Another Time

Talking Business
75 Years Later, a Nation Hopes for Another F.D.R.
By JOE NOCERA

“We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we’re going to have to act swiftly to resolve it.”

So said Barack Obama on Friday in his first postelection news conference, a pretty good sign that the president-elect had been brushing up on his presidential history. Seventy-five years ago, the last time the country was this close to economic abyss, Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his famous inaugural, the one where he uttered those immortal words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

But as a Newsweek columnist, Jonathan Alter, who wrote “The Defining Moment,” a book about Roosevelt’s first election and early presidency, pointed out to me the other day, that great line was buried in most news stories about the speech. Stories focused instead on another phrase F.D.R. used: “action, and action now.” In 1933, after three years of incompetence from the administration of Herbert Hoover, that is what Americans most yearned to hear. And on Friday, when Mr. Obama vowed, within the first five minutes of his remarks, to “act swiftly,” he too was offering the same message to a country every bit as receptive. More

Summary of Election Results

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Hall of Irrelevant Pictures

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/irrelevant

Election Snark

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Late Night Snark: Post Election Edition

"Attention passengers: The Straight Talk Express is no longer in service. ... Barack Obama is our new president. I think I speak for everybody when I say, 'Anybody mind if he starts a little early?' ... At the end of the night, the electoral vote count was 349 for Obama, 148 for McCain. Or as Fox News says: 'too close to call.'"
---David Letterman
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"People were worried about the Bradley effect. Apparently, it was not nearly as strong as the Bush effect."
---Jay Leno
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"You know who I blame? The Large Hadron Collider.  It is the world's largest and highest particle accelerator. You may remember we were warned that it could create a black hole and destroy the Earth. Consider this: it launched in mid-September, when John McCain was leading in the polls. I believe it jolted us into a parallel universe that was exactly like our own, only Barack Obama is president and the Phillies are world champions."
---Stephen Colbert
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"Yesterday, first lady Laura Bush called Michelle Obama and invited her and her young daughters to the White House. Laura Bush told Mrs. Obama, 'While I give you a tour, the girls can watch SpongeBob with the president.'"
---Conan O'Brien
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"We're all very happy except Sean Hannity, who is too busy in the bathroom crying."
---Fox News's Chris Wallace on The Daily Show
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"People all over the world are celebrating Obama’s victory. Sarah Palin watched the Russians celebrating from her house. ... Sen. John McCain’s concession speech was beautiful. It was dignified, and it was classy. And I think the reason for that is he didn’t let Palin say anything."
---Craig Ferguson
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"President Bush called Barack Obama to congratulate him. ... Obama thanked Bush for his call and for all he did to help Obama get elected."
---Jimmy Kimmel

And our favorite, courtesy of Letterman:

"But right about now Joe the plumber is meeting with his transition team. They're going to help ease him from obscurity back to oblivion."

Shamelessly Stolen from Bill in Portland Maine

Ian Fleming’s Jamaica

Strawberry Hill is an 18th-century plantation turned resort.
By DAVID G. ALLAN
Published: November 9, 2008

“THE first law for a secret agent is to get his geography right,” Ian Fleming wrote in “The Man With the Golden Gun.” And so it is for anyone following the trail of the man who created the world’s most famous secret agent through his adopted island of Jamaica, a journey that starts near Kingston on the tiny spit of beach called the Palisadoes that connects the city to Norman Manley International Airport. More