Barack Obama's "suntan"

10:14am UK, Friday November 07, 2008

The Italian Prime Minister has been blasted for his blundering welcome of the US President-elect - after he praised Barack Obama's "suntan".

Berlusconi labelled Obama 'handsome, young and suntanned'

Silvio Berlusconi made the comment at a joint press conference with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev.

"I will try to help relations between Russia and the United States where a new generation has come to power, and I don't see problems for Medvedev to establish good relations with Obama who is handsome, young and suntanned," he said.

Italy's left-wing opposition parties have demanded Mr Berlusconi apologise for the gaffe - which they say is at best a diplomatic blunder and at worst racist.

"Berlusconi cannot control himself in the best of circumstances," said Dario Franceschini of Italy's centre-left opposition Democratic Party.

"He forgets that his words hurt our country's image in the world."

But the Italian leader, who himself sports a suntan, hit back at his critics - accusing them of not having a sense of humour.

"God save us from the imbeciles," he said.

The 72-year-old media mogul is no stranger to putting his foot in it.

While campaigning for elections in 2006, he famously said that Chinese people "boiled babies for fertiliser" during the Mao Zedong era.

At his first meeting with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in 2002, Mr Berlusconi said: "Rasmussen is not only a great colleague, he's also the best-looking prime minister in Europe.

"He's so good looking, I'm even thinking of introducing him to my wife."

(http://news.sky.com/skynews)

Which polls got it right?

Thu Nov 6, 4:21 pm ET

Now that Barack Obama has officially won North Carolina and all of the electoral map is filled in (save Missouri, kind of), we were inclined to look at which of the pollsters and prognosticators called the election right.

First, we can look at Nate Silver, a new prognosticator to the political scene. The baseball statistician turned Electoral College map savant really was the belle of the election ball, living up to his website's tag line: Electoral projections done right.

While Silver never did any of his own polling, he analyzed all the pollsters' findings and spit out every voting model possible. Ultimately, he said Obama would win by 52 percent to 46 percent. In the end, Obama won 52 percent to 46 percent in the popular vote.

Silver's Electoral College map wasn't far off either. This graphic below, shows a comparison of what he projected vs. what actually happened. Unless I'm looking at this map wrong, the only thing they projected incorrectly was Indiana. (A note: Many news outlets have not called Missouri yet because it's so close. The latest numbers have McCain ahead by about 6,000 votes. If that's the ultimate outcome, Silver got that right too.)

The old stand-by pollsters didn't do badly either. A look at the Real Clear Politics poll average page tells us that almost everyone got Obama's number right. Gallup and Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby shot a little too high at 55 percent and 54 percent respectively. Fox News and Diageo/Hotline shot a little too low at 50 percent.

The whole group was collectively off a bit on McCain's numbers. The Real Clear Politics average put McCain's total at 44.5 percent, a point and a half under what he ultimately received.

Pew Research and Rasmussen Reports get gold stars though. They nailed both candidates' numbers.

In what many are considering the first true Internet election, pollsters and professional prognosticators weren't the only ones trying their hands at electoral map predictions. Tens of thousands of people created their own scenarios on the Yahoo! News Political Dashboard. If you consider Missouri as having gone to McCain, then 32 people of the thousands that created a scenario got the election right.

Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Sen. Lieberman has to go ...

Lieberman pondering 'options' after Reid meeting
Posted: 04:30 PM ET

From CNN Congressional Producer Ted Barrett
Lieberman met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman said Thursday he needs a few days to ponder "the options that I have before me" after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Lieberman did not explain what those options were when he made brief remarks to reporters, and Reid said afterward that no decisions have been made.

Watch: 'We must unite' Lieberman says

Lieberman, the Democratic Party's 2000 vice presidential nominee, supported Republican Sen. John McCain in Tuesday's presidential election. But after Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's victory over McCain, the Connecticut senator said it was time to unite behind the incoming president.

"I decided in that election that partisanship should take a back seat to doing what I believed was best for our country," he said. "But the election is over, and I completely agree with President-elect Obama that we must now unite to get the economy going again and keep the American people safe."

Lieberman's continued allegiance to the Democratic caucus has given the party a 51-49 majority in the Senate since 2006, and he holds the chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. But his support of McCain — and sometimes-harsh criticism of Obama — angered many of his colleagues.

Clues to election result could come early

Trends in the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain could become clear soon after the first polls begin to close at 6 p.m. EST in Indiana.

The next round of tests is at 7 p.m. EST when voting ends in Georgia, parts of Florida and the battleground state of Virginia.

At 7:30 p.m. EST, polls close in the states of Ohio and North Carolina.

By 8 p.m. EST, all polls in Florida will be closed.

Voting in Pennsylvania, which has 21 electoral votes, also ends at 8 p.m. EST.

The first crucial Senate showdown is in Kentucky, where Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is in a tough fight for re-election and, like Indiana, polls begin to close at 6 p.m. EST.

(source http://www.reuters.com)

My Friends, THAT WON 250+D, 59+D, 390 (+10%) BO

Election Night Predictions
November 02, 2008 9:36 AMJennifer Parker-->
This morning on our This Week Roundtable we made our predictions for Tuesday night's outcome:
Mark Halperin, Time Magazine: Electoral Vote -- 349 ObamaSenate -- 58 Democratic seatsHouse -- Democrats net 28 House seats
Matthew Dowd, former Republican strategist:Electoral Vote -- 338 plus ObamaSenate -- 8 plus pick ups for DemocratsHouse -- 17 plus pick ups for Democrats
George Will, ABC News contributor: Electoral Vote -- 378 ObamaSenate -- 8 pick ups for the DemocratsHouse -- 21 pick ups for the Democrats
Donna Brazile, former Democratic strategist: Electoral Vote -- Obama 343Senate - Democrats 59 plus runoffHouse - Democrats pick up 29
Here are my predictions ...
George Stephanopoulos:Electoral Vote -- 353 ObamaSenate -- 58 DemocratsHouse -- House Democrats pick up 28 seats
Those are our predictions. What are yours?
--George Stephanopoulos