Not like there's any pressure - or huge expectations to manage. On Wednesday my five-year-old daughter Sydney insisted on a "Mommy and me" parade down our leafy residential D.C. street shouting "Obama!  read more »

An historic victory and a forward vision. The newly elected 44th President of the United States is a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He is looking forward, not back: He would have been forgiven for a little bit of jubilation, even triumphalism, but no. His acceptance speech tonight focused firmly on the challenges ahead, and he had some news for America's enemies. Obama is not one to be 'tested'.  read more »

No question. A zeitgeist moment - and in Grant Park, Chicago a glimpse of the real "real America". Sorry Joe the Plumber. Tonight we are witnessing history, the election of the first African American President exactly 40 years after a prescient Robert F. Kennedy dared to dream of such an outcome. Stop and think just how incredible this is. The robocalls, the Rovian playbook, the name calling: none of it worked, and now the guard is changing. Ok, it's not official yet, but the math is inescapable.  read more »

So at 9:15pm ET when so many hopeful Obama supporters were saying it could be "over" ... well, it's not. Not yet. So far no surprises. Blue states are going "blue", red states "red" - and everyone is still biting their nails over Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Colorado and Missouri. Interesting that Obama chief strategist David Axelrod is talking up Iowa and New Mexico as the most likely red-to-blue flips. Curious who is voting where in Virginia, and what prescincts are in, and where folks are still standing in the rain waiting to vote.  read more »

The mood is electric. Record turnout. Standing for hours in the rain in Virginia. And now the moment of truth. The first results are coming in, while voting continues in many areas of the country. Everyone is trying to read the tea leaves, divine the results from body language of news anchors, exit poll clues, and now the seemingly wistful statement from John McCain travelling "for the last time" on his plane with the media.  read more »

Hurricane Gustav blew the Republican Convention off course Monday, but party activists say it's been an opportunity for John McCain to show leadership under adversity. They're right. Instead of partisan rallies and rhetoric, there are sombre prayer breakfasts and fundraising for the victims. Florida's Republican Party chairman told delegates this morning that the convention was no longer about politics, it wasn't about "winning or losing" - it was all about helping those in need.  read more »

Republicans gathering here in St. Paul are all aflutter about winning diehard Hillary supporters in key battleground states. Not so fast.  read more »

No one expected Hillary Clinton to cut short the roll call vote she had demanded as part of a “catharsis” for her embittered supporters. But suddenly there she was, on the floor with New York Governor David Patterson and Senior Senator Chuck Schumer, calling for the vote to stop, and Barack Obama to be nominated by acclamation. Delegates were stunned. Many were weeping. Laughing. Hugging. Screaming. I caught up with DNC chairman Howard Dean and asked him just how spontaneous it had been.  read more »

It’s a little scary that lawmakers vote for billions of dollars in budget increases without even knowing it.

This week I did a series of stories on an $8 billion budget shortfall in the US Highway Trust Fund. It’s a big deal. States stand to lose 30% of their federal highway money if it isn’t patched by October first, and the majority of lawmakers agree that US highways and bridges are in desperate need of the money.  read more »

What I learned from being profiled in the newspaper: There is almost nothing fun about being interviewed by a reporter. Members of Congress must have a special neurotransmitter that lets them enjoy answering questions about themselves. I can say now that it is a lot more fun asking the questions than having to come up with answers. Lucky for me, Betsy Rothstein, who edits The Hill’s Capitol Living section, took the edge off of the experience.  We sat down one day in the Speaker’s Lobby in just off the House floor to do the interview, and basically laughed our way through it. To be honest, I had forgotten how much time I used to spend listening to the radio late at night, or that I spent a stint as an illegal immigrant in Canada, before Betsy asked me about it.

And also lucky for me, I only had to answer enough questions to fill a 450-word sketch. Now the photo session, that was another matter.

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