Obama, Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad og Irak

Some of the drivers here in Chicago do not seem to understand that a)
the Chicago police car at the end of the president-elect's motorcade is
serious about having traffic pull over when the officers flash their
lights and hit their sirens, and b) it's not a great idea to jump ahead
of traffic by trying to cut around the black SUV filled with five
heavily-armed secret service CAT members. When the motorcade pulled onto
Van Buren, an African-American couple driving a tan sedan tried to drive
around the motorcade. The SUV cut the car off immediately, and the
security team aimed their weapons at the car. The driver and passenger
in the sedan stopped, and looked stunned -- until the male driver
appeared to understand what was happening (your pool reporter could see
him mouth "Obama"). The motorcade continued on. The sedan remained
stopped, near the side of the road.

Obama may speak beautifully and inspirationally about hope and change, about bipartisan cooperation and a better America. But he clearly understands that you just can't sit around talking about all the good things you want to do when you get to the White House and then expect them to happen all by themselves. Which means you can't hire a staff that's going to gather at work every day, hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

Instead, you bring in a guy like Emanuel, the most hard-headed, no-nonsense, foul-mouthed, smart-as-hell, get-it-done-or-get-out-of-my-way Washington insider of his generation.

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Mr. Barack Obama

President-elect of the United States of America

I congratulate you on having gained the majority of the votes of those who took part in the election. As you know, the chances that God gives to his subjects pass swiftly. They can be used for the perfection of humanity and to the benefit of nations or, God forbid, to the detriment of nations.

I hope you will choose to honor the real interests of people and justice and equity over the insatiable appetites of the selfish minority. Use this chance to serve to the extent you can. And leave a good name behind for yourself.

BAGHDAD — Barack Obama may have been elected only three days ago, but his victory is already beginning to shift the political ground in Iraq and the region.

Iraqi Shiite politicians are indicating that they will move faster toward a new security agreement about American troops, and a Bush administration official said he believed that Iraqis could ratify the agreement as early as the middle of this month.

“Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.”

HP skrev:

Obamas seier har allerede forandret det politiske klimaet i Irak.

NYTimes: Obama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics