Via Pink News

The next President of the United States has published a comprehensive list of action he will take on gay rights.

In a statement published on the Presidential transition website, Barack Obama and the Vice President-elect, Joe Biden, committed themselves to strengthening federal hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act.

The President-elect also committed to support civil unions and federal rights for LGBT couples.

"Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples," the statement read.

Read all of Obama's promises on his website Change.gov.

Politics:
Obama's First YouTube Fireside Chat. With all the Prop 8 information coming in, I didn't get a chance to watch this until last night! I thought maybe some of you missed it, too.

I feel like we're going to be referring to our President-elect as "Papa Obama" by the end of the year. "Papa," we'll ask, "what do you think should be done about GM?" Feels kind of natural.

Watch after the jump!

President-elect Obama gives his first post-election interview on "60 Minutes." He and Michelle are probably the most likable couple in the world right now.

She's back! I knew Obama wouldn't leave her out. Hillary Clinton is on the short list of Secretary of State candidates. Andrea Mitchell broke the story last night, and everyone else has picked it up today. (Rachel Maddow has a segment on this that you can listen to over in The Media Bar.)

Reuters:

Sen. Hillary Clinton emerged on Thursday as a candidate to be U.S. secretary of state for Barack Obama, months after he defeated her in an intense contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Putting Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton, in the position could help heal whatever lingering divisions remain in the Democratic Party after her bitter battle with Obama.

The New York Times

Will it take a top cabinet post, namely the job of Secretary of State, to finally heal the rift between President-elect Barack Obama and his former opponent Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton?

The Associated Press, quoting unnamed Democratic officials, reports that Mrs. Clinton is among the candidates Mr. Obama has his eye on to be America’s chief diplomat during his first term. As the A.P. notes, other contenders include Senator Chuck Hagel, Senator John Kerry and New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson.

Politico:

Several Obama transition advisers are strongly advocating Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for secretary of state, a move that would create the ultimate “Team of Rivals” Cabinet, according to officials involved in the discussions.

President-elect Obama has narrowed the possibilities for secretary of state, and Clinton is among those being strongly considered, the officials said. Some even call her the favorite.

A possible clue to Obama’s willingness to consider Clinton for chief diplomat can be found in a January interview he gave to Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News.” As part of her “Primary Questions” series, she asked him what books besides the Bible he would considers essential if he were elected president.

“Doris Kearns Goodwin's book ‘Team of Rivals,’” Obama replied. “It was a biography of Lincoln. And she talks about Lincoln's capacity to bring opponents of his and people who have run against him in his cabinet. And he was confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices and confident enough to listen to the American people and push them outside of their comfort zone. And I think that part of what I want to do as president is push Americans a little bit outside of their comfort zone. It's a remarkable study in leadership.”

. . . Clinton would be most attractive if Obama concludes that he will have to focus his early days in office on the domestic economy, and will have to essentially outsource heavy-duty foreign travel to his secretary of state.

I think the "Team of Rivals" goes a long way in helping to predict what Obama will do. Doris Kearns Goodwin is just that good. If selected, Hillary Clinton would be the hightest ranking member of the Cabinet.

This is unfortunate. In one of her first interviews in nearly a year, Lindsay Lohan, a vocal and ardent Obama supporter, referred to President-elect Obama as "our first colored President." Obviously, this is a reflection of her ignorance and not an indication of any racism. As the post-election world unfolds, that meme (ignorance vs. intention) keeps cropping up. (Most noticably with the Prop 8 fallout.) This election has shined a big ol' spotlight on a lot of the darker corners that discrimination has scuttled into.

Man, she just keeps stepping in it. Maybe Lohan meant, "I'm very excited to have our first President of color."

When I read this Washington Post article, the enormity of what Obama has done, once again, hit me. It's easy to get caught up in what's going on domestically because so much is going on, but here is a snippet of that Obama is facing outside of the U.S.

The day after Obama's victory, a leading Austrian television journalist said on camera that he "wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man." A Polish lawmaker stood up in Parliament and called the election result "the end of the white man's civilization."

One of the milder gaffes came from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. On Thursday, during a visit to Moscow, he praised Obama for being "young, handsome and even suntanned."

. . . Jürgen Gansel, a party leader and an elected lawmaker in the German state of Saxony, blamed Obama's victory on "the American alliance of Jews and Negroes."

