Barack Obama’s election in the United States has fired imaginations around the globe, perhaps nowhere more than in the Middle East, where people wonder how the future president’s approach to the Arab world will differ from that of his predecessor.

Rosa sat so, Martin could walk, so Obama could run, so our children can fly

I get all my best rumors from McDonald’s on the South Side of Chicago. Today I was drinking my coffee while at the table on the other side of the tray return area came the following conversation from a group of African Americans:

“I’m a Republican.”
“You shoulda voted Democrat, you’d have a check comin’.”
(The Republican leaves.)
“Whether he’s Republican or Democrat, he’s got a check comin’.”

Last night I turned on the television long enough to hear McCain’s concession speech and Obama’s victory speech.  And of course between speeches the pundits had a little time to fill.  “A historic candidate”, they said about Obama.  Changing channels, “…historic…”  Changing channels again, “..historic…”.  Well, at least they all agree.

Today the pundits are asking who will be on the staff of the executive branch. Good question. Currently the the United States ranks 69^th in the world with regard to women in government.

Surely the new president who says he wants to unite people will have an inclusive staff? Doesn’t look like it. Obama’s people say there “aren’t enough qualified women” and call the idea “stupid”.

After the last Democratic Primary was over and it was clear Senator Clinton was not going to get the Democratic nomination, myself, and a small group of Clinton supporters met with Senator McCain.I personally explained to Senator McCain that women comprise well over half of the population, yet you will not see a single picture of a woman on paper currency. Women are underrepresented in every branch of government and there has never been a female president or vice president. I personally asked Senator McCain to choose a woman for the Vice Presidential slot and to increase the number of women in the cabinet and on the Supreme Court. Senator McCain listened respectfully to my request. Little did I know then that he heard me and the millions of women of this country who have gone unrepresented in the Executive branch of government for far too long.

When I made similar requests of the Obama campaign, I was laughed at by the canvassers outside my home, told there weren’t enough qualified women by a member of his Finance Committee, and asked by a member of a policy committee why I was making such a stupid request.

But that’s just the finance and policy staff, right? Obama himself really stands for fairness, doesn’t he?  Maybe not.

Obama’s female staffers, on average, make just 83 cents to the dollar his male staffers make.

Ooops.  And it looks like Vice President Elect Biden’s pay practices are even worse. Despite the fact that Biden employs 27 women and only 14 men (could that be a Clinton problem?), very few of the women and men share common titles.  The one job where there is overlap is staff assistants.  These are traditionally entry level low-wage jobs in congressional offices.

So how do Biden’s salaries stack up?

The average male staff assistant in Biden’s office (based on the most recent salary figures) made $39,162 in the time period.

The average woman in that position made $21,323.

McCain’s promise:

By the end of my first term, I promise you will see a dramatic increase in the presence of women in every part of the government. You have my word on it.

For those of us who don’t have a trust fund, this could be a looooong four years.
(Thanks to Madamab at The Confluence)

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there

So here we go. It’s 1:58am (Amman Time). I’ve got my Arabian coffee. I’ve got the talking heads on TV. Electoral maps on all the Firefox tabs. As I scour the Internet for interesting updates, from here there.

2:11am: First states come in. McCain takes KY and Obama takes VT. Expected.

2:18am: Daoud Kuttab is live blogging from Amman as well, right on the Huffington Post of all places.

2:33am: CNN just used a hologram for the first time to beam a correspondent from a tent in Chicago to the Situation Room. CNN spent 5 minutes talking about the hologram and referencing Star Wars at least 6 times.

2:39am: CBS News is projecting that West Virginia will go to McCain

2:41am: Indiana, a key battleground state that McCain needs in his pocket, seems to be going his way. All eyes go to Virginia.

2:48am: A 92 year-old Texan woman arrived to her polling place on a gurney in an ambulance. Now that’s a determined voter.

2:51am: Voting machine failures and registration glitches in precincts in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and Florida

2:55am: Flipping through all the channels, both on TV and on the live Web feeds of the major stations worldwide, there seem to be virtually hundreds of pundits and experts lined up. And I’m wondering just how many of these pundits all across the world are making their living tonight. Over 5,000?

2:58am: South Carolina goes to McCain, as called by CNN. Looks like Virginia might also go to McCain. If that’s the case, he has a good chance to take this election.

3:03am: Obama wins Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. McCain has won Oklahoma and Tennessee.

3:11am: Penn. goes to Obama. That’s an obvious electoral heavyweight for democrats. Early states are going to Obama.

3:15am: Obama takes a huge lead. 103 to 34. Red states are yet to come in.

3:23am: Waiting for Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert to go live at 5am Amman time. I need some giggles tonight.

3:30am: Apparently Obama is not al-mehdi.

3:36am: More red states go to McCain including Alabama and Arkansas (according to CBS). However, Georgia is going to Obama (according to MSNBC). Fox and NBC are projecting that state will go to McCain.

I’m wondering if this will be a night where not only does Obama win but the Democrats win a filibuster-proof majority in the House. Can the whole US swing to the left tonight? Those seat races are something to watch for.

3:49am: Without Penn. McCain has to win all of Bush’s states from 2004. According to CNN, white evangelicals voted for McCain in larger margins in South Carolina than they did for Bush. Sullivan calls it a “Rove legacy” for the Republican party.

Obama supporters gather in the thousands at Grant Park, Chicao. One million are expected to show up.

4:00am: Tid-bit info…US media spends $9.6million covering Obama versus $4.4million to cover McCain.

4:07am: New York and Great Lake states go to Obama…except of course for Ohio. They better declare that damn swing state before I fall asleep on my keyboard.

