Barack Obama

This is a much better version of what I tried to do on election day. [Hat tip: Babak]

Time: Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2008 My Chance Encounter With Obama in Hawaii By Pico Iyer It was three days before the new year in late 2006, and I was eating a burger with the traveler and writer Paul Theroux on Oahu’s North Shore. Beside us in the rickety little shack was a quintessentially Hawaiian group of Chinese Americans, African Americans, semi-Southeast Asians and kids who could have been any or all of the above, waiting for the dad in the…

Big ups to Newsweek for this massively amazing set of reporting on the Obama and McCain campaigns and the behind-the-scenes strategy and play-by-play of the buildup to the election. I’ve just finished part four of the seven part series, which closes with this fantastic kicker: The power of the Obama operation could be measured: doubling the turnout at the Iowa caucuses, raising twice as much money as any other candidate in history, organizing volunteers by the millions. (In Florida alone:…

Am I the last person to find out that Obama spoke on Tuesday night behind “10 feet high and 15 feet long” “two-inch thick bullet proof glass” ?

Newsweek: This is part one of a seven-part in-depth look behind the scenes of the campaign, consisting of exclusive behind-the-scenes reporting from the McCain and Obama camps assembled by a special team of reporters who were granted year-long access on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day. Barack Obama had a gift, and he knew it. He had a way of making very smart, very accomplished people feel virtuous just by wanting to help Barack…

LA Times: 4:39 PM PST, November 4, 2008 Gertrude Baines’ 114-year-old fingers wrapped lightly over the ballpoint pen as she bubbled in No. 18 on her ballot Tuesday. Her mouth curled up in a smile. A laugh escaped. The deed was done. A daughter of former slaves, Baines had just voted for a black man to be president of the United States. “What’s his name? I can’t say it,” she said shyly afterward. Those who helped her fill out the…

Props to Slate for calling it first. 200 + West Coast = Obama win. Still, I’m not going to bed (it’s almost 4 am here in France) until I hear the words “President-Elect Obama.”

Happy voting! We’ll be up late over here in France watching results online, streaming NPR and on French TV. Anyone want to call us, use the SkypeIn number. First polls close at 12 am Wednesday morning France time (that’s 6 pm Eastern) — but we may not have to stay up as late as we’d thought. Either way, I think it’s pretty clear who I voted for.