. . . In Austria, Obama's win prompted a harsh, on-air reaction from a well-known journalist, Klaus Emmerich. "I think the Americans are still racists and they must be very badly off to so spectacularly -- and that has to be said, no doubt -- send a black man with a black, very good-looking and clever woman to the White House." After saying that he "wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man," he added: "If you say that is a racist comment, you're right. Without a doubt."

[Artur Górski, a legislator from the Law and Justice party said]
"This marks the end of the white man's civilization," he said. "America will soon pay a high price for this quirk of democracy."

Biden's new role: Good cop.

A post-election view of McCain

Terry McAuliffe to run for Virginia governor

Al Franken's odds of winning the Minnesota recount long -- and short

Howard Dean to step down as DNC chair. Who's going to replace him?

Join the Impact - Protest information for upcoming Prop 8 protests

Obama roasts Rahm Emanuel in 2005. Funny stuff. (Via Andrew Sullivan)

ABC News is reporting that Barack and Michelle Obama have arrived at The White House and were greeted by President and Mrs. Bush.

President Bush and President-elect Obama have now entered the Oval Office and plan to spend the next hour and a half discussing the transition. A quick transition from one administration to the next was a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.

CNN reports:

The meeting between the president and president-elect is a historic formality, but it's also a time for serious talks. Monday will mark the first time that Obama has visited the Oval Office. The two are expected to discuss "a broad range of issues," focusing on the economy, according to a leader of Obama's transition team. "It's clear that we need to stabilize the economy, to deal with the financial meltdown that's now spreading across the rest of the economy. The auto industry is really, really back on its heels," transition team leader John Podesta said.

As I've been looking into how race affected the results of Prop 8, I have been struck by the history of the uneasy and schizophrenic relationship between sexuality and race.

In March of 2007, Keith Boykin wrote the article "Why Are Whites So Homophobic?" In it, he writes:

Every time a Tim Hardaway or an Isaiah Washington or an unknown black preacher makes an anti-gay comment, reporters call me up and ask why are black people so homophobic. But when high-profile white people make homophobic remarks, nobody ever asks why are white people so homophobic. They should, because the answers to the two questions are related. African Americans are homophobic because white Americans are homophobic. We all live in the same homophobic society, and in this case the prejudice starts from the president on down.

And in January of this year, Obama gave one of his most remarkable speeches. On the day before Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, At one of the premier black American churches where King used to preach, long before he was the Democratic nominee and even longer before he was President-elect, Senator Barack Obama told 2000 worshippers:

If we are honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community. We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them.[Politico]

Just this weekend, on 365Gay.com, Wayne Besen wrote:

I can understand why white gay people are angry. I certainly am. But let’s take a step back and look at this dispassionately. I believe our failure with the African American vote (70 percent voted in favor of Prop. has more to do with education levels than race. In general, people with lower levels of education - of any race - do not vote for gay rights. White people are twice as likely to graduate college as black people. This accounts for the difference by race on Prop. 8.

And then on The Daily Voice Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes:

"No surprise that blacks tipped the scale for California's gay marriage ban" - The painful truth is that Proposition 8 would have gone down to flaming defeat if blacks hadn't backed it in droves. Proposition 8 was the ballot initiative that defines marriage as strictly between a man and a woman and embeds that in the California state constitution.

Just one month before the election most polls showed that a majority of Californians rejected the measure. But then something happened. A slew of Yes on 8 signs and stickers popped up overnight on lawns in my neighborhood in the predominantly black Crenshaw area near South Los Angeles. The week before that a well-heeled core of preachers who head fundamentalist leaning, mega and medium sized black churches held a rally and then took to their pulpits and bible thumped their congregations to pass the initiative. It worked. Associated Press exit polls found that seven in 10 blacks voted in favor of the proposition, while Latinos marginally supported it and whites were split.

No one seems to have the complete answer, and everything I try to write to sum all of this up sounds . . . not quite right. We're not going to agree with everyone or even each other, necessarily, but we can, and should, arm ourselves with our shared histories. That's, at least, a place to start.

A 1:46 clip of Obama's first press conference. In this clip he discusses the economy.

Politico launches "Politico 44: A Living Diary of the Obama Presidency"

Former Chief Strategist David Axelrod accepts the position of Senior Adviser in the White House. Joins new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Another call to ease up on the race and sexuality Prop 8 rhetoric

Prop 8 opponents concede defeat

Maureen Dowd forgets that gays took a hit Tuesday night

Below, the South Park view of the Obama win.