4:16am: Twitter Elections site is probably one of the coolest online political and social being used on this election day. Voters tracked everything as they waited in line, and are now updating every second as the results come in.

Twitter comment of the moment… ki_lo: OBAMA TAKES AFRICA!

4:21am: Fox projects Obama will take Ohio! Looks like this will be a short night after all.

4:25am: NBC calls Ohio for Obama

Japanese women react as they watch a part of the results of the U.S. presidential election through a TV set at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo.

4:36am: Well it’s pretty much over. Obama is a hair away from being officially declared President-elect. What’s left is really to see if this will be a landslide victory as well as the house and senate races, both factors of which will determine the kind of mandate he’ll have in 77 days.

Twitter comment of the moment… droidwhisperer: At McCain headquarters, they’ve turned off the news, and are just listening to Hank Williams Jr. play

4:50am: Hawaii officials will count Obama’s grandmother’s absentee ballot.
Quote of the Moment: “There is no path I can see for a McCain victory.” - John King, CNN

Waiting for the election results can be tedious.  And how to keep track of those pesky electoral votes as the states are called.  Here is a little electoral map with plenty of space for doodles.  You can color the states in as they turn red or blue.  If you prefer jpeg format, for importing to a Word document or whatever, a slightly higher resolution is here.

Me?  The weather is perfect for a little stroll by the lake.

Dang!

I'm surrounded by deeply entrenched McCain supporters over here! This was one of the questions that they ambushed me with. “What will Obama do for you?”

As the vocal onslaught progressed between the McCain supporters and the SINGLE Obama supporter. I thought it's a good idea to withdraw for now … but the question lingered!

I might not have the ability to vote for the president *yet*, but that doesn't mean I haven't already made up my mind on who I would have voted for.

And I would vote for Obama, (now or if I had all my citizenship stuff in order) because:

I find him more internationally presentable. He has the capacity to accept and understand diversity
I stood there thinking, of all the issues that Obama has on his agenda (The economy, taxes, gay rights, …etc)

That was the only thing I could feel that would affect me, or Obama would do for me

So I in turn as you….

What will Obama do for you?

Jordanian Naseem Tarawneh talks about the Five Friends campaign led by Hollywood celebrities to encourage young people in the U.S to vote in the elections. He writes:

I’m still loving the whole cultural element that has emerged from this election. The “Five Friends” campaign is a pretty interesting usage of Hollywood star power to encourage Americans to vote. It’s kind of ironic that in a democratic country you need the likes of Will Smith and Tom Cruise to give you a reason to vote, while a whole lot of people in the world are still waiting for the day they get to cast their vote in an actual free election (Jordan included). In any case, I thought the video was pretty cool, putting aside how effective celebrity endorsements and activism is or isn’t. What I thought was especially noteworthy, from a techie point of view, is the usage of YouTube and Google Maps in the US elections. Just a few years ago, who would’ve thunk it?

Here are two of the videos from the campaign:

The blogger continues on the subject here.

Orientalista, an American living in Syria, brings up a conversation she had with a man working at the post office in Damascus, when she went to cast her absentee ballot:

The ballot has to be in by the election, so the regular mail was out (usually takes three weeks). I paid 1000 lira for it to be in American in four days. The guy at the post office asked if it was for the election.
“Did you pick McCain or Obama?”
“Obama, of course!”

He smiled and then asked, “He's the black one right?”
“Yes.”
“But aren't you worried he might do things against the whites?”
“No.” I laughed. Like do what? “His policy is better than McCain's. He might work for better relations with Syria.”
“But you are white. You don't know what some one will do once they get power…”
“He will be better than Bush and that's what's important.”

I mean, what do you say to that?

More from Orientalista, here.

Jordanian Moi had a dream he was voting. He writes:

Last night in my dream, I went to the polls, very excited, casted my ballot and went home proud of myself. Then, to my surprise, I received an email when I got home “confirming” my vote for, none other than, a third party candidate! Apparently, I had voted for Bob Barr! I panicked, couldn’t believe that I mistakenly voted for Bob Barr– maybe I was confused between Barack and Bob?! I ran back to the polling place, and begged the elections officer to let me “correct” my vote. And the nice guy let me. Phew, that was a close one!

A couple weeks before that, my nightmare was worse. It was November 5th, and I had fallen asleep the night before while watching the election returns, not yet knowing who had won. Shock and awe. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t fathom. I heard Palin’s voice on TV, and I heard cheering. I saw McCain on the screen, smiling gleefully with the blonde gushing next to him.

And Ammar, from Jordan, talks about the “Obamaization of History” :

This is the point of view of a non American observer of American politics, and there sure is alot to see these days, but what makes this election special; both for Americans and non Americans is the possibilities it promises, those remain promises and are not in any way certainties, but with a man with so many complications; his father was a Muslim Kenyan , his mother was a white christian American, he has a Muslim middle name but he himself is a christian, he was accused of having attending a Madrasa or a Muslim religious school when he lived with his mother and step-father in Indonesia, despite the fact that the term Madrasa in the religious aspect of the word has a mental reference to the extremist schools in Afghanistan, and not the mainstream modern Islamic societies, and as a result, his patriotism was, and is questioned like no one's patriotism was ever questioned before, and still, he's the strongest contender to the presidency.

I hope Obama wins, for the sake of Ambition, and all that it stands for, The Ambition of people all around the world, and certainly my own, although I have nothing to do with US politics, but the election of Obama would have a domino effect, or a butterfly effect for the sake of a softer portrayal, I hope he wins, not because I think he's the awaited Messiah as the cynics on the opposite side of the fence describe his campaign, or because I think he'll achieve what the previous 20 presidents failed..or overlooked, but because he represents Ambition, the triumph of hard work, and the overcoming of all the odds.