I'm sorry, but what is Michelle wearing?  One of the ugliest dresses my wife and I have seen!

Seriously.  That was great.  I'm left with more respect for Mc Cain than I had to begin with.  Beautiful.

McCain's speech is an effective reminder of the man we used to think he was.  But it doesn't undo all that we have learned since 2004 and that we saw in this campaign.

Michelle's outfit was weird--my husband and I said the exact same thing.  Ugliest dress ever.  

Now where has that John McCain been the last three months? This is the man I always figured he was, pre-Palin.

nostrandp-

Agreed.  It screamed "Look at my big booty!"

Frank,

Thanks for the great coverage of the campaign. This site gave us the best coverage of any magazine.

I too liked McCain's speech and felt that he was better than his crowd.

To be honest, I didn't even notice Michelle's dress.

McCain's speech was fine but don't let him off the hook like that after such a hateful campaign

Mcgumn: please see my post on the other thread.  I agree entirely with you.

Thanks for all your hard work this electoral season, Franklin.  As an antiessentialist, I think that it is futile to try to ascertain who the "real" McCain is. He is a complex man, composed of many strands. I don't think his leftward thrust was solely motivated by pique. And I do think that he will attempt to go the Ian McEwan route in '09 and beyond. Also, your pinata remark is very funny.

Nobody apologizes like John McCain.

Way to go jaunty, you took the Thanks for the Excellent Coverage right out of my mouth.  To all the editors, nice job.  Kick back, drink some wine, beer, marg's or whatever.

I could say my thanks is due more to euphoria than anything else, but I'll instead point to the fact that my appreciation started way back with Noam's excellent article and interview with Obama over a year ago.  From that point on, I've thought the editors covers coverage was comprehensive and quite informative; for both candidates.

Nice job again guys.

A once in a lifetime moment in our countries history and all you can do is comment on Michelle Obama's dress?

And then for some fool to make a mildly racist comment like, It screamed "Look at my big booty!"; went against everything that McCain and President elect Obama said in their speeches.

Simple minds are for simple times, give it a rest.

What, exactly, is wrong with a big booty???

Well, that was an awful dress, but it's OK because Barack had an excellent tie. And anyway, Michelle's dress was better than Cindy McCain's outfit, which made her look like Carmela Soprano.

As to McCain's speech, the graciousness and honor of his words do not "atone" for or even contradict the gracelessness and dishonor of his actions over the past two years. John McCain may have said some pretty things last night, but he has done so many ugly things since 2006, not the least to his own Republican primary opponents, that only a sentimental fool would believe that his words after the race was over, and not his deeds while the race was run, reflect the true character of the man. Your values are what you do, not what you say.

McCain's speech had a touch of nobility about it. I hope he steps away from his party as it continues to shrink, harden, grow more bitter. I hope he and Obama can work together.

"What, exactly, is wrong with a big booty???"

Give me a break"

rvpmeyer & miceelf-

Notice I made no value judgement on said big booty.  If fact, I love big booties (I married my wife in part because of hers)

rvpmeyer-

A) You are projecting your own racism.  Big booties know no color (my wife's is very white).

B) Ease up. It is you who need to give your obvious humorlessness a rest.  Don't be such a hard-on.

Holy moley - did we degenerate fast around here.  

Just wanted to support what Jaunty said - this magazine is THE place to go for coverage, the writing and personalities are addictive.  It's always the finest in the land.

Also, thanks to all of my fellow junkie TNR Talkback writers, from lunes to genius's I learned from each of you and will never forget you.  Thank you.

I don't think the Michelle comments are racist, just tacky and lame.

Agree with Jaunty, but I have zero fashion sense and can never understand how anyone could spend 150 grand on clothes or would even want to.

It was a great speech, and he never went to that cliche of addressing his "young" supporters because he knew he didn't have any, he had the great misfortune of being nominated 8 years too late against a campaign and a candidate absolute right for the times. I am glad he took the wrong approach (going to the right, making small issues big, ignoring big issues) but even if he did the right approach, (ran as a centrist, picked a human VP, etc.) he probably would not have won anyhow.

I felt a touch of sympathy for his mother, she has been the best thing about his campaign. I hope she took it well.

and I want to second wandrey about TNR. Down here in southern Mexico is has been my lifeline to America, and being a fairly small community got to know the writers and commentators about as well as I can know any complete stranger. Most other sites it is just commenting into the void, here it is both intelligent and personal.

