellan and the American Civil War instead of Afghanistan. She stayed on her talking points and true to McCain’s message.

Perhaps, however, one should be careful not to say that Palin exceeded expectations. She was never asked follow up questions so never forced to go into detail. She may to some extent have controlled the direction of the debate by sticking to her script but, after a certain point, it began to make her look desperate. She proved that she doesn’t think it’s important to investigate the causes of global issues. She may have done well at talking to the camera, making sure every American caught her wink, but it also meant every American caught that nervous pursing of the lips that she does before she’s about to make up a cute answer. In short, Palin may have finally (four weeks before the election) validated her presence on the McCain ticket but she did not “win” this debate as expected giving the surge towards Obama a reason to deviate. And, with any luck, the media in the coming week is not going to let her forget that she messed up when she talked about Biden’s record on Iraq.

Speaking of Biden, remember how this was Palin’s debate to win and that he was probably going to have no effect? Yeah, well why is everyone actually talking about Biden? Because he performed beautifully. Managing not to put his foot in his mouth as he has done so many times in the past (Bosnian muslims really are called Bosniaks), Biden proved that he is very well versed not only in American policy, but Obama’s policy (note the change from Biden’s first appearance on the Obama ticket). He answered every question pointedly and forcefully. He managed to take away two of Palin’s trump cards: having a child in Iraq and knowing what it’s like to “play mommy”. He remained calm and cool and didn’t change tone throughout the night (note the periodic deep breaths that you can hear in the mic). He also became the second candidate not afriad to show America his tears. I think we all just fell in love.

One of Biden’s major mistakes was not attacking Palin directly, not going at her throat and holding her directly accountable for her past actions. And thus appears the influence of sexism in this race. What is notable about Biden’s avoidance of any sort of talk that could be deemed as sexist is that it made him that much less open for attack by Republicans in the coming days. Instead of going for low blows, they have to attack his 30+ years of executive knowledge. Biden was less direct with the camera which means he may not score as well with average viewers but he never let Palin’s “stick to the script” attitude throw him off. He remained flexible and ready for anything.

I’ll admit, I came into this debate an Obama-Biden fan and therefore came in with a more cynical view of Palin. And honestly, she did nothing to change my mind. She brought in a few “cringe moments” like “i’m not always going to answer the questions you want me to” or the fact that she can’t pronounce “nuclear” or her “i’m so glad we can all agree that we love the jews” statements. I’m also annoyed at how she has lowered the level of language in debates. She’s constantly dropping her g’s and throwing in some home grown slogans once worthy only of the mother in Bobby’s World. While this may seem like this really means “anyone can be president,” I’m going to repeat what I’ve said before: I want my candidates to be smarter than me. I was also incredibly disturbed by Palin’s belief in the expansion of executive power. It not only showed her lack of knowledge of the American government, but it also demonstrated that she thinks as VP she’ll be able to do whatever she wants. Plus, wasn’t she the one saying all night that we need to limit government, make it smaller? You can’t do that by expanding the powers of the VP.

In the end though, as Rolling Stone put it, “this debate isn’t going to affect a damn thing.” Palin may have recovered ground lost in recent weeks but remained an unsuitable match for Biden’s more collected attitude and finesse. I think both parties came out of the debate with renewed confidence in their own VP candidates but undecideds were probably still left undecided.

(PS: These were my reactions after watching the debate from 3:00 to 4:30 in the morning with most of the thoughts coming out of a semi-bizarre gchat session with many lines that should never be repeated. The morning news seems to be saying that Biden actually won (though one needs to be wary of these early polls) and that this debate was good in the sense that it made it even harder for McCain to gain any ground. Are there any other states he wants to pull out of?)

Yesterday, Republican Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain decided to suspend his campaign and called for a cancellation (note: not a postponement) of his upcoming debate with Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama so that he could return to D.C. and help solve the financial crisis. (READ THE NEWS HERE)

OK, I have several issues with this decision.

