FRESH AIR Journalist and economist Robert Kuttner has reported on elections for over three decades. His latest book, Obama’s Challenge, looks at the many Herculean obstacles the president-elect faces — and what it will take to tackle them. “If he is able to rise to the moment,” Kuttner writes, “he could join the ranks of a small handful of previous presidents who have been truly transformative, succeeding in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better.” Kuttner’s previous works include The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity, Making Work Pay: America after […]
THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OL’ DIXIE DOWN: Obama Wins NC, Third Confederate State In WIN Column
BOSTON GLOBE: Barack Obama’s big victory on Tuesday just keeps getting bigger. The Associated Press is now giving the president-elect North Carolina, too, concluding that there are not enough uncounted ballots left for John McCain to overcome Obama’s lead. The win in North Carolina gives Obama a whopping 364 Electoral College votes, with Missouri the only state that’s too close to call. The victory in North Carolina adds yet another solidly red state to Obama’s column. His success in the Tar Heel State, as well as his wins in Indiana and Virginia, are a remarkable achievement. No Democratic candidate has […]
LIKE A FOX: Internal External
Like A Fox celebrates the release of Where Is My Golden Arm? (Transit Of Venus) Saturday at Johnny Brenda’s.
PAPERBOY: Election Afterglow Edition
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BOW WOW WOW: Deerhunter, First Unitarian, Last Night [photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY TIFFANY YOON Bradford Cox and his gang put on a killer show, with the setlist drawn largely from their new album Microcastle, easily in my Top Five of the year. Cox seems to love Philadelphia, which he will forever associate with scrapple and pneumonia. I think he tells these stories every time he plays a show in Philly, but let’s start with the scrapple. Apparently, Cox didn’t know what scrapple was until he went to the Melrose Diner the last time through town. Curious, he orders some […]
NUTTER: City Finances Win World Series Of Hurt
INQUIRER: Mayor Nutter will announce drastic new steps today to close a $1 billion gap in the city’s five-year budget, including the closure of 11 of 54 branch libraries and dozens of city pools, a freeze on tax reductions, reduced hours or programs at more than a dozen recreation centers, and fewer engines at some firehouses, according to sources familiar with his plans. Until now, Nutter had estimated the budget gap at up to $850 million. “At $850 million, it continues to grow,” he said last night. To address the even bigger figure, scheduled city-funded cuts in the business and […]
HISTORY TURNS A PAGE: And So It Begins…
NEWSWEEK: Secrets Of The 2008 Campaign [HIGHLY RECOMMENDED] POLITICO: Critics said they were too nice, too vague on the issues, too obsessed with the youth vote and too dependent on all those penny-ante Internet donors. But Obama’s core group of Chicago advisers, led by former reporter David Axelrod, has created a new paradigm for post-Rove campaigning. Instead of exploiting wedge issues (as Rove did) or micro-targeting demographic niche groups (as the Clintons and their pollster, Mark Penn, did), they focused on exciting a new base of young people, educated whites and minority voters. Get-out-the-vote wizard Steve Hildebrand built a hyperdisciplined […]
OFFICIAL: Barack Obama President-Elect Of The USA
[Photos by DIS-SECTION & RICKYO] POPULAR VOTE: OBAMA: 63,508,605 MCCAIN: 52,214,109 ELECTORAL NUMBERS: OBAMA 349, MCCAIN 166 (270 NEEDED TO WIN) NEW YORK TIMES: Senator Barack Obama stood on the brink of an historic victory Tuesday after he appeared to have won enough electoral votes to defeat Senator John McCain for president and to become the first African-American to serve as the nation’s chief executive. CNN and ABC projected at 11 p.m. Eastern time that Mr. Obama had won the election. MORE YES WE DID: South Broad St. 10:57 PM Last Night [Hat tip to JOHN REFANO] NEW VISION, UGANDA’S […]
ENDORSEMENT: Why I Voted For Barack Obama
BY JONATHAN VALANIA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PHAWKER.COM Because I don’t believe in politicians, but I believe in this man. Because the rest of the world believes in this man, and contrary to what some would have you believe, that is a good thing. In fact, it’s crucial. Because words matter and he is a man of his word. Because he appealed to our best hopes instead of our worst fears. Because he ran on the content of his character, not the color of his skin. Because despite all that, he had to be twice as good. Because he is neither black nor […]
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: Just Do It!
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A PRAYER FOR THE CITY: Pathway To Hope
BY JEFF DEENEY With the mercury starting to dip and the nights getting longer expect the Inquirer to drop their boilerplate homelessness story any day now. They’ve been reprinting this story annually, simply changing the date with each iteration, for as long as I can remember. You can set your watch by this story — it’s better than a department store full of fake pine trees and giant plastic candy canes for letting you know the holidays are almost here. You know, that story where an Inky reporter first gets Center City District CEO Paul Levy on the phone for […]
Obama’s Grandmother Dies Of Cancer, Had Hoped To Live Long Enough To See Grandson Elected President
REUTERS: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama‘s grandmother died of cancer, he said in a statement on Monday, a little more than a week after Obama interrupted the White House race to say goodbye to her in Hawaii. “It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer,” Obama said in a joint statement with his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. “She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility.” Dunham helped raise Obama from the age of 10 while his mother was working in […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
I AM SUPERMAN: Of Montreal, Electric Factory, Friday Night BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER The only constant with the Athens, Ga., indie-pop band Of Montreal — over the course 11 years, nine albums, five EPs and innumerable personnel shifts — is change. In its decade-long evolution from twee psych-pop for second-wave Elephant 6ers recording collective to its current status as the definitive, post-everything party band for barely 20-somethings, Of Montreal’s mantra has remained the same: Change or die. Likewise, the band’s live show is a study in perpetual flux. During the course of the band’s two-hour tour de farce […]