And kudos to Nate Silver.

Wandrey - you always say what I want to and do it better than I ever could.

I'm a newcomer to the kind of passionate, intense interest in electoral politics displayed here. TNR has been my favorite place to come for information and opinion. I've learned a lot from the writers and commenters here. Thanks to you all.

Carol

Having had a chance to chew over the results, all the things I've read, said and heard the last two years and most especially the last month of this election I have to say that McCain did give a good concession speech and one that came much earlier than I had anticipated.

I will refrain from say McCain has regained his classiness and regained a sense of honor simply from giving his concession speech. I'll have to see how he acts the next four years before I give him the benefit of my doubts about the man who literally sold his soul to be the GOP candidate.

In his SNL performance and last night's concession speech, Johnny Mac looked and sounded not like a beaten man, but rather like a man who had had a tremendous weight lifted from his shoulders and realized that he could finally be himself again.

There are worse things in life than losing an election.

You assholes weren't singing that tune 24 hours ago.  Back then, McCain was the dirtiest most foulest old white man on the face of the planet.  Any hint of an attack on the promised one, however legitimate, was too much to bear.  Scum reporters who loved McCain for years turned their back on him because of their unhealthy crush on the obamessiah.  All questions about his ability to govern were quashed and postponed until after the election.

McCain ran a campaign the only way he knew how, the classy way.  He's been a class act his entire life and he was never comfortable talking about Ayers and Wright, as much as Americans deserve to know how much obama agrees with those two's views.  And McCain showed it last night.  Obama may have won the presidency last night, but McCain cemented his legacy as an American patriot, after serving this beloved country over 50 years.

jwl, classless in defeat. Yes, well we "assholes" have won the day, so let me just say that your misery is like sweet nectar to me. Most of us here at trying to be gracious winners, you are evidently a total asshole of a loser.

McCain has not been a class act his entire life, he walked out on his first wife after a series of affairs. Is that classy? It is not my business, but it sure as hell is not classy.

SIgh - I don't finish posts that start with "you assholes" and I don't think I'll start now.

Was glad to read that Steve Shmidt said no to Palin hogging in on McCain's concession speech - I wonder if he loathes her as much as so many others do, I could hardly blame him.  

Her nerve is never ending, I want to say I can't believe she had the shamelessness to even ask but then I nothing about her shamelessness can surprise me anymore.

(very kind Carol, thank you!)

You're right Blackton, I feel like I know you - l even picture what you look like and your kids, its weird.  I picture William Yard as looking like more svelte, cleaned up Jerry Garcia, which I hope he would know is a major compliment.  And on and on.  I always pictured Tep with a hat on like Drudge.

McCain is yet another example of the extreme yin and yang nature of very successful American politicans.  They often personify the banality of evil on one day while breaking your heart with their heroism the next.

He's no different.

We need McCain, we might as well admit it, try and forgive him for now and move on.  He could be a serious ally.  He wants it, he needs it and most important: he's a Republican willing to address global climate change in a real way, soon.  That's enough for me.

Obama won by 8 million frigging votes - that's not just a mandate, that's a demand.  We can afford to forgive.  You know McCain's wicked side is there, but you know the other side is as well - the funny patriot.  Just use the good and thwart the bad.  It's called politics.  No one knows that more than McCain.

blackton

Get off your wooden high horse.  Were you "gracious in defeat" in 2004? Me calling this liberal echo chamber an asshole is classy compared to the 4 years of Bush derangement syndrome you people have subjected me, our president, and America to.  Unlike you people, I won't cut off my nose to spite my face.  (hoping for failure in Iraq to fuck Bush) I hope this guy does an incredible job and there are Skittles falling from the sky in 4 years.  I love this country more than I could ever hate one man and his imbecilic promises.

8MM/300MM = 2%

Yeah, that's a landslide.  Roughly 99% of the populace wanted him to be president.

JWL, perhaps you missed the 2nd presidential debate where Obama explains in glorious detail his "association" with Bill Ayers.  Will you then entertain this New Yorker piece and put to bed once and for all the notion that you just "don't know" Obama, that the American people "need to know, need to ask questions" about his "dubious associations? www.newyorker.com/.../mr-ayerss-neighborhood.html

Actually, I think it was the 3rd where Obama explained his "association."  Either way.

