ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Ivory Coast’s strongman leader Laurent Gbagbo holed up in a bunker inside the presidential residence Tuesday, defiantly maintaining he won the election four months ago even as troops backing the internationally recognized winner encircled the home.

Gbagbo’s comments by telephone to France’s LCI television came as French officials and a diplomat said he was negotiating his departure terms after French and U.N. forces launched a military offensive Monday. Democratically elected leader Alassane Ouattara has urged his supporters to take Gbagbo alive.

Talks about Gbagbo’s departure terms were ongoing Tuesday evening directly between Gbagbo and Ouattara, according to a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Choi Young-jin, the U.N.’s top envoy in Ivory Coast, said Tuesday that Gbagbo was in discussions about where he would go, possibly suggesting the strongman may be willing to consider stepping down after more than a decade in power.

When asked by The Associated Press Television News if he was confident that Gbagbo has decided to leave, Choi said:

“Yes, because as far as I know the key elements they are negotiating is where Mr. Gbagbo would go.”

“Mr. Gbagbo has signaled for the first time since the crisis, he will accept the will of the people, the results of the election,” Choi said.

France’s foreign minister said Gbagbo would be required to relinquish power in writing after a decade as president, and must formally recognize Ouattara, the internationally backed winner of the November election that plunged the West African nation into chaos.

But Gbagbo showed no intention of leaving, declaring in his interview with French television, that Ouattara “did not win the elections” even though he was declared the victor by the U.N., African Union, United States, former colonial power France and other world leaders.

“I won the election and I am not negotiating my departure,” Gbagbo said by telephone. The French channel said the interview was conducted by phone from his residence at 1730 GMT, and lasted about 20 minutes.

United Nations and French forces opened fire with attack helicopters on Gbagbo’s arms stockpiles and bases on Monday after four months of political deadlock in the former French colony in West Africa. Columns of foot soldiers allied with Ouattara also finally pierced the city limits of Abidjan.

“One might think that we are getting to the end of the crisis,” Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission to Ivory Coast said by phone. “We spoke to his close aides, some had already defected, some are ready to stop fighting. He is alone now, he is in his bunker with a handful of supporters and family members. So is he going to last or not? I don’t know.”

Toure said that the U.N. had received phone calls Tuesday from the three main Gbagbo-allied generals, saying they were planning to order their troops to stop fighting.

“They asked us to accept arms and ammunition from the troops and to provide them protection,” he said.

The offensive that began Monday included air attacks on the presidential residence and three strategic military garrisons, marking an unprecedented escalation in the international community’s efforts to oust Gbagbo, as pro-Ouattara fighters pushed their way to the heart of the city to reach Gbagbo’s home.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he welcomed the role of the U.N. and French forces in Ivory Coast, also known by its French name Cote d’Ivoire.

“To end this violence and prevent more bloodshed, former President Gbagbo must stand down immediately, and direct those who are fighting on his behalf to lay down their arms,” Obama said in a statement. “Every day that the fighting persists will bring more suffering, and further delay the future of peace and prosperity that the people of Cote d’Ivoire deserve.”

Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara even as the world’s largest cocoa producer teetered on the brink of all-out civil war as the political crisis drew out, with both men claiming the presidency. Ouattara has tried to rule from a lagoonside hotel, while Gbagbo has stubbornly refused every olive branch extended to him.

On Tuesday, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council again urged Gbagbo to cede power immediately to Ouattara “in order to curtail the suffering of the Ivorian people.”

The French foreign minister said negotiations with Gbagbo and his family were ongoing.

“His adviser, Alcide Djedje, who is presented as his foreign minister, has arrived at the French Embassy and he’s in the process of discussions on conditions of Gbagbo’s departure,” Juppe said from France.

Even before the offensive, postelection violence had left hundreds dead – most of them Ouattara supporters – and forced up to 1 million people to flee their homes.

Ivory Coast gained independence from France in 1960, and some 20,000 French citizens still lived there when a brief civil war broke out in 2002. French troops were then tasked by the U.N. with monitoring a cease-fire and protecting foreign nationals in Ivory Coast, which was once an economic star and is still one of the only countries in the region with four-lane highways, skyscrapers, escalators and wine bars.

Following four months of attempts to negotiate Gbagbo’s departure, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed an especially strong resolution giving the 12,000-strong peacekeeping operation the right “to use all necessary means to carry out its mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence … including to prevent the use of heavy weapons against the civilian population.”

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Teola Sanders has supported Mayor Ronald V. Dellums of Oakland for over 40 years.

That includes Mr. Dellums’s 13 victorious Congressional campaigns and the race four years ago, when a coalition of Oakland residents, including Ms. Sanders, a prominent black activist, persuaded him to give up a lucrative Washington lobbying practice to run for mayor.

But Ms. Sanders said her support had run its course.

“He should not ever run again,” she said. “Oakland needs a stronger mayor. He doesn’t do his job.”

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Click here to see gallery of Top Ten Black Politicians

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BOSTON (AP) — A person familiar with the investigation says one of three white men accused of torching a predominantly black Massachusetts church because they were angry with President Barack Obama’s election has agreed to plead guilty.

Benjamin Haskell is due for a change of plea hearing Tuesday in federal court in Springfield, Mass. The 23-year-old Haskell had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges.

A person informed of the change of plea tells The Associated Press that Haskell will plead guilty. The person spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the hearing.

Haskell’s attorney and federal prosecutors did not immediately return messages.

The fire destroyed the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield on Nov. 5, 2008, just hours after the election.

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WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (AP) — African-American voters couldn’t help the man who became the nation’s first black president win Arkansas in 2008. But the Democratic candidates for the Senate here, incumbent Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, believe black voters could decide their race, and both are waging an unusually intense campaign in the black community in the final days before the election.

Scores of union workers supporting Halter are going door to door in predominantly black cities in east Arkansas trying to sway any undecided voters remaining. Meanwhile, Lincoln and her allies are blanketing the airwaves ahead of Tuesday’s election with ads reminding voters of President Barack Obama’s support of the incumbent senator. In predominantly black towns such as West Memphis, union organizers were handing out Halter literature at African-Americans’ homes as Obama’s voice endorsing Lincoln was blaring from the radio.

The campaign isn’t intense only in this community. It’s a pitched battle on multiple fronts that has drawn millions of dollars in outside groups’ money. The race, which remains neck-and-neck, is seen as an important test of what kind of Democrat can prevail in conservative states such as Arkansas.

The special focus on black voters is unusual for Arkansas, where African-Americans account for only about 16 percent of the population and in recent history have not been the deciding factor in many statewide elections. But they suddenly represent an attractive target because of the tightness of this contest and the allure of uncommitted voters.

RELATED: Arkansas Attempts To Diversify Congressional Delegation

In Crittenden County, where West Memphis is located and the campaign is especially fierce, turnout jumped 12 percent in 2008 with Obama on the ballot, suggesting there are more votes to be had for candidates who can motivate the community. Lincoln, who represented east Arkansas for four years in Congress, won the county in the May 18 Senate primary.

“We firmly believe African-Americans are going to be the ones who decide this election,” said Ben Needham, a political action representative with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who is helping coordinate the labor union’s efforts for Halter in West Memphis.

In this election, “it looks close enough that this bloc could be the determining factor,” said Janine Parry, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The campaigns also trying to target seniors, rural voters and women.

AFSCME has spent $1.4 million during the runoff campaign, with no small amount directed at black voter turnout.

Besides West Memphis, the union has sent paid workers into Blytheville and Forrest City, predominantly black cities in east Arkansas.

Lincoln and Halter both are trying to rely on two of the Democratic Party’s superstars for help: Lincoln has the endorsement of both Clinton and Obama, but Halter and his allies often invoke their names in advertising in African-American markets. “Just like President Obama, Halter is running to change Washington, not be changed by Washington,” an announcer says in one spot.

One of Lincoln’s mailers features a photo of Lincoln standing side-by-side with Obama. Lincoln also chose Philander Smith College, a historically black school near downtown Little Rock, for a campaign appearance with Clinton last month.

Lincoln also is promoting her vote for the health care overhaul in appealing for blacks’ support. She says she’ll work with Obama on improving the nation’s economy.

Lincoln’s stature among the black community has been mixed. The NAACP gave her an “A” rating in February for her votes on civil rights legislation, but the organization’s Arkansas chapter faulted Lincoln and Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor for recommending only one black judicial candidate for a federal judgeship.

