Month: November 2008

No deal

Google has announced an end to its monopolistic advertising agreement with Yahoo!:

However, after four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it’s clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn’t have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement.

This is good. But Google didn’t strike out completely yesterday, as it successfully bent the ear of the FCC toward wasting the whitespaces on their hare-brained “Wi-Fi without testosterone” scheme. You win some, you lose some.

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Quote of of the election

From Roger Simon (the real one) at Politico.com:

…Obama’s victory certainly says a great deal about how the right person with the right message at the right time can move very far and very fast in this country, no matter what the barriers.

Indeed. I’m looking forward to a great and inspirational presidency, and one that’s more moderate than the one we’ve just seen. Much more moderate.

Live Election Map


This is from AOL.

Obama flips Ohio, and wins Kerry states Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. This is looking like a wipe-out, and even Arizona is too close to call so far. Obama’s turnout models say he’s going to win Virginia, and that will seal the deal.

Nate Silver has called the election for Obama, based on Ohio and his model. Congratulations, President-elect Obama. (7:00 PM PST.)

And congratulations, America, for this historic breakthrough.

And a personal note to Kevin Martin: please clean out your desk and leave the building, promptly.

Early Returns favor Obama

OK folks, we now officially have a trend:

Dixville Notch, NH (AHN) – The town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, with a population of around 75 people and only 21 registered voters, has picked Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to be the next president of the United States. Obama defeated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by a margin of 15 votes to 6.

I figure the election is going to be essentially over by 6:00PM Pacific Time: if Obama takes Pennsylvania and Virginia, McCain is pretty much out of it, and if you throw in Indiana it’s all over:

“We could know Virginia at 7,” he said. “We could know Indiana before 8. We could know Florida at 8. We could know Pennsylvania at 8. We could know the whole story of the election with those results. We can’t be in this position of hiding our heads in the sand when the story is obvious.”

For a rundown of the early states to watch, see Nate Silver in Newsweek.

It’s a shame that McCain has to lose so decisively, because he’s obviously a decent man with many admirable qualities. If he had only spent a little more time on his VP pick, he could have saved his reputation. But he’s bound to have already realized that, and probably tried to get Palin to graciously step down. She’s not the sort of person to do “gracious,” of course, and I look forward to reading the full story in the weeks to come.

Congratulations, Phillies

A million fans came to the parade in Philly on Friday. I’d say baseball is still the National Pastime. This was a pretty decent World Series, apart from the Philly weather and the inept umpiring. I wanted the Rays to win, but the result’s not exactly heart-breaking either. Comcast had a lot to do with it, apparently, which must rankle Mr. NASCAR, Kevin Martin, whose car has crashed.

Million Fan March
Million Fan March

Election Story

This little gem is from FiveThirtyEight.com

So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”

In this economy, racism is officially a luxury. How is John McCain going to win if he can’t win those voters?

I surmise that Tuesday night’s election night coverage isn’t going to take very long.