"I picture William Yard as looking like more svelte, cleaned up Jerry Garcia, which I hope he would know is a major compliment."  Wandrey, a while back William said something about being able to drop a pencil into the cleavage of his man boobies.  And more recently, he was saying how his girlfriend was trying to fatten him up.  But maybe he wasn't being serious there :)

Anyway, as I was chuckling away I was wondering if Yard's comment was a PoMo exercise where you try to figure out what's true and what's not.

Hey jwl, i have countless times on the boards of TNR praised what few correct decisions Bush has made, like his recent success in North Korea and getting them to disarm, and I also supported the policy of the surge. And I stated I thought his going to China for the Olympics was correct. As to 2004, I never had any enthusiasm for Kerry so it didn't take me long to resign myself to it, in fact I was actually quite content to know that his 2nd term would inevitably result in a far greater Dem victory, which it did. Beyond that, Bush being a failure is a result of his disatrous policies, not from any name calling anyone here did.

And your math is hilarious, why act as though all 300 million people could vote? Ok, then lets say they could have, Obama would have killed in the kindergarden crowd, and who do you think the 30 million illegal and permanent residents would have voted for? McCain. So actually, Obama won by 50 million votes. No, lets make it 60 million because the Republicans always add another 10 million to the ranks of illegals.

I am a Democrat and a McCain voter who is not distraught that Obama has won. From that perspective, I would like to offer up my opinion that McCain did not run a dishonorable campaign.  He ran a good campaign.  McCain rebuked those who went too far, went out of his way to congratulate and praise Obama on many occasions during the election, and told his campaign that certain things were off limits.  Have we all forgotten McCain's very classy congratulations ad that he ran during the Democratic Convention?  If that's the mark of a sleazy and dishonorable campaign, or proof that McCain became someone he wasn't, then we need new words to describe campaigns like Elizabeth Dole's.  

Remember that it was in these very pages that pundits mused that, for Obama to beat McCain, McCain's record as an honorable man would need to be trashed with the cooperation of media sources.  Within days, that's exactly what started to happen.  That effort was largely successful.

I'm happy with Obama as my president, and think he also ran a largely congenial, honorable campaign.  I did a lot of American history to get my history degree, and this campaign, when compared to any campaign, was one of the most congenial and LEAST sleazy in history.  I think that's because of the character of the two men at the top of each ticket.

McCain's been saying stuff as classy and gracious as his concession speech for months now.  Seriously, people - let's put the "McCain changed and ran a dishonorable campaign" meme to rest.  

Phargle, hmm. Rather than give a laundry list of dishonorable things McCain did during his campaign, I'll just mention a couple of things that pops to mind.  During the 3rd debate, McCain openly brought up Obama's "troubling association" with Bill Ayers.  Obama explains it in detail, and the only rebuttal McCain has to offer is to repeat his original comment, unmodified.  It's as though he hadn't heard Obama at all.  Then there were the haters ashouting "terrorist!" and "kill him!" at McCain / Palin rallies, and McCain doesn't even bother to issue a statement against them.  When Obama pointed this out during the 3rd debate, McCain poo-poos it as "there are always a few kooks who attend these rallies," as though they're just garden-variety eccentrics who don't require further investigation and possible criminal charges.  Shortly thereafter his campaign issues a statement to the effect that Obama is making fun of and out of touch with the ordinary Americans who attend Mc-P rallies.

Sure, McCain didn't want to bring up Wright.  So Palin went rogue.  Well, who's in charge? The very best interpretation of McCain is that he was a "good" man surrounded by theocratic culture warriors.  Even this though is to damn him with poor leadership.  I suspect he more wanted to appear clean while letting others express his id.

re: satyendra. even if you're correct, the image of McCain you describe is mentally difficult to mesh with the McCain who tossed people for the duration of his campaign for daring to utter Obama's middle name - rightfully so, on McCain's part, since those people were trying to use Obama'a (beautiful, in my mind) name to stir up bigotry.