Yesterday was a little rough. The joy of Obama's win battled the loss of our civil rights. How could a nation elect Obama while simultaneously excising our equality? But, I don't want the setbacks to overshadow the successes. President-elect Barack Obama mentioned gays in his acceptance speech. This is not something he did in his speech on race. In fact, in that speech, there was a natural place for us to be mentioned, an organic moment where gays could have been bundled together with other people who have struggled, but this is what he said: " . . . as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past."

Right there, right between "black" and "Latino." Or right between "Asian" and "rich." Or "poor" and "young." Or after "old." There. Somewhere. Say "gay and straight."

But, BUT, this is what he said in his acceptance speech:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dreams of our founders are alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretch around schools and churches, in numbers this nation has never seen. By people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives. Because they believed that this time must be different. That their voices could be that difference.

It is the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who send a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states - we are and always will be the United States of America.

One door closes, and another one opens.

Via Gawker.

Below, via The Bilerico Project, is Obama's call for full LGBT equality, written in 2007. During the past year, Obama has remained consistent in his support of gay rights. He has also remained consistently confusing. How can an African-American man speak of equality for all while arguing for separate-but-equal? When I say I don't understand this, I am not being coy or euphemistic. I honestly cannot wrap my head around this. I mean, Wanda Sykes has done more for the fight against Prop 8 than Obama has.

It's just so frustrating that such a great man won't take the same leap of faith that he is asking us to make. Read Obama's "A Call for Full Equality" below.

[Bilerico editor's statement: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama guest posted at Bilerico Project to explain his support for LGBT civil rights. This post was originally published on November 10, 2007; it seemed appropriate to reprint it tonight, the eve of the presidential election.]

Over the last several weeks, the question of GLBT equality was placed on center stage by the appearance of Donnie McClurkin at one of my campaign events. McClurkin is a talented performer and a beloved figure among many African Americans and Christians around the country. At the same time, he espouses beliefs about homosexuality that I completely reject.

The events of the last several weeks are not the occasion that I would have chosen to discuss America's divisions on gay rights and my own deep commitment to GLBT equality. Now that the issue is before us, however, I do not intend to run away from it. These events have provided an important opportunity for us to confront a difficult fact: There are good, decent, moral people in this country who do not yet embrace their gay brothers and sisters as full members of our shared community.

We will not secure full equality for all GLBT Americans until we learn how to address that deep disagreement and move beyond it. To achieve that goal, we must state our beliefs boldly, bring the message of equality to audiences that have not yet accepted it, and listen to what those audiences have to say in return.

Continued after the jump.

For my entire career in public life, I have brought the message of GLBT equality to skeptical audiences as well as friendly ones. No other leading candidate in the race for the Presidency has demonstrated the same commitment to the principle of full equality. I support the full and unqualified repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. While some say we should repeal only part of the law, I believe we should get rid of that statute altogether. Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples. I will also fight to repeal the U.S. military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, a law that should never have been passed, and my Defense Department will work with top military leaders to implement that repeal.

As President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples - whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. I will also place the weight of my administration behind the enactment of the Matthew Shepard Act to outlaw hate crimes and a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act to outlaw workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. I have supported fully inclusive protections since my days in the Illinois legislature, when I sponsored a bill to outlaw workplace discrimination that expressly included both sexual orientation and gender identity.

That is where I stand on the major issues of the day. But having the right positions on the issues is only half the battle. The other half is to win broad support for those positions. And winning broad support will require stepping outside our comfort zone. If we want to repeal DOMA, repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and implement fully inclusive laws outlawing hate crimes and discrimination in the workplace, we need to bring the message of GLBT equality to people who are not yet convinced.

That's why I brought this message of inclusiveness to all of America in my keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention. I reiterated that message in the speech announcing my candidacy for President. Since beginning my campaign, I have been talking about GLBT equality on the stump, from rural farmers to Southern preachers. Just as important, I have been listening to what all Americans have to say in return. I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all GLBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work that we need to do if we are going to move forward together. It is difficult. It is challenging. And it is necessary.