First, the decision to “bailout” or “fix” the economy this time around is clearly not in the hands of the Senate. Bush’s Administration and Sec. Paulson are directing everything. Therefore, no one Senator can expect to return to Congress and help to fix everything. Furthermore, McCain is already in the Bush camp, which means he’s returning to D.C. to say “yes” to Bush’s ideas. I’m sorry, but that’s not “work,” that’s time off from your campaign.

Speaking of time off, I think we have to look at some other reasons why McCain might want to suspend his campaign. The first, of course, is that he’s playing politics, but I’ll address that in a minute. The second would be his health. Stories are coming out, though slowly and often hidden by stories about Palin, that McCain is old and McCain is tired. He needs more make-up than Ru Paul to look fit for the public and some times he has trouble standing on his own. Under any other circumstances, we’d would see a suspension of his campaign as a concession of his weariness. Honestly, I want a President who is fit enough to juggle listening to the American people and dealing with a crisis.

As to the whole “playing politics” aspect. Obama and McCain are both running for President so any decision they make on this is going to be considered “playing politics.” The way I see it, each have two options: suspend campaign and return to Washington or continue to listen to what the American people actually want. I’ll take the latter, thank you. If this decision isn’t really in the hands of the Senate, then neither McCain or Obama have any reason to turn their attentions away from us and towards something that would not be useful. There are two ways to be a “maverick” in this scenario. Return, cape secured tightly to help all your friends in D.C., or stand alone, be the change, and help everyone else in the country, everyone who’s acutally suffering.

Overall, I’m not denying that we’re in a financial crisis. Trust me, I’m feeling it and I’m currently living on a different continent. However, I firmly believe that McCain has made the wrong decision, especially if he wants to be accountable to the American people. Obama is not “missing in action” in this crisis. He’s by your side, at the kitchen table at night, when you’re trying to decide what groceries you’re not going to be able to buy this week. He wants to know how much you’re really hurting. McCain’s returning to D.C. smacks of “Oops, I might have done something or voted on something to contribute to this crisis so I better return and cover my tracks.” Plus, Hillary Clinton made it very clear this summer that “suspending my campaign” does not mean “I have more important things to do.” It means “I concede.”

[End morning rant.]

Between the hours of midnight and 4AM on Saturday, people learned of Obama’s vice-presidential pick: Joe Biden. I learned when my dad sat his blackberry down in front of me at 9:30. Wait, he wasn’t supposed to find out before me.

Anyway, my mom and I listened old-school style on the radio (since our lovely soon-to-be-outdated analog TV at the lake still requires foil and duct tape) to Biden’s acceptance of Obama’s offer: sunning ourselves next to her BMW, with its windows rolled down and its speakers blasting CNN via Sirius. Even with the sun as a modest distraction (though perhaps less than if I’d actually been standing in Springfield) and without the benefit of visual, I came to a couple initial reactions to Biden.

First of all, he has a lot to learn. His style of politics pre-dates the fear mongering of the 80s, which makes him a tenacious and attractive politician to someone younger like Obama. However, Obama’s style of politics post-dates the Clinton era. In fact, his style of politics is blossoming in front of our eyes, as more people come to support him and as new criticisms and obstacles are thrown his way. I may disagree that he’s a celebrity, but he certainly is an icon. And he’s become one in the last 12 months. Biden needs to adapt to that. He needs to learn to really speak to the audience, to tell them that “he loves them back” and to discard the speech notes. He needs to glue himself to Obama and Obama’s style as much as the campaign intends to glue McCain to Bush. If Biden can accomplish that, can combine the best of the past and the cutting edge of the present, then we’ve got one hell of a politician on our hands.

Now, was he the best choice for Obama? I have no idea. All summer I’ve remained unwilling to throw my weight around in the vice-presidential guessing game because I only ever saw one best choice: Barack Obama. This campaign, this election, is not ultimately about the VP, it’s about Barack and it’s about change, the word, the idea and the reality. I don’t think any of the nominees were strong in the change department, except maybe Hillary, but she came with her own separate set of designer luggage.

Back in January, I remember watching one of the primary debates and being particularly impressed by Biden. However, I recognized his role in the election immediately: the minor candidate who has no chance in hell, has realized that, and is now assuming the role of saying everything that needs to be side, bringing up every uncomfortable issue that the other candidates aren’t talking about. And that he did. He consistently remained that dog tugging on your pant leg that won’t go away. Sure, he made a few gaffes in the process, but who doesn’t?