Ayers is someone who could, in good faith, be brought up as a troubling association.  Put yourself, for a moment, in the shoes of the other side:  imagine that McCain has an association with a former KKK grand wizard who burned churches and tried to blow up a classroom full of black children who was quoted in 2001 as saying that the KKK didn't do enough to prevent desegregation.  Would that be valid to discuss?  I think so.  McCain, in raising the association, was doing some legitimate political ju-jitsu on Obama.  McCain obviously hoped to force Obama to discuss Ayers.  Obama did a lot of the same sort of ju-jitsu on McCain, most noticably with Bush.  I think that was legitimate too.  In the same debate, McCain tried (and largely failed) to rebut that troubling association allegation. ;-)

Anyway, I don't think it makes McCain dishonourable.  A look at _both_ campaigns finds several below-the-belt blows, but very little rising to the level of dishonor.  

Phargle, sorry, it really is true that the Weatherman were into "extreme property crimes" to use Ayers's locution.  Attempting to bomb a classroom of black children would get you 25 or so counts of attempted murder.  And, federal civil rights violations because that crime intimidates the whole black community.  The offense is taken to a whole new level.

I don't have anything invested in defending or attacking Ayers.  The important thing though is his community has accepted him for his current work, and he and Obama were never really that close, anyway.

blackton

I'm sorry, I had no idea illegals and permanent residents could vote.  Is that some new rule that was recently introduced by the Obama administration?

If you want to do selective math like that, why don't you take a vote weighted by these factors:

1)how much taxes one pays/contributes to this country

2) how much one has sacrificed for this country (i.e. military, hippies saving water by not taking baths doesn't count)

3) Age (older people obviously have more life experience and more perspective.  Instead of stupid college-aged know it all hippies who think this is the worst of times and obama is the best of times.  Tell that to a guy who fought in WW2.)

McCain by a landslide.

I got no problems with this guy obama.  He ran an honorable campaign and didn't go into the gutter.  Neither did McCain.  (actually, he'd have a pretty shallow dive into the gutter given that McCain has an almost boy scout record.)

1) This guy will make American power weaker in the face of Russian rebirth, China rising, islamic terrorism, anti-american socialist jerks like Chavez, N Korea

2) His economic policies will force the above average to support (even more) the below average.

3) He has no experience in government prior to his senate election.  His senate election was practically handed to him after he faced a creampuff.  His entire political career reeks of completely being handed the throne.  i.e. he has not paid his dues in the halls of government.

4) I'm just generally sick of the empty words and slogans: Yes we can (can what?).  Change Change Change! (change what? not all change is good) Reeks of a bullshit scam artist trying to sell me a bridge - not that he is, but it sure feels like it.)

5) Don't like the fact that blacks are voting for him because he's black.  It makes me feel like blacks have their own agenda and self-interest in mind.  If that's the case, should I be voting according to my racial bloc too? I never have but should I begin to? We all remember what happened during the horrid Dinkins era in NYC.  Blacks were not arrested for rioting and crimes and were emboldened by having their "man" in office.  Would this carry over to the national level?

In all fairness, his election will

1) Give blacks no more reason to believe that they cannot succeed.  (I never believed that they had any reason to believe that anyway, not since at latest the 90's)

2) Give no more quarter to the ridiculous idea that they hate America only because of Bush and that anti-americanism never existed before 2000.  If the French and Europeans hate us now (which they will), it's cause they're gaullist jerkwads.

3) At least lefty jerks can shut the hell up about any war that obama engages in (most likely none - couple of missiles into empty pharmaceutical factories max).  They'll realize that one of the most pacifist candidates in history has made his decision so there must be no other alternative.

4) A chance to see how empty words and slogans may or may not translate into tangible results.  (Is this the end of PC and amorphous diversity speak as we know it?)

5) Islamic terrorists can be revealed for the dirt that they are - they hate us for our freedom of religion, not anything else.  They won't stop until we're all muslim.

6) Finally, and maybe most important, maybe all these pacifist baby boomer jerks and pacifist college punks and hippies can realize that there are HARD DECISIONS to be made in this world and some people you just CANNOT talk down from killing you. Obama goes into this with this blank worldview that we can placate anyone by talking to them.  Perhaps he'll get frustrated by the duplicitous nature of these scum and remove his naivete.  Hippies will then realize how utterly worthless their pacifism is when someone has a saracen sword to your throat with a videocamera.

Mr. Foer, With all due respect, your commentary reveals the very worst of political naiveté. John McCain was always a rightwing nut. He just used to be a more principled one.....with a few moderate positions on social issues.