Link of the Week (as opposed to the Weakest Link):

John Heileman, New York magazine, The Next New Deal:

“Personally, I think the depth of the Obama realignment is being underestimated,” says the Republican media savant Stuart Stevens, who helped elect Bush twice. “They have basically invented their own party that is compatible with the Democratic Party but is bigger than the Democratic Party. Their e-mail list is more powerful than the DNC or RNC. In essence, Obama [was] elected as an Independent with Democratic backing — like Bernie Sanders on steroids.”

In other words, the Democratic party is but a brigade of the Obama juggernaut.

James Kunstler, The Long Road Ahead:

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson found himself in the dock to answer how come, when he ran Goldman Sachs, there was a special unit in the company dedicated to short-selling the very mortgage-backed securities that another unit in the company was so busy pawning off to every pension fund on God’s green earth.The mind reels at the scale of the cynical opportunism.

David Remnick, New Yorker editor, speaking with William Ayers, just before he repaired to Grant Park for Obama’s acceptance speech:

This is an achingly exciting moment.

Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch, interviewing Ralph Nader, on Obama:

He campaigned for two years, promised blacks nothing, Latinos nothing, women’s groups nothing, labor nothing. Contrast the lack of demands on the liberal progressive side to what the Limbaugh crowd exacted from McCain.

He might seem like a figure of ridicule. But he still makes sense.

Gail Collins, New York Times, on Sarah Palin in A Political Manners Manual:

But the worst part is that if these people get any meaner, we’re going to wind up feeling sorry for her. This is not something we are looking forward to, Republicans, and we will resent you for it.

Anna Marie Cox, the Daily Beast, interviewing Steve Schmidt, McCain’s, chief strategist:

But if the party does not figure out a way to appeal to Latino voters, it will become increasingly difficult, and maybe impossible, to ever again win a national election.

In The Messiah is amongst us Steven Pollard of Britain’s Spectator asks himself:

What is your single biggest hope for Barack Obama?

I can’t make up my mind between curing cancer or turning water into wine.

Melissa Biggs Bradley, Huffington Post, Why Being Nouveau Pauvre Cheers Britain:

“We should not underestimate the pleasure that discomfort brings to the British,” [British commentator A.N. Wilson] wrote. “All their ‘finest hours’ and ‘happy memories’ tend to be of wars, family holidays on rainswept Welsh beaches or periods at boarding school. … Already we look back on the past twenty years with disgust — the wastefulness of it seems nauseating. There will be positive pleasure in the cold mornings, before we don our darned and mended garments and eat our austere meals.”

Diane Tucker, Huffington Post, Voting Expert William Jacoby Knows How You’re Going To Vote:

Racism still permeates a large component of white America, but today it’s a different kind of racism. … A majority of whites do not believe they’re inherently superior. Research indicates they believe “we are all the same,” but that certain demographic groups “aren’t living up to their potential.”

Fred Kaplan on our Syria raid:

Finally, at a time when some members of the Bush administration have begun to see the merits of reaching out to Syria — as an inducement to pry it away from Iran, sever its ties with Hezbollah, stabilize Lebanon, and secure the borders of Iraq — the air raid, a deliberate violation of Syrian sovereignty, pushes those goals further out of reach.

Cinque Henderson, New Republic’s blog, the Plank:

However, I’m not looking forward to his speech, so much as his official swearing in. … will Obama say, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.” The first four words. . . “I, Barack Hussein Obama”–may well outstrip, for sheer bravura, any inaugural address he could possibly give.

George Monbiot:

Like most people on my side of the Atlantic, I have for many years been mystified by American politics. The US has the world’s best universities and attracts the world’s finest minds. It dominates discoveries in science and medicine. Its wealth and power depend on the application of knowledge. Yet, uniquely among the developed nations (with the possible exception of Australia), learning is a grave political disadvantage.

Sports

Ralph Vacchiano, the New York Daily News:

[New York Giants running back] Brandon Jacobs was impressed with how the Giants held Cowboys RB Marion Barber to just 54 yards on 19 carries (2.8 yards per rush). … “If I was a running back against our defense today,” Jacobs said, “I would’ve said, ‘Stop giving me the ball. You’re bringing my average down.'”