RELATED: Black Politicians Still Struggle After Obama’s Election

Also, she’s the more conservative candidate. Halter, with his strong union support, has argued that he’ll be a better friend to the working class and has promised to try at the federal level to make college more affordable. Liberal groups have faulted Lincoln for opposing a government-run option as part of the health legislation, while Halter has criticized her for voting against a companion measure to the health overhaul that was eventually signed into law.

Complicating the choice for Democrats is the question of which one — the conservative or the progressive — would make a strong candidate in November against the Republican nominee, John Boozman. A pronounced anti-incumbent mood in the nation could also be a factor.

Black voters supporting Halter say they’re not swayed by Lincoln’s high-profile endorsements, and are ready to switch.

“She’s taken us for granted,” said Gary Champ of Little Rock, who works at a wood treatment plant and is a union leader. “President Obama’s support doesn’t change that. I don’t blame him. He has to deal with her for the next seven months.”

Some voters are reeling from the competing claims.

In West Memphis, teachers Rodrick and Kimberly Crutchfield tried to explain to a union worker why they’re supporting Lincoln, a farmer’s daughter who grew up in nearby Helena, as the Obama ad played in the background on their radio. “This has been a tough run for everyone, and you can’t expect everything to go your way,” Kimberly Crutchfield says. “We’re going to give her another chance to do some good.”

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One year ago today, on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. While his victory was undoubtedly a momentous and historic event for the entire nation, Black people took particular pride in this singularly visible symbol of racial progress.

In recognition of the anniversary of Obama’s election, NewsOne invites you to both relive the excitement and consider its meaning. Take a look at our coverage from last November – links are below – and tell us in the comments: A year after Obama was elected, what do you think this historic moment really meant for our community?

A NEW AMERICAN FAMILY…

DEMOCRATS TAKE BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS

FINAL ELECTORAL TALLY: 364-174

OBAMA ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

MCCAIN CONCEDES, HIS SUPPORTERS JEER OBAMA

ANALYSIS: A NATION CHANGED, A NATION UNCHANGED

JESSE JACKSON WITH TEARS IN HIS EYES…

OBAMA WINS FORMER “RED” STATES: NEVADA, VIRGINIA, INDIANA

GALLERIES:

AFRICAN-AMERICAN FIRSTS, BEST OF BARACK, BEST OF MICHELLE

OPINION:

PATEL: A New Dawn Breaks

WEILER: Obama Victorious, McCain Gracious

KITWANA: Election Reflections From Great Minds

BLACKPLANET BLOGGERS: Astounding Black Youth Turnout

RICKETTS: Are We Ready For a Black President?

Artur Davis’ campaign to become Alabama’s first black governor is drawing notice as far off as New York, where a prominent attorney organized a top-dollar fundraiser at his swanky Manhattan penthouse. A rival Democrat, Ron Sparks, is also angling for funds far ahead of the party’s 2010 primary — by calling all donors to a fish fry.

Invitations to New York attorney Sanford Rubenstein’s fundraiser Monday night suggested contributions could be made in amounts of between $1,000 and $10,000. The address on the invitations? Rubenstein’s penthouse on Manhattan’s affluent East side.

Davis’ primary rival, state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, also organized his own fundraiser Monday night — an old-fashioned fish fry in a rural area of west Alabama. Sparks said his would be an outdoor event drawing about 200 supporters.

No matter how they do it, both camps’ efforts to collect cash are likely to shake up the governor’s race early.

Davis campaign chairman Jere Beasley said interest in the Democratic congressman’s run for governor is being whetted outside the state because of his ties to President Barack Obama — and the historic bid to become the first black governor of the Deep South state.

“The early financial support that Congressman Davis is receiving both here in Alabama and across the country is a clear demonstration of the strength and appeal of his candidacy,” said Beasley, a Montgomery attorney.

Rubenstein, the Manhattan host of the Davis reception, is accustomed to the limelight.

He was among lawyers who secured an $8.75 million settlement for Haitian immigrant Abner Louima after his beating by New York police in 1997. He has helped handle other high-profile cases, including one involving a $2 million settlement for the family of a woman who died on the floor of a hospital after waiting more than 24 hours for treatment. He even has represented the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Rubenstein did not return messages Monday seeking comment.

Davis campaign spokesman Alex Goepfert said Rubenstein is a longtime Democratic contributor who has helped former president Bill Clinton and former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. He said it was uncertain how many would attend the New York event or how much it would raise for Davis, a Harvard graduate and an attorney.

“You are going to see more interest in the campaign from all over the country,” Beasley said, noting Davis was also Obama’s state campaign chairman in Alabama and one of his earliest supporters.

Sparks, meanwhile, sought to pick up funds closer to home at a fishing camp owned by a retired insurance salesman in Millport, a town of about 1,200 people in west Alabama.

Sparks, a graduate of the Northeast Alabama Community College and agriculture commissioner since 2003, said he was uncertain how much money the fish fry would raise. His fundraiser didn’t have a suggested contribution like the Davis event in New York.

“I don’t run in those kinds of circles,” Sparks said with a jab at his rival. “I run with the people of Alabama.”

That said, out-of-state donations are not unusual in campaigns for Alabama governor whenever a candidate is known beyond state borders.

In the 2006 race for governor, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore landed many out-of-state contributions from people who admired his unsuccessful legal fight to display the Ten Commandments in the state judicial building earlier this decade. High-profile candidates routinely draw contributions from political groups in Washington.

Candidates for governor won’t have to report their contributions until January.

Sparks said his fish fry wouldn’t raise nearly as much as Davis’ reception, but that didn’t concern him.

“It’s pretty obvious we have different approaches on how to move Alabama forward,” he said.

Regardless of the cash raised, thewinner of the Davis-Sparks primary in June 2010 has a difficult challenge in the general election that November. Republicans have won every Alabama race for governor except one since 1986.

On the Republican side of the ballot, Moore is running again along with several others.

Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of “intolerable” meddling in its internal affairs, alleging for the first time that Washington has fueled a bitter postelection dispute. Opposition supporters marched in Tehran’s streets for a third straight day to protest the outcome of the balloting.

The Iranian government summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to complain about American interference, state-run Press TV reported.

The English-language channel quoted the government as calling Western interference “intolerable.”

President Barack Obama has reacted cautiously to developments in Iran, saying he shared the world’s “deep concerns about the election” but adding that it was “not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling.”

The two countries broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A crackdown on dissent continued, with more arrests of opposition figures reported, and the country’s most powerful military force — the Revolutionary Guard — saying that Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove any materials that “create tension” or face legal action.

Amateur video showed thousands of people marching on an overpass in Tehran in support of pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. He has accused the government of rigging the election in favor of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Marchers flashed the victory sign or carried placards, and some were dressed in green — the color of Mousavi’s campaign.

It was the third day in a row that Mousavi supporters have taken to the streets, and he called for another demonstrations on Thursday — a direct challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the cleric-led system.

Khamenei has told Mousavi to pursue his demands through the electoral system and called for Iranians to unite behind their Islamic government, an extraordinary appeal in response to tensions over the vote. But Mousavi appears unwilling to back down, issuing on his Web site a call for a mass demonstration Thursday.

“We want a peaceful rally to protest the unhealthy trend of the election and realize our goal of annulling the results,” Mousavi said.

He called for his followers to wear or carry black in mourning for the alleged election fraud and the deaths of protesters, and said there should be “a new presidential election that will not repeat the shameful fraud from the previous election.”

Mousavi and his supporters accuse the government of rigging the June 12 election to declare hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner. Their street protests, paired with dissent from powerful clerical and political figures, have presented one of the gravest threats to Iran‘s complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged from the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In another high-profile display of apparent opposition support, several Iranian soccer players wore green wrist bands during a World Cup qualifying match in South Korea that was televised in Iran.

Mousavi’s Web site said seven Iranian players wore the green bands in the first half of the game, although most were forced to take them off before the second half. It said Mehdi Mehdavi-Kia kept his green band on throughout the game, which Iran and South Korea drew 1-1.

Fans from Iran unfurled a banner in the stands that read “Go To Hell Dictator,” and waved Iran’s national flags emblazoned with the plea “Free Iran.”

Blogs and Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been vital conduits for Iranians to inform the world about protests and violence.

The Web became more essential after the government barred foreign media Tuesday from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations on the streets of Tehran.

Mousavi condemned the government for blocking Web sites, saying the government did not tolerate the voice of the opposition.

