From Maine to Japan

I promise--really!--that I will stop talking about President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama real soon.

Wait.

President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama.

Hell yeah.

*ahem*

But I did want to mention a couple of things that I enjoyed reading recently on the topic.

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The Onion has owned my heart and soul since it came back from hiatus after 9/11 with this story: Not Knowing What Else to Do, Woman Bakes American-Flag Cake. I remember being really reluctant to read it at the time, because I didn't want how I was feeling to be mocked, but the Onion managed to delicately and tenderly break my heart with it.

It re-captured me with this week's Kobe Bryant Scores 25 in Holy Shit We Elected a Black President. It's beautiful, beautiful writing, and the last two paragraphs made me cry all over again.

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Newsweek has an amazingly detailed and fascinating account of the race for the presidency, Secrets of the 2008 Campaign. It's a long read--seven chapters of five or six sections each--and totally worth it. This is the report you've been getting all those horror stories about Palin's ignorance from, but I was a lot more interested in what I learned about Obama from it. Three things especially caught my eye:

--The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

--Holder, a former deputy U.S. attorney general in the Clinton administration and an old Washington hand, was struck by Obama's half-open, half-inscrutable manner during the nearly eight hours of meetings they spent together going over potential veeps. Obama was diligent, bringing up small morsels of information hidden in the fat briefing books, and he acted like a law professor who calls on reluctant pupils ("I haven't heard from you," he'd say to anyone around the table who had been silent too long). A lot of politicians pretend to be inclusive; Obama actually was. But "at the end, you didn't know where he stood. When you got down to the final judgment, I had a sense, but I didn't have any kind of certainty." Holder thought Obama was being shrewd to not signal his intentions too clearly—since "people want to say what the boss wants to hear, and if they don't know, you'll get more honest advice."

I find this one of the most encouraging anecdotes about Obama I've heard. It's a sign of a person who knows how groupthink works and wants to make sure to avoid it whenever possible.

--Obama's debate coach, Michael Sheehan, a veteran of many campaign psychodramas over the years, was struck by the senator's calmness. The candidate was always in control of his feelings. During one afternoon prep session, Obama begged off. "I'm a little tired and a little cranky," he told a roomful of aides. "I'm going to my room for a half hour and I'll be in better shape to work with." He reappeared 30 minutes later, ready for work. Obama was, as ever, self-possessed—his own best judge of his mood and strength. After a full-dress mock debate in the evening, when it was time to review the tape of his performance, Obama turned to Sheehan and said, "Michael, I'm tired." He was not complaining, Sheehan recalled; he was just being matter-of-fact. Nothing seemed to rattle Obama. He had a way of retreating into his own little world. During one of the debate preps, the lights blew, flickering on and off like a strobe light from the 1970s disco craze. Obama stood behind the podium, quietly singing the song "Disco Inferno," last popular in the heyday of "Saturday Night Fever."

I'm especially struck in the essay with how distant Obama is. People who work with him say consistently that he's not a huggy, affectionate man. He keeps people at arm's length. Staffers were constantly disappointed that he didn't enjoy hanging out and schmoozing with them like Bill Clinton always did. He's very self-assured, very self-contained. He doesn't seem to crave approval from the people around him. All of which suggests that America has managed to pull off something almost as unthinkable to me as electing an African-American: we've elected a cerebral, intellectual man. Unbelievable.

Okay, I promise I'll try to get back to discussing books, movies, work and other fun things. But just one more time for the record:

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.