President

For all those of you who have been wondering what (and I'm just guessing about the translation here) "Barack Obama sworn in as 44th President of USA" looks like in Bulgarian, the Interlude is here to serve:

Барак Обама полага клетва като 44-ия президент на САЩ

For those of you interested in reading the full story in Bulgarian, here's the link:

For those of you who prefer reading English, try this one.

I, Barack Obama, Command You!

An ad from The New York Times' online. On the website, it was much larger—about the online equivalent of a half-page ad—and it completely overwhelmed the article on Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama at the convention last night.

I Continue to Be Mystified by the Stupidity of People

From an article in the BBC today. I offer you two statements that defy explanation:

An AP/Yahoo poll earlier this year said that 8% of white voters it asked admitted they would be uncomfortable voting for an African-American candidate.

Even after the prolonged Obama media blitz, a Pew Research Centre poll last month suggested that only 57% of voters even knew he was a Christian. More than one in 10 still thinks he is Muslim.

I don't care if you disagree with him, I don't care if you don't vote for him: regarding the second statement, don't be a moron! The very least you can do as a voter is know the facts about the people vying to hold the most important job in our country, if not in the world.

On the first statement, I can't help but think of the old joke about not wanting to be judged by 12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty: who would want to lead a country if they have to appeal to 24 million people whose biggest concern is the color of a person's skin? (Yes, that number is 8% of the total U.S. population, so even given the statistical margin of error for a poll, many, many millions of people are indeed THAT bigoted.)

I Still Like Him as a "Friend"

From today's Times: "Without criticizing President Bush, whom he has hailed as a good friend, [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy suggested that Mr. Obama would change the world’s view of the United States.

'If he is chosen, then France will be delighted,' Mr. Sarkozy said. 'And if it’s somebody else, then France will be the friend of the United States of America.'”

Somebody else? Is he thinking perhaps of Ralph Nader? Or maybe he's just trying to avoid hurting McCain's feelings? And now the Republicans are Sarkozy's "friends"... that's what every woman I ever dated wanted when they were breaking up with me!

I take back everything I said yesterday: I think someone's getting swept up in that Obamamania! Ahhhhhhhh, young love in bloom.....

Why Isn't President Bling-Bling Smiling?

From the BBC: Perhaps it's because he thinks Obama likes Angela Merkel better than him (I've often suspected that beneath the calm exterior of any head of state lurks the temperament of a preschooler). But I really think it's because this is probably the guy who's going to be taking charge of la Maison Blanche from his bestest chum, W.

Barack Obama

We got home from rehearsal last night just in time to hear Barack Obama's speech in St. Paul. If you missed it, watch the video above or read it here—it was truly inspiring. As much as I admire Jimmy Carter and think he may be the greatest Ex-President we'll ever see, this is really the first time that I was actually moved by a politician. In listening to him, it made think that we might for once have an opportunity to have a serious discussion in this country about issues and solutions to our problems, because I think John McCain is imminently capable of it.

But I have no doubt that the Republican machine will force us all to spend the next six months swimming through raw sewage instead.