The violence has left at least seven people dead, according to Iran’s state media, although videos and photos posted by people inside Iran show scenes of violence that have not been reported through official channels. The new media restrictions make it virtually impossible to independently verify much of the information, which includes dramatic images of street clashes and wounded demonstrators.

Much of the imagery has been posted anonymously. In other cases, those who have posted have declined to be identified due to fear of government retaliation, or cannot be reached due to government restrictions on the Internet and mobile phones.

The Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force answering to Khamenei, said through the state news service that its investigators have taken action against “deviant news sites” that encouraged public disturbances. The Guard is a separate military with enormous domestic influence and control of Iran’s most important defense programs. It is one of the key sources of power for the ruling establishment.

The statement alleged that dissident Web sites were backed by Canadian, U.S. and British interests, a frequent charge levied by hard-liners against the opposition.

“Legal action will be very strong and call on them to remove such materials,” it said.

Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, said widespread vote fraud had undermined the legitimacy of the ruling Islamic system and that “no sound mind” would accept the results.

“A government that is based on intervening in (people’s) vote has no political or religious legitimacy,” said Montazeri, who had once been set to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader until he was ousted because of criticisms of the revolution.

State media said Khamenei would deliver the sermon at Friday prayers, the most important religious address of the week. The supreme leader generally leads Friday prayers only two or three times a year.

Unlike past student-led demonstrations, Mousavi has the ability to press his case with Iran’s highest authorities and could gain powerful allies. Some influential clerics have expressed concern about possible election irregularities, and a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, is part of the ruling establishment.

Iranian TV showed pictures of Faezeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani’s daughter, speaking to hundreds of Mousavi supporters, carrying pictures of Khomeini and others.

The U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said several dozen noted figures associated with the reform movement have been arrested, among them politicians, intellectuals, activists and journalists.

Analyst Saeed Leilaz, who is often quoted by Western media, was arrested Wednesday by plainclothes security officers at his home, said his wife, Sepehrnaz Panahi.

At least 10 Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election, Reporters Without Borders said, and a Web site run by former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said the reformist had been arrested.

Prominent reformer Saeed Hajjarian has also been detained, Hajjarian’s wife, Vajiheh Masousi, told The Associated Press. Hajjarian is a close aide to former President Mohammad Khatami.

The main electoral authority has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. The recount would be overseen by the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei.

But Mousavi alleges the Guardian Council is not neutral and has already indicated it supports Ahmadinejad. Mousavi and the two other candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad are calling for an independent investigation.

His representative, reformist cleric Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, said after a meeting with the council Tuesday the number of votes in counted in 70 districts was higher than the population in those districts. He also said many polling stations were closed sooner than scheduled on election night, while people were still lining up.

On Tuesday, the government organized a large rally in Tehran to show it too can bring supporters into the streets. Speakers urged Iranians to accept the results showing Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a landslide.

The appeal for unity failed to calm passions, and a large column of Mousavi supporters marched peacefully in north Tehran, according to amateur video.

Security forces did not interfere, a witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.

Ahmadinejad, who has dismissed the unrest as little more than “passions after a soccer match,” attended a summit Tuesday in Russia that was delayed a day by the unrest. He returned to Iran and held a cabinet meeting, saying on state television Wednesday that people had voted for his “policies of justice.”

Barack Obama has addressed the turmoil going on in Iran after protests against the election left one man dead.

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The mayor of Mississippi’s largest city died early Thursday, less than two days after losing a re-election bid in a contentious Democratic primary that came a week before his second federal trial. He was 60.

Mayor Frank Melton died peacefully at 12:10 a.m. at a Jackson hospital with his wife by his side, city spokeswoman Goldia Revies told The Associated Press.

Melton, who had a history of serious heart problems, was taken to the hospital from his home by ambulance on Tuesday night, shortly after polls closed.

At an emergency meeting Wednesday, the City Council tapped its president, Leslie Burl McLemore, to be acting mayor.

Unofficial results show Melton came in fourth of nine candidates. The top two finishers — Harvey Johnson, the former mayor Melton unseated in 2005, and city Councilman Marshand Crisler — advanced to a May 19 runoff.

Next week, a second trial was set to start for Melton and a former bodyguard, who each faced two federal civil rights charges related to a sledgehammer attack on a duplex on Aug. 26, 2006, that Melton considered a crackhouse.

A judge declared a mistrial in the first case in February after a jury failed to reach a verdict.

Melton had a serious heart condition that sent him to the hospital several times in recent years, including for bypass surgery.

Melton’s first federal trial was postponed while he was treated for his heart condition and he looked gaunt and tired through much of that trial. His doctor testified at the time that he was in “end stage cardiomyopathy.” She said she recommended a heart transplant, but Melton refused to get on a donor list.

He and the bodyguard, Jackson police officer Michael Recio, were both acquitted in April 2007 on state charges related to the raid.

Melton came to Mississippi from Tyler, Texas, in the 1980s to run NBC affiliate WLBT-TV. He soon made a name for himself with an opinion piece called “The Bottom Line” in which he called out criminals and verbally attacked city officials he considered ineffective.

“And that, my friends, is the bottom line,” became his catchphrase.

His wife, a pediatrician, and his two children stayed behind in Texas, prompting vicious rumors about his personal life. Melton brushed aside criticism, and did things his own, sometimes unusual way.

He became a fixture in poor neighborhoods, where he would talk to youngsters about personal accountability and hard work. He tried to broker a cease fire among gangs and volunteered as a swim instructor at an area YMCA.

He was elected by a landslide in 2005 after campaigning on a tough-on-crime platform. Since then, however, he was hounded by legal problems related to his unorthodox tactics.

Prosecutors say he was drunk on scotch and power when he ordered a group of young men — some with criminal records — to destroy the duplex in a poor neighborhood. Melton said he was only trying rid the city of a drug den.

From US News and World Report

CULVER CITY, CA (April 8, 2009) – Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group (SPWAG) has acquired all media rights internationally (excluding UK television) and domestic home entertainment rights to the previously untitled documentary feature film   BY THE PEOPLE: The Election of Barack Obama  .  The announcement was made today by Steve Bersch, President, SPWAG and Keith Le Goy, President, International Distribution, Sony Pictures Television (SPT).

Produced by Edward Norton’s Class 5 Films and directed by Amy Rice (From Ashes) and Alicia Sams (Toots), BY THE PEOPLE: The Election of Barack Obama will be released theatrically in the U.S. by HBO Documentary Films.  The documentary follows the former Senator from the announcement of his candidacy to his historic election and inauguration as the first African American president of the United States.  Told through unprecedented and exclusive footage of Obama and his staff, the film offers viewers an all-access pass to campaign life on the road to the White House.

“This remarkable film gives us a unique behind-the-scenes look at a truly transformative event. The filmmakers have done a beautiful job of creating a compelling narrative, and we are proud to be able to make the film available to the global market,” said Steve Bersch, President, SPWAG.

“Obama’s election was, clearly, a global event which people all over the world felt deeply about on both political and emotional levels. From the start, it was very important to us to share this film with as broad an international audience as possible and we’re really thrilled to be partnered with Sony in trying to achieve this because no company has more experience or reach in both the world markets and home video,” said Producer Edward Norton.

Sony Pictures Television is handling sales for TV (outside the U.S. and U.K.), mobile and new media.

Keith Le Goy, President, International Distribution, SPT stated: stated: “The election of Barack Obama to president of the United States was one of the most important world events in 2008.  The film allows viewers to experience Obama’s rise and we are thrilled to be the international distributor of the official film documenting this historic event.”

The film was financed by GOOD, Green Film Company, Citi Productions and Class 5 Films.  Class 5 Films credits include The Painted Veil, Down in the Valley, Keeping the Faith and Leaves of Grass.

The deal was brokered by Andrew Hurwitz and Endeavor on behalf of the filmmakers.

The ousted former president of a national organization of black Baptist churches is running for the position again, a decade after he was sent to prison for stealing millions of dollars from the group. The Rev. Henry J. Lyons was forced out as leader of the National Baptist Convention USA in 1999 after an investigation revealed he abused his power in the convention to steal about $4 million. He used the money to buy luxury homes and jewelry, and to support his mistresses.

Lyons currently serves as pastor of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla., and lost a bid to become president of the convention’s Florida chapter in 2007.

Lyons is running against one other candidate, the Rev. Julius R. Scruggs, pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church, in Huntsville, Ala., who also serves as vice president at large for the convention. The election takes place in September.

