whateva, whateva, I do what I want!

Obama waits backstage before stepping out onto the inauguration stand.

Just a tiny bit jealous of photographer Callie Shell. She also took these.

#12. Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) listen to his speech during a downpour during a campaign rally at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia September 27, 2008. (REUTERS/Jason Reed)

#10. Senator Barack Obama takes the ball to the hole as Reggie Love, green jersey, former Duke basketball player, left, and Chris Duhon, former Duke basketball player and now NBA Chicago Bulls player, during a pick-up basketball game on primary day in Chicago, Tuesday, May, 20, 2008. (Doug Mills/ The New York Times)

#35. A spectator raises her fist in celebration seconds after it was announced that Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Pouya Dianat, Atlanta Journal & Constitution)

#10. US Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama leaves a campaign rally in Philadelphia, October 11, 2008. (REUTERS/Jim Young)

4 of 35 incredible pictures

thanks john.

unforgettable

scroll down (also click for the second page) to see how my fellow bloggers marked this day.

comes true.

a piece by joe klein of time’s swampland:

“Word comes that Barack Obama’s grandmother has died. The timing is ridiculous. But think, for a moment, if you will of Madelyn Dunham, a white woman from Kansas, strolling the aisle of a supermarket, or having lunch in a coffee shop, with her grandson–way back at the turn of the 1970s, when such sights were uncommon, even in Hawaii. Think about what her friends might have thought, or said, about her…situation. Think about what she poured into the child during the years when her daughter was in Indonesia and she was the closest thing to a mother that Obama had; think about the impact that she and her husband had on creating the man we’ve come to know, and the satisfaction she must have felt in her dying days.

Some politicians simply are larger than life. Their stories are the stuff of high drama. Over the past few days, I’ve been hearing about the high emotions out in the field, as volunteers flood Obama offices to help canvass–and, in some places, find they have to wait on line for a spot on a phone bank. It is almost banal at this point to say that this has been the most remarkable election I’ve ever seen. It’s been a privilege to be a small part of it, to have had a ringside seat. And now, there is a sense that tomorrow will be the sort of day none of us ever forgets, one way or another–a day of reckoning, in the purest sense, when we will suddenly see ourselves and our country differently, for good or ill.

It will also be the first day that Barack Obama lives without the presence of the woman who was his surrogate mother. How sad for him, how remarkable that it would happen this way.”

i would like to add to this that i believe that everything happens for a reason. and everything happens when it happens. so for barack’s grandmother to pass away in this particular stressful, exciting time in history, seems unfair, insane, tough.
in my mind..it’s the world’s way to take barack back to the basics, his family, the love and away from the external world for a minute. a world that has been demanding so much of him this year. they (barack and his grandmother) made it this far. i believe that the race is over. grief and joy. they go together. because that’s life.

win or lose.. history has been made.

but since everyone is making t-shirts, i decided to make my own. holla!

i’m not an american citizen, so i’m not voting. i do care about change in the world and that’s why i’m supporting the cause. i’m behind the man and i will celebrate when the time comes.

i’m ready. we’re getting closer to a balance.

thanks cye
* i’m telling you who’s gonna win.

via liz, via good mag

at the alfred e. smith memorial dinner

mccain is funny for real. he might win some votes with this. why not change career to comedian?

via undercover black man

oh mccain,
why don’t you spend more time explaining what you would do as a president, instead of attacking obama and lose your integrity at the same time?
why did you hire bush operatives (who took you down in 2000) to run your campaign in a backdrop of economic crisis? while you should’ve “separated yourself from a president whose approval ratings are now below what Nixon’s were at the height of Watergate.” (lol)

“Mr. McCain is trying to keep the White House in Republican hands at a time when President Bush’s job approval rating is at 24 percent, hovering near its historic low.” (they are trying to be serious, but that just sounds funny to me)

it’s over: obama wins :
Perpetually fretting Democrats will not want to accept it. The campaigns themselves can’t afford to believe it. Many journalists know it but can’t say it. And there will certainly be some twists and turns along the way. But take it to a well capitalized bank: Bill Ayers isn’t going to save John McCain. The race is over.

have fun at the debate tonight.

thanks for the pic ajana