1. Barack Hussein Obama, the ‘Community Organizer’.
Remember the ridicule from the Rethugs on this meme? Like he was some two-bit operator pocketing suspect government contracts? Well, Obama effectively organized by far the best grassroots organization ever, and he and his political team have effectively trained hundreds of brilliant community organizers who will be running insurgent campaigns for the foreseeable future. And doing great work outside of the field of politics. BTW, many of these brilliant and idealistic organizers will also populate ballots themselves for the next twenty years or so. Guess what? He is a great community organizer, only the community is the entire country. Or, at least, every tiny community in every swing battleground state in the country.
2. Obama Benefited from Rethug Racism.
I was shocked by how many of the R surrogates and talk show buffoons continued to perpetuate racial stereotypes, most notable John Sununu’s claim after the first debate that Obama was stupid and lazy. There can be little doubt that they really believed that Obama somehow is inferior based on their long-held racial beliefs. The delicious irony, of course, is that Obama turned it to his advantage, much like the protagonist in Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”. I honestly believe that this unrelenting racism is one of the key reasons why RWNJ’s are so shocked today. I’ve got news for them: During his presidential campaigns, Obama was always the smartest guy in the room. As my daughters would say, “Deal with it”.
3. Rachel Is God(dess).
I’m usually a channel switcher on election nights. Gotta have the latest. Gotta, gotta, gotta. But Rachel Maddow was a force of nature last night, and I never switched. I am in awe. She so easily wove so many threads and instantaneously cut to the latest key new piece of information. She was as animated and sharp at 1:30 in the morning as she was at 6 p.m. I loved the MSNBC panel, and was especially impressed with Lawrence O’Donnell. But Rachel Maddow established herself as by far the best TV journalist (and election night anchor) working today. I love her.
4. Karl Rove Crying All the Way to the Bank.
I didn’t come up with this idea. But suppose, just suppose, that Karl Rove’s intent with Citizens United was never to elect a whole host of Rovians (although I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded), but to line his pockets with tens of millions of dollars. He has accomplished that mission, and I congratulate him. Especially since the people being ‘ripped off’ were shadowy Rethug types trying to launder their campaign contributions.
More to come as I think of it…