Aldon Morris, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, who’s written extensively about the convention, says Lyons faces an uphill battle and he doesn’t expect him to win.

“I think there’s significant numbers of leaders in the group across the county who feel it’s fine to forgive, but why have a leader with this sort of baggage?” Morris said. “The organization was very embarrassed by the charges against him. He certainly left it in bad shape.”

But Lyons isn’t without supporters. The Rev. Darin Freeman, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Charleston, W.Va., praised Lyons for reducing the convention’s debt by two-thirds in four years and skillfully handling divisions between churches of different sizes.

“Smaller churches around the country felt like they were equal with megachurches,” Freeman said. “A local pastor of 300 is equal to a pastor of 30 or a pastor of 3,000. All of us have a say.”

Lyons didn’t respond to several attempts by the The Associated Press to reach him by phone. But he told The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville that while he damaged the convention’s reputation, he’s a changed man who deserves a second chance as president.

“The shame of it I don’t believe it will ever go away. There’s nothing I can do about it,” he said.

Current president the Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw can’t seek a third five-year term under convention rules.

Lyons’ downfall came after his wife Deborah set fire to a $700,000 waterfront home he co-owned with a mistress, and the resulting investigation revealed he’d stolen money from the organization. The Lyonses have since divorced.

Lyons was convicted of racketeering and grand theft in 1999. He resigned as president of the National Baptist Convention and pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion, fraud and making false statements.

Scruggs, who hopes to increase church participation in convention activities if elected, declined to say much about Lyons’ candidacy.

“I prefer building on the present and the future and being as positive as possible and really don’t want to go back to that era and talk about those negatives,” he said.

The board was to meet Monday and was expected to declare which candidate received the most overall votes from nearly 3 million ballots cast. The latest numbers showed Franken, a Democrat, with a 225-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

But after the announcement, there will be a seven-day waiting period before an election certificate is completed. If any lawsuits are filed during that waiting period, certification is conditional until the issue is settled in court.

Coleman, who led Franken on election night, hasn’t ruled out a lawsuit challenging the results, claiming there were irregularities that gave Franken an unfair advantage.

The Coleman campaign also has a petition pending before the state Supreme Court to include 650 ballots that it says were improperly rejected but not forwarded by local officials to St. Paul for counting.

The court has not said when it would rule in that case.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who until recently was the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Sunday that Franken had won the election.

“While there are still possible legal issues that will run their course, there is no longer any doubt who will be the next Senator from Minnesota,” Schumer said. “With the Senate set to begin meeting on Tuesday to address the important issues facing the nation, it is crucial that Minnesota’s seat not remain empty, and I hope this process will resolve itself as soon as possible.”

Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called Schumer’s comments premature and troubling, since Schumer is the new chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which has jurisdiction over contested elections.

“Senator Schumer will likely play a key role in determining who ultimately assumes this Senate seat,” Cornyn said. “Pre-judging the outcome while litigation is still pending calls into question his ability to impartially preside over this matter when it comes before the Committee, as it most certainly will.”

Coleman’s term as senator officially expired Saturday.

Senate Republican leaders have said the chamber shouldn’t seat Franken until all legal matters are settled, even if that drags on for months.

Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr said in an e-mail Sunday: “In terms of future planning, we’re taking it one step at a time. The next step is the canvass board’s meeting tomorrow, where we have every expectation they will declare that Al won the election.”

“The police said on Saturday that two 18-year-old white men were arrested on Friday for the beating. The men, Ralph Nicoletti, of 35 Wadsworth Avenue, and Bryan Garaventa, of 169 Maryland Avenue, face charges of hate-crime assault and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the police.”

For the full story, click here.

MCCAIN’S SPEECH GRACIOUS, REPUBLICANS EXTREMIST

McCain’s very gracious speech is a reminder that there was a path not taken in this campaign. I have never especially been a believer in the McCain myth. But McCain could have run as a bi-partisan maverick, and not as an extremist. He likely still would have lost, but could have been more competitive and not disgraced himself in the process. The Republican Party base is now extremist and authoritarian and that’s poisonous for our politics and a losing hand for the party.

BARACK OBAMA WINS OHIO AND WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!

History has been made. The networks call it for Obama. And, it cannot be overstated – in addition to the obvious history-making nature of Obama’s candidacy and now presidency, he and the Democratic Party have re-written the electoral map. They have broken through in Virginia, have battled North Carolina to a draw; they’re becoming the dominant party in the southwest, they have a rock-solid foundation in the northeast and the West and a stranglehold on the industrial Midwest. This is not a one-election fluke. The Republican Party will have to appeal to a new, multi-ethnic, multi-racial and tolerant America, or it will continue to lose ground.

MCCAIN IN HOT WATER

McCain’s electoral prognosis just went from critical to terminal: with FOX and NBC calling Ohio for Obama, there is now no plausible path to 270 for McCain. Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States.

KAY HAGAN UNSEATS ELIZABETH DOLE IN NORTH CAROLINA

The first major Democratic breakthrough in the Senate – Kay Hagan has unseated Elizabeth Dole. Hagan has benefited enormously from Obama’s ground game in the state, and from a huge infusion of cash from the national Democratic party. And, in a desperate eleventh hour attempt to make up ground, Dole ran perhaps the single most disgraceful ad of the entire season. After showing shadowy images of Hagan juxtaposed with atheists, an actress meant to sound like Hagan declares, “there is no God.” Hagan is an elder in the Presbyterian church and the spot caused a huge uproar. Of special note, Republican consultant Alex Castellanos called the ad over the line. Why is this significant: because Castellanos was the mastermind behind the infamous “white hands” ad, one of the most racially inflammatory ads of the past quarter century. That 1990 commercial ran in the final days of a North Carolina Senate race in which Jesse Helms narrowly defeated African American Harvey Gantt.

The ad showed a pair of white hands crumbling a piece of paper while an announcer said:

‘”You needed that job.  And you were the best qualified.  But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.  Is that really fair?  Harvey Gantt says it is.  Gantt supports Ted Kennedy’s racial quota law that makes the color of your skin more important than your qualifications.  You’ll vote on this issue next Tuesday.  For racial quotas: Harvey Gantt.  Against racial quotas: Jesse Helms.”‘

So, for Castellanos to call the Dole ad over the line is really saying something.
NBC CALLS PENNSYLVANIA FOR OBAMA, 8:03 pm

The first really big news of the night is in: as soon as the polls closed in Pennsylvania one minute ago, NBC called it for Obama.  McCain threw everything he had into the Keystone state, and it was obviously for naught. There is almost no plausible path to victory for McCain without it. It’s early, but shaping up to be a big night for the Illinois Senator.”

DEMOCRATS SECURE FIRST SENATE WIN, 7:11 pm

Completely unsurprising, but Democrats have netted their first Senate seat of the night. Former governor Mark Warner, an overwhelming favorite, was called the winner of the Virginia Senate race as soon as the polls closed there at seven.

Perhaps more interesting, conservative stalwart Pat Buchanan just told an MSNBC audience that tonight could be the end of the conservative era in American politics that was ushered in by Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory in 1980. I will have more to say about that election as the night goes on.”

TOO MANY VOLUNTEERS IN NORTH CAROLINA, 2:26pm

Several friends and I have been planning to volunteer for the campaign this afternoon and evening. But the word we’ve been getting from some of the volunteer staging areas in and around Chapel Hill is that they are getting too many volunteers and are turning people away. We’re calling around to try to find offices that actually want the help. We’re getting the same word from Durham. It’s hard to overstate what an extraordinary field operation the Obama campaign has put together across the country and here in Tar Heel territory. And, by the way, it’s been raining here all day.

A CANVASSING STORY, 12:24 pm

As folks go to the polls today, I wanted to pass along a pretty heartening canvassing story from this weekend

On Saturday, three friends and I canvassed in Oxford, NC, about forty five minutes from Chapel Hill. It’s pretty downscale, rural and has a large African American population.

The most interesting encounter of the day came when a friend and I hiked through some woods to a run down set of trailer homes that were on our walk list. One home we approached appeared to be abandoned. The window to the front door was partially broken, and peering in revealed a dark and dank living area that looked like a storage warehouse. We got no answer when we knocked so we went around the side and knocked there. No answer, but then we heard a dog barking and went around back, where we met a middle aged African American woman with unkempt hair who had to hold her pants up with her hands.

