What Now ?

Obama wins. Now we are to get "change". I wonder what that means ? The biggest problem Obama will face is that he has no specific mandate to do anything except raise taxes on high income people. Other than that, he didn't specify what "change" he wanted. That's going to cause him problems building a governing consensus in Congress, even with his majorities in both houses.

Obama won by a rather small margin - just 5% in the popular vote. The nature of the Electoral College system provides a decisive result for small margins. The margin of victory in Ohio was about 4% - 200,000 votes. W won it by about 100,000 votes in 2004. In Florida, the margin of victory was 2% - 200,000 votes there, too. If those two states swung for McCain and a couple smaller ones, too, the result would be different. Obama won, but not by enough for much mandate for sweeping "change".

And expectations are very, very high due to his vague, but sweeping, rhetoric. Well, he will the press on his side for awhile. I suppose we'll soon be hearing of his canonization as a saint or his elevation to demi-god. The press likes to do that when their man wins.

On Blabberg I heard parts of a remarkably hostile and aggressive speech by Russian President Medvedev. They are clearly going to push for more world power. Trouble to come ...

Markets

My guess is that optimistic European buying drove up prices yesterday as they are ecstatic on Obama's election. The afternoon followthru was probably caused by expectations of a very large stimulus package that the Democrats will surely push.

Actions

Doing nothing.

Word of the Day

"Homunculus" - noun [$10]; I saw this word reading Goethe's "Faust", part II.
Homunculus means a little man, a manikin.
Sentence: The coming deification of Obama by his worshippers in the press and the Olympian expectations he has created with vague promises make his probable decent to being merely human quite risky. Will the path of that decent take him straight the status of homunculus in the eyes of the public and DC ruling classes ?