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“Obama Slept Here” reads one headline in the Wall Street Journal. The Honolulu Advertiser follows with a story on all the places Obama lived while in Hawaii – to promote tourism, of course. The media is awashed with Obama images. Cardboard cutouts of Obama infiltrate political rallies. The Obama campaign symbol emerges from the ocean like Japan’s rising sun. Representations of Obama reminiscent of Mao pop into the world media at regular intervals. Andy Warhol-like Obama’s decorate sheik environs. I’m waiting for Obama trading cards to emerge, or technology items and clothing – adorned conspicuously with the official Obama logo.

Ahhh, to be in America in a time of change.

Thanks to www.adennak.com and The Daily Dish

Please. Someone save us from this man.

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From a 2005 commencement speech (WSJ $$) given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College.

A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded.

. . .

“Learning how to think” really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.

. . .

I submit that this is what the real, no-bull- value of your liberal-arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default-setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone, day in and day out.

The race here in the US may be tight but the rest of the planet- well at least 22 other countries – wants Obama to be the next President.

All 22 countries in a BBC World Service poll would prefer Democratic nominee Barack Obama elected US president instead of his Republican rival John McCain. Obama is preferred by a four to one margin on average across the 22,000 people polled.

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Last night’s speech by Sarah Palin at the 2008 Republican National Convention was so unbearable as to be insulting to Pit Bulls, a dog, by the way, totally misunderstood in American culture. But that’s another story. The substitution of sarcasm for substance, sentimentality for leadership, and plain demagoguery for argument sucked every living bit of reality out of that hall. This election is not about being from a small town, having kids, supporting the military, or even being a reformer. It is about building trust and inclusiveness, and offering the kind of intelligent leadership one needs to govern this country. Palin brings none of that to the table. What’s more important to recognize, is that for Palin, enemies are everywhere.  When you conceive of the world as a dog fight, no matter how you pretty it up, the future is both brutish and short.

From fivethirtyeight.com showing fresh data from Rasmussen that women are more skeptical of Palin:

These numbers pretty much speak for themselves, but men have a favorable impression of Palin by a 35-point margin, whereas women have a favorable impression of her by an 18-point margin. Conversely, by a 23-point margin, women do not think Palin is ready to be President, whereas Palin lost this question among men by a considerably smaller 6-point margin.

What?

Are these men smoking McCain’s weed? What are they thinking? This candidate will be a breath from the Presidency. See Fallows on what is on the horizon for Palin.

Moving on, more overall interesting stats from Rasmussen:

Republicans were evenly divided as to whether Biden was the right choice for Obama, but Democrats strongly reject Palin as McCain’s best option. Only 22% of those in Obama’s party say Palin was the right choice, while 47% disagree.

Just 29% of voters say Palin is ready to be president if necessary, ten points below the 39% who said the same a week ago about Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a 36-year member of the Senate. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Republican voters say she is ready along with 32% of unaffiliated voters and 11% of Democrats.

(Thanks to the Daily Dish)

As a woman, I’m offended. I’m offended that McCain is choosing a woman who is clearly ill-equipped to be the president of this country in an effort to woo over Hillary’s supporters. I’m offended because McCain’s decision is one of the most misogynist ones I’ve seen in recent history. Does he honestly believe that women in this country are so stupid as to believe that any woman is a substitute for another woman? That all that us women boil down to is our XX chromosomes and estrogen? C’mon now.

Don’t get me wrong – I want to see women in the highest positions of power in this country. But I don’t just want any woman. I want women in power who have earned the respect and worked to achieve said power. I want women who are chosen because of what they have done, not how they look in a political power game.

Whereas Hillary seems, well, ok with it.

“We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”

TechCrunch reports on news that despite previous trade problems between Apple and China Mobile, the iPhone may be going to China. The potential market is huge with most of the 200 million internet users in China getting access from their cell phone. The news comes from an insider rumor published by it.hexun.com and translated by Marbridge Consulting.

A source inside the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) revealed yesterday that China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) had reached a basic agreement with Apple to cooperate on bringing the iPhone to China without the revenue-sharing agreements Apple has in place with other carriers. Instead, China Mobile will procure the handsets for their full price, and then on-sell subsidized handsets to consumers. The source explained that China Mobile could buy a 3G iPhone from Apple for USD 299 – an example price – and then sell the handset to users for USD 199, treating the additional USD 100 as compensation to Apple.