We introduced ourselves and she told us that she wasn’t voting for “either of one of them.”

Why? Here’s (more or less) what she said about Obama: “He says he’s Black, but he has a white mother and was raised by white parents (she meant grandparents, I am sure). And, he’s a Muslim.

She repeated that a few times, while we tried to interject that, in fact, he was a Christian. We noted that, yes, his father was a Muslim, but that he had no relationship with his father and that Obama had been a practicing Christian his whole life.

Then she said, “in case you haven’t heard, his Muslim minister said God damn America.”

We acknowledged that Jeremiah Wright had said that, but that he was not a Muslim, he was a Christian.

The woman then said that we needed someone in the White House whose soul was saved. She herself believed that Jesus was our Lord and Savior and that the holy spirit would cleanse us. We noted that these were precisely Obama’s own professed beliefs.

She went on to say that Obama was only one man and that the President can be over-ridden by “the House of Senate and the House of Congress.” We agreed, at which point my friend said “Obama really needs your vote.” She was clearly interested at this point, and kept peering intently at the packet of information my friend was holding, including sample ballots and early registration information, before she finally asked in exasperation, “aren’t you going to give me any of that?”

She then said she would, if we agreed to pray that Obama would be saved and after a little chatter, repeated the request. At that point, I said “ma’am, we agree that Obama is going to need all the help he can get.”

We proceeded to discuss registration – she was unregistered, so we explained that until 5pm that day, she could one-stop register and vote, but that there was no such option on Tuesday. We confirmed that she had a ride (there was one functioning car in the back yard) and she said she had a fully up to date driver’s license.

Finally, after we walked her through the sample ballot and the registration stuff, she said “they killed JFK, they killed Martin Luther King, and they’re going to kill Obama, too.”

The journey through her fears in the course of the ten minutes we spoke was fascinating – from the Obama-is-a-Muslim line, to the deeper concern about saving souls, to the perhaps deepest concern of all (they’re just going to kill him anyway).

In any event, we felt good walking away, though my friend let the folks at HQ know that they had a potential voter out there with whom they needed to follow-up.

I am convinced that, regardless of the outcome in NC today, the Obama campaign has reached voters here that no presidential campaign has ever reached before.

OBAMA WINS FIRST VOTE IN DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H., 7:36 am

From the Associated Press:

“Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, N.H., where tradition of having the first Election Day ballots tallied lives on.

“Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday’s first minutes. The town of Hart’s Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns’ ballots but got no votes.”

“I’ve been a North Carolina skeptic all year, did not believe Obama could win the state. And as of right now, I really think he’s going to. Things look good here.” – JONATHAN WEILER

FiveThirtyEight.com, a leading poll aggregator that weighs and averages polls based on past performance, has information that says that early voting is going to be a game changer. Full story after the jump…

Early voting polling information on FiveThirtyEight.com here.

LEADING SITE PREDICTS OBAMA LANDSLIDE, 2:25 pm

FiveThirtyEight.com has predicted that Obama will win today’s election in an electoral vote landslide.

The site predicts the following outcome:

349 Obama -189 McCain

Obama win of popular vote by a margin of 6.1%

For the full post, click here.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Ignore Exit Polls

Click here to read post.

Early Exit Polls Favor Barack Obama

Confusing Ballots In Palm Beach Fla Again

Full story after the jump…

Voting Machine Failure In Key States

Indiana Judge: GOP Poll Watchers Violated Court Order On Foreclosure Lists

Hours Extended At One North Carolina Polling Place.

Fox News Clashes With Black Panther at PA Poll

Voting Machine Problems and People Being Turned Away in VA and PA

GOP Officials Try and Disqualify Iowa Student Ballots

One Voting Machine For Hundreds of Black Voters in FLA

Virginia Tech Students Sent Miles Away to Vote

LONG LINES &

MALFUNCTIONING MACHINES, 12:09 pm

From CNN.com: “Officials in Dona Ana County, New Mexico say they are having problems
with absentee ballots. But it’s unclear just how many voters may not
see their vote count.” Click here for the full story.

Long lines and malfunctioning machines greeted voters Tuesday as polls across the country were deluged by people wanting to cast ballots in this historic race between Barack Obama and John McCain.

In the East, electronic machine glitches forced some New Jersey voters to cast paper ballots. In New York, anxious voters started lining up before dawn, prompting erroneous reports that some precincts weren’t opening on time.

“By 7:30 this morning, we had as many as we had at noon in 2004,” said poll worker John Ritch in Chappaqua, N.Y., where Bill and Hillary Clinton live.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell urged voters to “hang in there” as state and country officials braced for a huge turnout in that hotly contested state. More than 160 people were lined up when the polls opened at First Presbyterian Church in Allentown. “I could stay an hour and a half at the front end or three hours at the back end,” joked Ronald Marshall, a black Democrat.

Hundreds converged on polling precincts in Missouri, a crucial battleground state. Norma Storms, a 78-year-old resident of Raytown, said her driveway was filled with cars left by voters who couldn’t get into nearby parking lots.

“I have never seen anything like this in all my born days,” she said. “I am just astounded.” In Virginia, where a Democrat has not won the presidential race since 1964, several counties experienced paper jams and balky touch-screen devices. In Richmond, a precinct opening was delayed because the person who had the keys overslept. Hundreds of people swarming the branch library cheered when its doors finally opened.

Despite the wait to vote, which in some places was longer than two hours, folks standing in line were appeared happy – and patient – about casting a ballot in this historic race.

“Well, I think I feel somehow strong and energized to stand here even without food and water,” said Alexandria, Va., resident Ahmed Bowling, facing a very long line. “What matters is to cast my vote.”

Ohio, which experienced extreme voting problems in the last presidential race, had some jammed paper problems in Franklin County. “We’re taking care of things like that,” said elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli. “But there’s nothing major or systemic.”

Perhaps the most bizarre barrier to voting was a car which hit a utility pole in St. Paul’s Merriam Park neighborhood. The accident knocked power out for over an hour to two polling locations. Ramsey County officials said voting continued at those sites, and the ballots were kept secure until the power was restored and the ballots could be run through an electronic machine.

Late Monday, McCain’s campaign sued the Virginia electoral board, trying to force the state to count late-arriving military ballots from overseas.

McCain, the Republican candidate and a former POW from the Vietnam War, asked a federal judge to order state election officials to count absentee ballots mailed from abroad that arrive as late as Nov. 14.

Lawsuits have become common fodder in election battles. The 2000 recount meltdown in Florida was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

What is uncommon about Tuesday’s contest is the sheer number of voters expected to descend on more than 7,000 election jurisdictions across the country. Voter registration numbers are up 7.3 percent from the last presidential election.

“We have a system that is traditionally set up for low turnout,” said Tova Wang of the government watchdog group Common Cause. “We’re going to have all these new voters, but not a lot of new resources. The election directors just have very little to work with.”

“I think these battleground states have now closed up, almost all of them, and I believe there’s a good scenario where we can win,” McCain told CBS’ “The Early Show” in an interview broadcast as the day’s first voters stood in early-morning lines.

“Look, I know I’m still the underdog, I understand that,” the Arizona senator said. “You can’t imagine, you can’t imagine the excitement of an individual to be this close to the most important position in the world, and I’ll enjoy it, enjoy it. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said he was confident that new voters and young voters would fuel an enormous turnout to benefit the Illinois senator.

“We just want to make sure people turn out,” Plouffe told “Today” on NBC. “We think we have enough votes around the country.”

Standing in line in one of the battleground states, Ahmed Bowling of Alexandria, Va., said the election “will mark a significant change in the lives of all Americans, and so we do have to come out as early as possible to cast our votes.”

In Brooklyn, N.Y., 49-year-old Venus Kevin said the line at her precinct was “already down the block and around the corner” when she arrived shortly before 6 a.m. EST.

“Obama is the man,” said Kevin, who is black. “His message and his vision has reached a lot of people, not just African-Americans.”

The contest pitted the 47-year-old Obama, a first-term Illinois senator who rocketed to stardom on the power of his oratory and a call for change, against the 72-year-old McCain, a 26-year lawmaker whose mettle was tested during 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

“I’m feeling kind of fired up. I’m feeling like I’m ready to go,” Obama told nearly 100,000 people gathered for his final rally Monday night in Virginia.

“At this defining moment in history, Virginia, you can give this country the change it needs,” Obama said to voters in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential nominee in 44 years.