In Saturday’s speech, I saw (or heard) Biden, who was the only one of the two politicians to even mention McCain, quickly and comfortably slip back into that attack role. But I also heard him begin the first baby steps into Obama’s camp, effortlessly using Obama’s campaign phraseology like the “Bush-McCain” administration (poor Dick Cheney, he gets no credit) and dropping a line about McCain’s seven kitchen tables. Saturday was clearly the first time he had ever said “Yes we Can” and perhaps the first time he whole-heartedly believed it.

Thus, I think an Obama-Biden ticket will succeed. A CNN comentator, I think it was John King, said on Sunday that, unfortunately, this campaign has become in recent months a referendum on Obama and the Convention is going to have to be spent trying to change that. I think Obama made the first steps in that direction on Saturday by choosing a running mate who beleives in him, believes in his vision, and believes in his honor. I see Biden as having no ulterior motives, nothing left to lose and nothing more to prove, unlike many of the other names on the VP short list. Plus, to the American people, Biden looks like an average politican, gray-haired and with a nice long and safe Senate record that includes foreign policy experience of any form. I think the next four days are going to be crucial to determining whether Obama chose correctly, but, if he performs at this convention like he did at his last one, he’ll remind everyone that ultimately it’s about Barack Obama and what he can do for the American people.

Photo courtesy of The Caucus, a NY Times blog.

Let’s face it, it’s easy to attract media attention, especially if you’re a politician, a celebrity or a criminal. It’s not easy, however, to distract the media, mostly because they’re EVERYWHERE. It’s especially difficult to distract them when there are two big international events to pay attention to, the Olympics AND war between Russia and Georgia.

And yet Obama has done it, very subtly so, but he’s done it with his announcement that he’ll notify everyone via email or text message who he picks for VP. Lord knows I don’t sit and check the Olympics medal count every two seconds at work but you can now bet I’m going to be checking my cell phone (very discreetly, of course). This little tactic, though not major, leaves speculation and anticipation on the tip of everyone’s tongue now until it actually happens. Is that not brilliant or what?

Contrast that to McCain. When it came to throwing his VP tactics around, the only thing he had to distract the media from was Obama’s World Tour, his opponent’s World Tour. And what does he do? He uses the oldest tactic in the book and throws a fake–or has one of his tops aides do it.

Hmm, unprecedented text message announcement or a political fake older than the Duke of Wellington?

In other news, the Dollar has once again dipped against the Euro, falling to about 1.49 USD/EURO. Let’s just hope it can stay that for ohhhhh, another four months?

The CNN report aside, it has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with Commissioner Gordon’s last major quote of the film (with a few revisions)

“He’s the President we need, but maybe not the President we’re ready for.”

Think about it. Does America deserve a President that understands them so well and has their best interests at heart?

Talk amongst yourselves.

So I cleaned my desk AND my closet tonight. It only took about five hours, one ginormous iced coffee and a generous glass of red wine. You’d think I was pissed off at someone if I could accomplish that much. But no, contrary to most Democrats, I don’t need to be pissed off at someone to get my butt in gear.

It’s more the power of suggestion really. Say the word “closet” enough times and I’m reminded about the fact that mine doesn’t appear to have a floor. Say the word “desk” enough and I can’t remember the last time I was able to put something in it. Those little things kind of get to you, really. And, next thing you know, your cleaning your closet and desk! It’s kind of like if enough emails go around suggesting that Obama is Muslim, then hey, guess what, now everyone thinks he is! (Idiots.) Or, like Obama, when he said he was “the symbol of the possibility of America returning to its best traditions.” And the next morning, in quoting the Senator, every newscaster and blogger was saying that Obama was “the symbol of the possibility of America returning to its best traditions.” Congratulations media, you have been played by the Obama campaign.

And with that, I leave you with tonight’s musice video, Ida Marie’s “I like you so much better when you’re naked.” (It’s not true, I love the way you dress.)

Buona sera tutti!

- Em