It's official. Barack Obama won North Carolina. With Indiana, his total electoral votes are now at 364. Only Missouri is still unknown.

So of the battleground states, he won Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The Mandate grows. And it will go down in the history books as the best-run campaign ever, to date.

Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow, 1999.(It was either this or Lou Reed's "Vicious" for the McCain campaign and the media, but this won out.

Rock on- gold dust woman
Take your silver spoon
And dig your grave
....Is it over now- do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home.

This is an open thread.

Several readers have written me or posted comments wondering what I'll be writing about now that the Democrats have won back the White House.

I was asked the same question a year ago during this interview.

Rob La Gatta: So far, TalkLeft – liberal leaning in nature – has lived its entire life under the presidency of Republican George W. Bush. What do you plan to do if, come January 2009, a Democratic president is sworn into office? Do you expect that under such circumstances, the content, mission or direction of the blog would change?

My answer is pretty much the same today as it was then, reprinted and expanded on below: [More...]

Drug Czar Bill Walters (Office of National Drug Control Policy, aka ONDCP)is going out with a whimper.

on ONDCP’s blog, the drug czar’s office unveiled what may be their lamest anti-marijuana campaign yet. Yes, your tax dollars are actually funding this. For now.

By the way, jobs held by people who’ve acknowledged smoking marijuana include governor of California (Arnold Schwarzenegger), astronomer (Carl Sagan), mayor of New York (Michael Bloomberg), billionaire rock star/songwriter (Paul McCartney), and — well, you get the point.

Text of ad below:

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer got good news today. Federal prosecutors announced they will not file charges against him.

"I appreciate the impartiality and thoroughness of the investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office and I acknowledge and accept responsibility for the conduct it disclosed," Spitzer said in a statement today. "I resigned my position as Governor because I recognized that conduct was unworthy of an elected official."

That Spitzer won't be charged is only part of the story. The real news is that Spitzer has been cleared of financial wrongdoing.

Prosecutors had considered bringing charges connected to money laundering, or "structured withdrawals" to hide illegal movement of funds.

"After a thorough investigation, this office has uncovered no evidence of misuse of public or campaign funds," said U.S. attorney Michael J. Garcia.

As to no filing of prostitution-related charges, he was treated the same as everyone else:[More...]

The plot thickens:

Bolstered by a newly expanded majority, Harry Reid met with Joe Lieberman on Thursday to sketch out the conditions by which the Connecticut independent could continue to caucus with Senate Democrats. But Lieberman did not accept Reid's initial offers, leaving his future in the caucus uncertain, and potentially setting off a campaign to pressure the Democratic steering committee to decide Lieberman's fate.

(Emhais supplied.) Apparently Reid asked him to relinquish his committee chairmanship:

Reid offered Lieberman a deal to step down as chairman of the homeland security committee but take over the reins of another subcommittee, likely overseeing economic or small business issues officials said.

What next? Lieberman begging and pleading I suspect:

I like the way Matt Yglesias describes what bipartisanship should mean:

[T]he trick with these bipartisan concepts is to make sure that the credibility is flowing in the right direction. . . . The new administration needs to . . . build support for progressive policies by showing that it can be supported by a politically diverse group of people.

This is sharp thinking.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The freakout begins:

Right now, the rumors are that Larry Summers is the choice for the Treasury Secretary post. As Dean Baker suggests, this would not be a good thing.

It would be a really bad start to his administration if President Obama picked a Treasury Secretary who shares a substantial part of the blame for the bubble economy and the financial crisis. It will not be easy to pick up the pieces and get the economy back on its feet, but we would be going in the wrong direction to put one of the people responsible for getting us in this mess in the top economic position in the Obama administration.

It would be interesting to hear Dean Baker's theory of how Larry Summers "shares a substantial part of the blame for getting us in this mess." His post does not say. And it goes without saying that Stoller does not explain it. I hope Krugman weighs in on this.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

It turns out that arresting half the workforce at Iowa's Agriprocessors, Inc. for crimes related to their status as undocumented aliens wasn't good for Agriprocessors or, more importantly, for the town of Postville in which the kosher meatpacking plant is located. Agriprocessors has filed for bankruptcy.

The workforce arrests weren't Agriprocessors' only problem. Serious labor law violations, including the employment of underage workers, resulted in thousands of misdemeanor charges against the company, its owner and its top manager. The company's former CEO was arrested last week on federal charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants. Consumers (Jeralyn among them) stopped buying Agriprocessors' products after the plant's working conditions and child labor violations were publicized.

Still, it's difficult for a company to stay in business when half its workforce is suddenly hauled off to jail (not to mention the devastating consequences to the workers and their families). [more ...]

We're not going to have Gov. Sarah Palin to kick around any more much longer, which is fine by me, since all I ever wanted was for her not to become Vice President and for people to recognize John McCain's astoundingly reckless judgment in choosing her for the ticket, but I do find this amusing and can't resist writing about it.

The New York Times recaps her final moments at the Arizona Biltmore Wednesday and last trip aboard her McCain-Palin campaign plane:

As Ms. Palin’s entourage of two dozen family members and friends boarded the plane, and aides scurried around loading diapers, bottled water and a Louis Vuitton duffel onto it, Ms. Palin darted over to the reporters, whom she regularly derided as “Barack Obama’s friends in the media” in her stump speech, to shake hands and say goodbye.

[More...]

Barack Obama ran a masterful campaign and is clearly one of the finest politicians we will ever see. That said, Obama's win is also a function of the emerged Democratic majority. to wit, demography is political destiny. Matt Yglesias consistently made an important point - a vote is a vote - whether it is from a white man or an African American woman or a Latino. After 2004, the DLC types harped on the need to do better among white voters, particularly "values voters." This election really shattered the myth that Democrats needed Bubbas to win. The Media of course still does not fully get it:

Obama won men, which no Democrat had managed since Bill Clinton. . . . He won 54% of Catholics, 66% of Latinos, 68% of new voters — a multicultural, multigenerational movement that shatters the old political ice pack. . . . The Republican caucus is smaller, more male and whiter at a time when the electorate is heading the other way.

But the electorate has been "heading the other way" since 1992. The electorate has reached the point that Democrats can win the Presidency and the Congress with just 40% of the white vote. And that number will keep dropping. More . . .

One thing I do not understand about the ongoing McCain war against Sarah Palin - do they not realize that this is more of a comment on McCain than Palin? As far as I know, she was minding her own business in Alaska when McCain decided to name her as his VP pick. So when they attack her now, as they do, they are basically making it abundantly clear that John McCain was utterly unfit to be President, did not put country first and was the disgraceful figure I always thought him to be. It is quite remarkable.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only