The Illinois senator’s final day of campaigning was bittersweet: He was mourning the loss of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who helped raise him. She died of cancer Sunday night, never to see the results of the historic election.

McCain completed a cross-country trek through seven battleground states before arriving at home in Phoenix early Tuesday morning.

“This momentum, this enthusiasm convinces me we’re going to win tomorrow,” McCain told a raucous evening rally in Henderson, Nev. It was the fifth campaign stop in an 18-hour odyssey that took him across three time zones.

Obama planned a quick campaign stop in Indiana on Election Day before a massive outdoor rally in front of the skyline in his adopted hometown of Chicago. The day’s forecast was for an unseasonably warm 70 degrees.

McCain planned events in Colorado and New Mexico, then a party at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.

Obama urged his supporters to resist overconfidence. “Even if it rains tomorrow, you can’t let that stop you. You’ve got to wait in line. You’ve got to vote,” he said.

“Barack Obama is on the verge of a victory, perhaps a decisive victory, in the race for the White House. The national polls have all consolidated into a range of roughly Obama +7.”

Click here to read full post.

A separate legislative investigation recently concluded that Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, abused her office by allowing her husband and staffers to pressure the public safety commissioner to fire a state trooper who went through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister.

Palin fired Walter Monegan, but denies his dismissal was related to the trooper.

Alaska Personnel Board investigations are normally secret, but the three-member board decided to release this report, citing public interest in the matter given Palin’s status as a candidate for national office. Election Day is Tuesday.

Palin had earlier waived her privacy rights, but others in her administration did not and Petumenos sought to keep the matter from playing out in the media.

Petumenos said documents to be released Monday would not include transcripts of separate depositions given by Palin and her husband, Todd.

That deposition was the only one given by Sarah Palin. She was not subpoenaed to answer questions in the Legislature’s investigation, though her husband, Todd, gave an affidavit in that probe.

Palin initially said she would cooperate with the Legislature’s probe. But after she became John McCain’s running mate, she said the investigation had become too partisan and filed an ethics grievance against herself with the personnel board.

Telephone messages left with state Sens. Hollis French, who led the legislative investigation, and Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of the Legislative Council, were not immediately returned.

It’s no coincidence President Bush has been out of the public’s eye in recent days — that’s the way the Republican Party wants it. White House press secretary Dana Perino said Monday the incumbent’s invisibility is by design — because “the Republican Party wanted to make this election about John McCain.”

The president knows there are people in this country who want change and are looking for something new, Perino said.

“We’re realistic about the political environment that we are in,” she said. “What keeps him going is knowing that he’s done the right thing.”

With a 26 percent approval rating, Bush has only appeared in Democratic television ads that regularly tie him to Republican candidates. And that won’t change until after Election Day.

Since Bush endorsed McCain in the Rose Garden on March 5, the two have appeared in public only three times for a total of 12 minutes. That’s in stark contrast to the scores of fundraisers and rallies Bush did before congressional midterm elections in 2002 and 2006. Perino said the last time Bush and McCain communicated was before the president’s Cabinet meeting October 15.

As McCain and Democrat Barack Obama made their final pitches to voters over the weekend, Bush spent time at the Camp David presidential retreat. He has no public events on Monday or Tuesday, not even an Election Day photo op.

Bush voted in Texas by absentee ballot and plans a small dinner in the White House residence Tuesday night with two purposes: celebrating his wife’s birthday and watching “with great interest as the returns come in.”

The White House said Bush is busy with the financial crisis, two wars and the upcoming transition to a new administration. The economy and recent hurricanes on the Gulf Coast prompted Bush to cancel appearances at fundraisers.

In early September after Hurricane Gustav, Bush scrapped his planned opening-night speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and instead spoke via satellite.

It was ten minutes after 1 p.m., the official closing time, but the office was still open. A line of several hundred people waiting to vote wrapped around the building and down the block.

Nearly all the folks in line were young Blacks in their 20s and 30s. Seasoned Obama staffers, anticipating long lines, and concerned folks might give up and go home, had arranged for a live hip-hop DJ to entertain the throng.

Across the street on the corner of Euclid and 30th, music blared from speakers and a makeshift booth set up on the sidewalk outside the Methodist church there. DJ Chela, from Raleigh, N.C., played classic hip-hop, funk, soul and even some gospel. No one seemed to mind the wait. Some people even came over to make requests. Chela had been in town for week, volunteering. She said she’d be back tomorrow, and the next day.

Law enforcement was on hand, but their presence was not overbearing. Everyone who was on line before 1:30 p.m. got to vote. After that, they started turning people away.

All of the components of what has made this election year historic were on display: folks from all racial backgrounds eager to cast their vote, younger Black voters anxious to get their slice of the American dream, and older folks of all races proud to pass the baton to another generation of Americans.

In that effort, he’ll almost surely be working with a stronger Democratic majority in Congress, as well as among governors and state legislatures nationwide. GOP incumbents at every level are endangered just eight years after President Bush’s election ignited talk of lasting Republican Party dominance.

It’s been an extraordinary campaign of shattered records, ceilings and assumptions. Indeed, a race for the ages.

Democrat Obama has exuded confidence in the campaign’s final days, reaching for a triumph of landslide proportions.

“The die is being cast as we speak,” says campaign manager David Plouffe.

Undeterred, Republican McCain vows to fight on, bidding for an upset reminiscent of Democrat Harry S. Truman’s stunning defeat of Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.

Looking back only to early this year, campaign manager Rick Davis says, “We are witnessing perhaps, I believe, one of the greatest comebacks since John McCain won the primary.”

The odds for Republicans in 2008 have been long from the start: Voters often thwart the party that’s been in power for two terms. And this year, larger factors are working against the GOP: the war in Iraq, now in its sixth year, and the crisis on Wall Street and in the larger economy. Voters deeply distrust government and crave a new direction.

Republicans are girding for widespread losses.

“It’s a fairly toxic atmosphere out there,” said Nevada Sen. John Ensign, chairman of the Senate GOP’s campaign effort. Added his House counterpart, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole: “We haven’t caught very many breaks.”

Democrats are looking ahead to expanded power.

“Things are looking very good,” said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the head of the House Democrats’ campaign committee. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Senate Democrats’ effort, predicted: “We’re going to pick up a large number of seats and that’s going to make Democrats very happy.”

The Democrats are reaching for a 60-vote Senate majority that would allow the party to overcome Republican filibusters, and could pick up two dozen or more House seats. Democrats also hope to pad their slim majority of governorships and increase their ranks in what already is their strongest majority in state legislatures in more than a decade.

The implications are far-reaching: Governors and state legislators elected Tuesday to four-year terms will help preside over the redrawing of legislative and congressional districts following the 2010 Census. The party in charge can redraw districts in its favor.

Atop the ticket, Obama leads in national and key battleground state polling, though the race appears to be tightening as it plays out primarily in states that Bush won twice. Among the unknowns: the choices of one in seven likely voters who are undecided or could still change their minds; the impact of Obama’s efforts to register and woo new voters, particularly blacks and young people; the effect of Obama’s race on voters just four decades after the tumult of the Civil Rights movement.

“Right now, it’s very clearly Obama’s to lose, and I think his chances of doing so are pretty minimal,” said Republican Dick Armey, the former House majority leader from Texas. He said the possibility of a McCain comeback is “getting down to slim-to-none.”

An Obama victory would amount to a wholesale rejection of the status quo: voters taking a chance on a relative newcomer to the national stage, a 47-year-old first-term senator from Chicago, rather than stick with a seasoned veteran of the party in power. With strengthened Democratic majorities in Congress, he’d have to deal with the party’s left flank while governing a country that’s more conservative than liberal.

The Republican Party essentially would be in tatters, searching for both a leader and an identity.

An Obama loss – or McCain comeback – would be a crushing disappointment for Democrats in a year tailor-made for the party. It would suggest McCain’s experience trumped Obama’s clarion call for change, and raise troubling questions about white Americans’ willingness to vote for a black man.

Blacks, in particular, might be furious and deeply suspicious of an almost sure thing that slipped away.

—

THE PRESIDENCY:

Tuesday’s election caps a nearly two-year campaign unprecedented in many ways, merely unusual in others.

“The candidates are more interesting. The media is bigger. The technology is better. Participation has increased dramatically,” said Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska who once aspired to the presidency himself. “This is the first global campaign that the United States has had. People will always remember this as an extremely important election.”

From the start, the race was different: It was the first since 1952 in which neither a president nor a vice president competed.

