I don’t know what’s worse, the CEOs of the three American car companies going to request a multibillion dollar bailout on Capitol Hill while flying on private corporate jets to travel to Washington, or Sarah Palin giving an interview after pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey while other turkeys are being slaughtered behind her.
I have not yet seen Oliver Stone’s recent biopic of the 43rd president, but I recommend reading this discussion about the movie and the Bush presidency between Stone and journalists Ron Suskind, Jacob Weisberg, Bob Woodward, and Michael Isikoff.
And for those of you looking for jobs in the federal government, the 2008 edition of the Plum Book is now available.
Update: Politico says Klain has accepted the VP Chief of Staff job.
Update II: Al Gore not interested in any jobs in the new administration.
Update III: Competition for jobs in the new administration is pretty fierce. Check out this graph from a recent article in TIME Magazine.
The most labor-intensive phase is about to begin, as teams of Obama aides descend on more than 100 federal departments and agencies to begin poring over their operations. Meanwhile, the new Administration is looking for more than 300 Cabinet secretaries, deputies and assistant secretaries, plus upwards of 2,500 political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation. Not that there will be any lack of candidates: in the first five days after Obama’s team set up its Change.gov website, 144,000 applications poured in.
538 – The total number of votes in the Electoral College.
270 – The number of votes in the Electoral College needed to win the White House.
72 – John McCain’s age. If elected, he would be the oldest first term president in American history.
65 – Joe Biden’s age.
47 – Barack Obama’s age.
44 – Sarah Palin’s age.
9 – The number of candidates who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.
11 – The number of candidates who ran for the Republican presidential nomination.
43 – The number of men who have been President of the United States.
46 – The number of men who have been Vice President of the United States.
14 – The number of vice presidents who have become president.
0 – The number of women and African Americans who have been President or Vice President of the United States.
41 – The number of states that lost jobs during the month of September.
15 – The approval rating of Congress in a recent poll by CBS News and the New York Times.
22 – President George W. Bush’s approval rating in recent poll by CBS News and the New York Times.
435 – The number of members in the House of Representatives. All of them are up for re-election.
34 – The number of senators up for re-election.
60 – The number of senators necessary to break a filibuster.
150,000,000 – The record amount of money the Obama campaign raised during the month of September.
134,000,000 – The amount of money the Obama campaign had at its disposal to spend during the final month of the election.
640,000,000 – The amount of money raised by the Obama campaign.
360,000,000 – The amount of money raised by the McCain campaign.
4,191 – The number of U.S. military casualties killed in Iraq since 2003.
554 – The number of U.S. military casualties killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
537 – The number of votes that decided who won Florida and the 2000 presidential election.
123,535,883 – The number of people who voted in the 2004 presidential election.
19,549,291 – The number of ballots cast during early voting in the 2008 election.
Note: All statistics are updated as of Friday, October 31.
Following up on my post yesterday about Joe Lieberman losing his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, The Hill has this story which puts it in the context of a broader reshuffling of the Senate Democratic caucus, caused by the potential loss of at least two members to the executive branch (Obama and Biden), health issues (Byrd and Kennedy), an expanded majority depending on how many seats they pick up next week.
The Washington Post has an interesting investigative story on what I didn’t realize was a cottage industry in Washington: commissioning artists to paint portraits of senior government officials using taxpayer money.
The Guardian wrote a profile on legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Yes, he does have a well-documented record of being a Bush-hating liberal who can get a little over the top with his rhetoric. But the Guardian buried the lead in their story.
‘You cannot believe how many people have told me to call them on 20 January [the date of the next president’s inauguration],’ he says, with relish. ‘[They say:] “You wanna know about abuses and violations? Call me then.” So that is what I’ll do, so long as nothing awful happens before the inauguration.’
Memo to investigative reporters everywhere: Have your rolodexes updated and ready to work the phones on Inauguration Day.
Icepicks and Nukes 