Make Hillary Secretary of State? Rescue the American car industry? Bail out the national banking system? Barack Obama may do all these things and more. But one thing he can't do: mess with college football.

Thus the shock waves when Obama, at the end of an otherwise uneventful debut interview as President-elect, suggested that college football might ( Read more... )

Michael McCarthy writes: Can you hear it, the great unlocking sound? It's the sound of the door swinging open at last after nearly eight long years of being bolted and barred, the door that leads to progress in the world's attempt to grapple with the biggest problem it has ever faced: global climate change.

Barack Obama's statement of intent about ( Read more... )

Rupert Cornwell writes:  At first glance it looks like the ‘Clinton restoration’ that Barack Obama’s victory had seemingly forestalled. In fact however, Mr Obama’s selection of many aides associated with the last Democratic president obeys a deeper logic - of ensuring his administration hits the ground running...

For Mr Obama however, the most ( Read more... )

The media seems to have fallen in love with Obama - even his choice of trainers is viewed as an important signifier. So what do you make of articles about Obama's dress sense. Style over substance? Or the inevitable rise of Brand Obama.

We'll still be posting here until the inauguration - mainly to keep an eye on the realities of the handover and to see if there's a jarring thud as the euhporia of Obama's victory fades and he starts to make some decisions - which you may or may not like.

Are there already issues beginning to arise which may cause you a moment's unease?

Edit: For ( Read more... )

Andrew Grice writes on our blogs of the rush in the UK to be seen withObama:

Barack Obama's remarkable victory is already making waves in British politics. On the face of it, the triumph of change over experience is good news for David Cameron. The Tories have been cosying up to Obama in recent weeks, conveniently forgetting that John McCain ( Read more... )

Mary Dejevsky writes: We are dreaming, we Europeans, of Obamaland: a temperate land of sunshine and showers, of soft music and plenitude, of conciliation and concord. We think we caught glimpses of it in July, just fleetingly, behind the garden wall at Number 10; on the steps of the Elysée Palace, and beneath the Victory monument in Berlin.

From a ( Read more... )

And so, here we are. It's about 5am on the east coast, which means that the first polls not in Dixville Notch, NH open in just under one hour. It's been a long road, but by this time tomorrow, we should know who will be the next President of the United States - Senator John McCain of Arizona or Senator Barack Obama of Illinois ( Read more... )

 Johann Hari writes:

Can it happen? Are the Bush years going to end with the election of a cerebral, liberal black man born to a Muslim goat-herd from Kenya and an atheist farm-girl from Kansas? Will we witness it in less than 48 hours? Whisper it: yes we can. At the midnight hour tomorrow night - unless opinion polls are wrong; more wrong than ( Read more... )

 arack Obama is promising a $150bn "Apollo project" to bring jobs and energy security to the US through a new alternative energy economy, if his final push for votes brings victory in the presidential election on Tuesday.

"That's going to be my number one priority when I get into office," Mr Obama has said of his "green recovery" plans. Making his ( Read more... )