The Democratic primary was excruciatingly long, with historic and improbable characters: Obama, a black upstart Illinois senator, against a former first lady turned New York senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

McCain, at 72 once the GOP’s most vocal scold, early on was the favorite for the Republican nomination. His campaign all but imploded, then he came back to overcome multiple opponents and win the party’s nomination. He chose the first woman for the national GOP ticket, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Racism, sexism and ageism all colored the campaign, to varying degrees.

Interest appeared exceptionally high across the globe, particularly in Obama. More than 200,000 people turned out to attend an Obama speech in Berlin when he made a trip abroad to bolster his foreign policy credentials. His U.S. crowds also were gargantuan; 75,000 in Portland, Ore., before he was the nominee, more than 100,000 in Denver just a week before the general election.

An estimated 42.4 million people tuned in to watch Obama and McCain accept their parties’ nominations.

More voters were projected to cast ballots before Election Day than ever before; Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the early voting in key states.

Fundraising and spending were off the charts, too.

McCain and Obama amassed $1 billion combined over the course of their candidacies.

Obama reversed a previous pledge to stay in the public financing system for the general election if his opponent did. Thus, he became the first to reject taxpayer money, raising $641 million from a breathtaking 3.2 million donors. That dealt what’s almost certain to be a fatal blow to the post-Watergate-era system for presidential campaigns. McCain, for his part, collected more than $250 million in contributions, and accepted $84 million in public funds.

Obama took the next step after Howard Dean’s embrace of the Internet in 2004, creating a remarkable cyber-networking tool that brought in legions of new voters.

He expanded the Electoral College playing field by pouring advertising and manpower into Republican bastions like Indiana and North Carolina.

Beyond any previous year, the Internet amplified the feeding frenzy nature of the media and gave campaigns new tools, including YouTube videos, partisan and nonpartisan blogs, and social networking sites like Facebook.

Both campaigns also got burned and, as a result, curtailed the candidates’ non-scripted interactions with reporters. Authenticity and spontaneity were sacrificed.

—

THE SENATE:

No matter how the presidential race plays out, Democrats are poised for gains in the 100-seat Senate. They currently have the barest of majorities – 51 seats under their control, including two occupied by independents. Several pickups are likely, even if Democrats fall short of getting the magic 60 needed to stop filibusters.

Democrats are overwhelmingly favored to pick up GOP-held seats in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado, where Republicans are retiring. And many Republican incumbents running for re-election are in difficult races, including Ted Stevens of Alaska, convicted this past week on seven corruption counts.

No Democratic seats appear in jeopardy.

—

THE HOUSE:

Democrats, with a 235-199 majority and one vacancy, are expected to add at least 20 seats. They hope Obama’s coattails give them a 35-seat gain or more. It would be the first time in more than 50 years that a party saw large waves of victories that boosted their congressional margins in back-to-back elections. All 435 seats are up for election.

Many Republican incumbents are endangered, and open GOP seats are at risk in Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and two each in New Mexico and New York.

Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney of Florida, under investigation after admitting to adulterous affairs, is in trouble, and Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha is in a fight after calling voters in his Pennsylvania district “racist.”

—-

GOVERNORS:

Chief executives in 11 states are on the ballot. Democrats hope to boost their 28-22 majority.

The GOP’s best chances for gains are in Washington and North Carolina.

Washington’s Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire and GOP challenger Dino Rossi are in a repeat battle of 2004, when Gregoire won by 133 votes after two recounts and a lawsuit. In North Carolina, Republican Pat McCrory, the Charlotte mayor, is in a dead heat with Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Mike Easley.

Democrats expect to gain a seat in Missouri, where Attorney General Jay Nixon leads GOP Rep. Kenny Hulshof. Republican Gov. Matt Blunt is leaving office.

—-

STATE LEGISLATURES:

Voters also will choose 5,824 lawmakers across 44 states.

With their strongest majority in more than a decade, Democrats hold nearly 55 percent of all legislative seats and control the legislatures in 23 states; Republicans dominate in 14 states. Twelve states are split, and Nebraska is nonpartisan.

The election could determine the control of legislatures in several states. The biggest prize may be New York, where Democrats are two seats from taking the Senate majority. They already control the House and the governorship.

Pennsylvania Republicans need a one-seat gain to take back the House, while Indiana Republicans need two. In Nevada, Democrats are one seat away from a Senate majority.

—-

BALLOT MEASURES:

Some 153 initiatives are on the ballots in 36 states.

Voters will weigh constitutional amendments that would ban same-sex marriage in California, Florida and Arizona.

An amendment in South Dakota would ban abortion except in cases of rape, incest and a serious health threat to the mother; another in Colorado would define human life as beginning at fertilization.

Initiatives in Colorado and Nebraska would ban race- and gender-based affirmative action. Washington voters will decide whether to offer terminally ill people the option of physician-assisted suicide.

A North Dakota initiative would cut the state income tax rate by 50 percent for individuals and 15 percent for corporations. A measure in Massachusetts would repeal the income tax altogether.

—-

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn, Tom Raum and Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington, David Crary and Robert Tanner in New York, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

The Virginia chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s will return to federal court on Monday afternoon to argue the state is inadequately prepared to handle an enormous voter surge expected Tuesday.

State Republicans plan to oppose the NAACP’s request on grounds that altering voting procedures on the eve of the election would be disruptive and could unfairly disadvantage their candidates.

Record turnout is expected as Democrat Barack Obama tries to win 13 electoral votes in state that has backed Republican presidential candidates since 1968. Obama would be the nation’s first black president if elected.

The NAACP alleged the state failed to provide enough voting machines to handle the crowds, particularly in majority black precincts. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Richmond asked for paper ballots to be provided as one option if lines got too long.

More than 436,000 new voters registered since Jan. 1, a 10 percent increase that pushed voter rolls past 5 million for the first time in Virginia, a state of 7.7 million residents. Much of the increase results from the Obama campaign’s aggressive registration drive.

At the close of the first fiercely contested presidential race in Virginia in generations, several polls show Obama slightly ahead.

The NAACP had withdrawn its request for a hearing on Thursday after receiving new information from state officials about the placement of election day resources. At the time, NAACP officials said a new hearing before the election was unlikely.

But after assessing the updated information, the NAACP concluded preparations were still insufficient and on Friday requested a new hearing.

“We went back and looked at the numbers, and it’s still the same old bad news. We’re still seeing disparities between black and white precincts,” said Ben Jealous, national NAACP president.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat and Obama ally, said the administration was surprised to see the lawsuit renewed. She said state law gives the governor no authority to extend poll hours.

“We feel confident that we’ll be prepared,” spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said. “I think that voters who are going to the polls on election day should go early and be prepared for the line, but we’re not anticipating any kind of major problems.”

Several Virginia Republicans have filed to intervene in the lawsuit, arguing that last-second changes at selected precincts the NAACP seeks could give the Democrats an unfair advantage.

Cleta Mitchell, attorney for the Republican Party of Virginia, said the GOP particularly opposes a longer voting day and paper ballots at select polling places.

“You just can’t have a situation 24 hours before the election where you go to court and start rewriting state law,” she said.

Robert D. Holsworth, a professor of government and political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, said some of the steps the NAACP suit seeks, such as extending the poll closing time from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 9 p.m., might be possible on short notice. But an overnight shuffle of voting machines, he said, would be extremely difficult at best.

“The enthusiasm and interest in this election – that in itself has introduced the potential for chaos and confusion,” Holsworth said. “The substantial reallocation of resources at the last minute adds one more element of uncertainty.”

Video after the jump…

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO…

PHILADELPHIA – His backers feeling increasingly confident, Democrat Barack Obama acknowledged that the GOP nominee has asked his supporters to temper their attacks on him and asked voters to have faith in him as the next president.

“I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other,” Obama told thousands of supporters at the first of four outdoor rallies in Philadelphia.

“Sen. McCain has served this country with honor,” he said two hours later, in the city’s Germantown neighborhood. “He deserves our thanks for that.”

At a town-hall event Friday in Minnesota, McCain took the microphone from a woman who said Obama is an Arab. McCain said, “No, ma’am,” and he called Obama “a decent, family man.”

McCain drew boos at the same event when he told a supporter who expressed fear at the prospect of Obama’s election that the Democrat is a “person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.”

Those reassurances aside, McCain’s TV ads continue to attack Obama sharply. Some hit his ties to a former radical who co-founded a violent anti-war group in the 1960s. Yet on Saturday at an event in Iowa, McCain didn’t mention the past association and focused on their policy disagreements.