The American people have been poorly served by two terms of an administration that seeks to manipulate us through fear: fear over national security, fear over immigrants and fear over gay and lesbian couples in loving relationships. Americans are yearning for leadership that will put an end to the fear mongering and instead begin empowering us once again to reach for the America we know is possible. I believe that we can achieve the goal of full equality for the millions of GLBT people in this country. To do that, we need leadership that appeals to the best parts of the human spirit, rather than the worst. Together, we will achieve real equality for all Americans, gay and straight alike.

Click below to jump to the full size players or click here to launch them in a new window. Or just hang out and watch them in The Media Bar next door.

Daily Song:
Travis
"J. Smith"
From today's Listen Up (New Music Tuesday)
Read Pork's full post here

Television:
The first five minutes of the first episode of the first season of "The West Wing." Because I can't be the only one thinking that President Bartlett was the first paving stone on the path to an Obama Presidency.

Politics:
This video supporting Obama is one of the few produced for him that captures and reflects the yearning that promises to be eased by an Obama Presidency.

Movies:
HBO's "Recount"
Not that we need a reminder of the importance of this election, but here's a quick glance in the rearview mirror.

Music Video:
Obama '08
"A Change Is Gonna Come"

Click below to jump to the full size players or click here to launch them in a new window. Or just hang out and watch them in The Media Bar next door.

Daily Song:

Travis "J. Smith"

Television:

The first five minutes of the first episode of the first season of "The West Wing." Because I can't be the only one thinking that President Bartlett was the first paving stone on the path to an Obama Presidency.

Politics:

This video supporting Obama is one of the few produced for him that captures and reflects the yearning that promises to be eased by an Obama Presidency.

Movies:

HBO's "Recount"
Not that we need a reminder of the importance of this election, but here's a quick glance in the rearview mirror.

Music Video:

Obama '08
"A Change Is Gonna Come"

On the eve of the election, Barack Obama's grandmother has died. Updates to come.

With the eleventh hour of the election striking, I started thinking about what happens next? Specifically, what happens to all the extra money raised by the candidates during the campaign. Well, by Obama anyway. McCain's stint on SNL had him hawking wares on QVC, which might not be too far from the truth. So, what happens to all of Obama's extra money? He has, after, raised a combined $600 million dollars in the primaries and the general election.

I poked around quite a bit and found that Slate had the best breakdown of post-campaign finances. I've used the information there as a template for my breakdown below.

Here goes:

Because he did not accept public financing, Obama does not have to submit his books to the Federal Election Committee. The private money means that he does not have to refund any money back to the Treasury because he didn't take any.

He will, of course, have to pay off creditors, but he has more than enough money to do that. He is allowed to save the money for his reelection campaign. He is also allowed to give the money to the Democratic National Committee or a Democratic state party, which can then be disbursed by them.
Continued after the jump.
He can give the money to charity provided he will not receive compensation from that charity with the money provided. And, he can refund the money to each of the individual donors.

The campaign funds can't be used for personal reasons, but leftover campaign funds "may be used to defray any ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in connection with the recipient's duties as a holder of Federal office, if applicable." If Obama loses he is also permitted to use the excess cash to defray "the costs of winding down" his presidential bid, although he's only permitted 6 months to use the money to close up shop.

Obama cannot simply transfer his remaining money to another candidate, bu he can make donations to other candidates according to the rules that govern individual contributions—a maximum of $2,000.

And, if Obama gets into any legal trouble, the FEC might allow him to use some of the left-over in his defense.

Barack Obama was interviewed by MTV. He was asked questions submitted by viewers. When asked about gay marriage and Prop 8, this is what he said:

I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that's not what America's about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them.

I've been hoping he would make make one final statement that told the world that we are fully human, and this is what we get. This is beyond disappointing. When Obama says he understands civil rights, when he says he is the product of the civil rights movement, when he says he wants to be the President of all Americans, we have to know that he is not speaking to us. He can't be. How could he tell us he knows the importance of the civil rights fight and then not fight for civil rights? When African-American voters in CA might decide the outcome of Prop 8, Obama could and should make a statement reminding all of us of our shared struggles? It might not be politically expedient to stand up for gay marriage right now, to stand up for a basic human right, but isn't that when you need to stand up the most?

Yes, Obama is far and away the best choice for President, and I will be voting for him, but we need to know what it is we're getting. He is Hope. He is Change. But is he hope and change for us?

McCain finally played the Rev. Wright card. It's like a time-warp back to last summer! A weird, too-little, too-late, why-now time-warp.