Obama referred to the ads Saturday. “We’ve seen rough stuff on the TV from them,” he said. “I can take it for four more weeks,” but the nation cannot take “four more years of Bush-McCain economics.”

“I will be a president who puts you first,” he said, asking voters not to lose hope in the economy before President Bush can be replaced.

Polls show Obama leading in several battleground states, and some of his top surrogates feel victory is nearly in reach.

“The one thing we can’t let happen is for us to be overconfident,” Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell told donors at a Friday fundraiser, where he introduced Obama.

Although Obama says anything can happen in the campaign’s final 24 days, hints of his optimism are creeping into his unscripted remarks.

“In some ways this is a celebratory event” as “we’re now coming to the end of what has been a two-year process, an extraordinary journey,” Obama said at a second Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. The host, Comcast executive David L. Cohen, said the two events raised more than $5 million.

As 250 major donors ate beet salad and mahi-mahi under a huge tent, Obama seemed to look ahead to his first term as president.

“We’re going to have to make some priorities, we’re going to have to cut some things out,” he said, referring to expensive goals such as improving health care, schools and college affordability.

“I’m going to be in some fights with my own Democratic Party in getting some of that done,” he said.

Defying tradition in GOP-leaning states, he said, he is leading McCain in Montana and North Carolina. His lead in Virginia, which Democrats last carried in 1964, is 6 or 7 percentage points, he told the donors.

Obama added, however: “Who knows what can happen in the next 25 days?”

Democrats have carried Pennsylvania in recent presidential elections, although sometimes narrowly. McCain has campaigned aggressively in the state, but polls show Obama leading.

Democrats usually win huge margins in Philadelphia and try to minimize their losses in the state’s smaller cities and more rural areas. Obama’s barnstorming of Philadelphia was designed to drive his base’s vote as high as possible.

Under a brilliant blue sky, Obama’s four events here drew 60,000 people according to Philadelphia police, but it was impossible to verify the estimates. At some sites, thousands of people were unable to get through the gates. They stood on cars and craned their necks for a glimpse, sometimes blocks away. Crowds cheered Obama’s motorcade as it arrived and left each site.

Obama read the same speech each time, but he ad-libbed a bit and seemed increasingly buoyant as the day progressed. Telling his favorite new story about buying pie from a Republican-leaning Ohio diner owner, he joked with a woman who called out from the Germantown crowd.

“You will make me some pie?” he asked. “What kind of pie do you make? Sweet potato pie?”

As the crowd roared, he poured it on. “We’re going to have to have a sweet potato pie contest,” he said. “I’ll be the judge, because I want my sweet potato pie.”

Katie Couric Puts Palin On the Grill

Tina Fey Works the Imitation

Katie Couric Annoyed Her (Big Time)

DW: Wooooowww…. One thing about Obama is that he has his own style… and that’s what we love. He’s not the typical presidential candidate. Anyone else who’s been in office before him knows that. He’s not afraid to showcase his style. He loves to play basketball. He hoops and that’s how he stays in shape. He doesn’t run on a treadmill. You can go on and on about the arguments of policy and experience, but at the end of the day, hopefully he becomes our president. We’ll all be better for it.

Aside from Wade’s political bent here, his emotion surrounding the Chicago Senator is palpable in all regards. He mentions that Barack “hoops” and, by extension, is unafraid. Barack Obama’s love of basketball has provided both a revealing and disturbing note about the Election. Basketball is an American sport that Blacks have claimed. Its global significance makes it all the more popular, but it has been essentially stylized and developed on hard courts in the Black Metropolis. What makes Barack unashamed (to Wade at least) is his embrace of an activity that is culturally black, and potentially a dynamite stick in his run for the highest office. Mr. Obama has long repeated (or implied) the refrain that he cannot run as The Black President. And in a country where Blacks are only a part of the population, this notion of being omni-representative holds some water. However, the realities of race have not disappeared.

Read more about the race and class issues that haunt America.

On one hand, Barack Obama signifies to new voters that racism cannot lawfully restrict anyone from pursuing any aspiration. His story risks the antiquated associative term “credit to your race” in that he does not ask for a thing; he moves to the front of the line through hard-work and agreeability; he chooses not to view his accomplishments through the lens of race alone. On the other hand, his opposition will not relent in their portrayal of him as the unbelievable Other. The Birth of a Nation tradition follows him closely in this campaign as questions about his religion, his faith affiliation to Reverend Wright, and his experience are used to justify a general sense of untrustworthiness among voters. This is not to imply he is free from criticism, though. Senator Obama has to answer for his voting present a number of times in the Senate, his quick-footed dash to a presidential run, and his overall blueprint for the nation he hopes to lead. Nevertheless, he has not nearly been held accountable on issues such as these. Instead, his detractors vie for his ostracism using the politics of ignorance.

Governor David Paterson of New York explicitly defined this trend in the race for the White House saying “I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama black in a sense that would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican convention — a ‘community organizer.’ They kept saying it, they kept laughing, like, ‘What does this mean?’ ” It means, in short, that his work in those communities is invalid because they are not the white rural communities of the heartland. Had Senator Obama devoted his work to the Kansan poor, in places where the faces of poverty were differently hued, it would have been vastly more acceptable. Canvassing for the working poor in Chicago, with its largely black population, cannot be viewed with the same admiration. Those are the Others, after all.

The McCain campaign has twice used the inflammatory term “race card” to describe Mr. Obama’s charges of exclusion. If only it were that simple. To think of Barack Obama as a product of the American Dream that includes crying race when things go wrong is to adamantly deny his entire biography. His arduous climb, and his real traction in America, stems from relating to the common man regardless of ethnicity. Barack Obama’s so-called race problem (this is a laugher because it’s a term that the media has used to wake itself from the slumber of a post-racial fantasy) has been present since he was born. I sincerely doubt he’s ever transcended race in his owm mind, as much as some supporters want it to feel that way. Now that our nation’s relative adolescence is in plain view, we are forced to confront maturity and equality in ways we have scarcely been prepared to speak about in public until the last score after the Civil Rights movement. To many whites, Barack Obama is a foreigner with suspect intentions who has come dangerously close to that illustrious, untouchable seat in the White House. It is literally and intentionally named after the ruling group.

There are no identity politics at work. Identity is intertwined with everything we do as Americans. The perpetual illusion of the elite class is their suggestion that only the oppressed poor, the ethnic minorities and the frail lean on the concept of identity to explain their lifestyles. But privilege, social positioning and wealth indicate the converse is true. John McCain and Sarah Palin want to wish away the enormous privilege they enjoy as powerful/rich White Americans, thereby attributing their achievements to the plucky resolve of the earners who they wish to prop up with their rhetoric. By stirring up the sympathies (and fears) of their race, they can easily bypass the traits that set them apart from most of the working class — like political dominion and invaluable influence.

The Sarah Palin narrative is especially problematic in this way. Most Black Americans are scratching their heads (at least) wondering how she has made her way to a national ticket. Her gubernatorial year-and-a-half puts her just a hair shy of tokenism in a John McCain bid to win over female voters. More importantly, she is the foil to Barack Obama’s Other; and increasingly, this antagonism has played out in the media with Ms. Palin playing average hockey mom champion. Her job — and one that she proudly assumes — is to extol humility and a form of mediocrity that Americans relate to. If that isn’t “identity politics,” I’m not sure what is. Palin’s direct pokes at Barack Obama in her first national speech were meant to draw a contrast, and it has struck a chord with Whites who were already skeptical about his mystical background. Her insinuating tones about the Eastern elite media, and her “hometown” are direct contradictions to the image of Big City Barack now infesting the minds of the national audience. In the same breath, Sarah Palin cites her experience as an executive to place her above Senator Obama in the political rankings. So, she’s low-down enough not to condescend the people, but high up enough to govern.

It is a balance that Mr. Obama cannot seem to strike but, not as people are saying, because he is not trying to. He’s trying so much in earnest that it puts him just out of reach with the people whose votes he needs to have an electoral majority. When Hillary Clinton made the claim that Barack Obama was having this persistent dilemma of relating to “hard-working Americans, white Americans” and that it would hurt him in the general election, she was right. Whether or not the nation could admit that was another story. Now that the polls are disastrously close, and the country in financial ruin, reporters have changed course on Obama, politely hinting at that admission of racial tension.