Guus Bosman

Today was the Inauguration of President Obama, a beautiful day. Over lunch we saw the swearing-in ceremony and the Inauguration speech. The crowds were amazing, and at the same time I was very happy we were in the warm environment of our home and not on the street since 4 am. CNN estimated that there were about 1.5 million people on the Mall today.

Here at Guus Bosman.nl we had the first article on this candidate back in January 2007. In September I saw then Senator Obama and Senator Biden in Greensboro, and it was great night when he was elected President in November.

It was nice to see the new first family at the balls tonight; dancing like must feel somewhat awkward but it's a nice tradition. The Obama's are such a young family compared to many of the politicians in DC -- truly a new generation.

The snow today impacted a lot of traffic, and I worked from home today. In the afternoon the Governor declared a state of emergency for North Carolina due to the snow. I hope that I can get to work tomorrow because I have meetings from 10.00 am through 5.00 pm.

Possible places to go to tonight around Durham, NC:

Downtown Durham Barack 'N Roll Celebration. Starts at 8.30 pm.

Duke University's Public Policy Institute has an election night. From 9.00 pm to 1.00 am.

John McCain Election Night party in Holly Springs (the closest I could find).

Tomorrow, after a long campaign that we have thoroughly enjoyed, is Election Day 2008 and tomorrow night we'll know who'll be President for the next four years.

The first results will come in in about 20 minutes, when a small village in New Hampshire with 20 registered voters will be the first in the nation to open the polls, and quickly after that to pronounce the results.

Of course, the real interesting results will come in tomorrow evening, starting at 7.00 pm EST (1.00 am Dutch time, 2.00 am Bulgarian time) when the first states, including Virginia, will close the polls. North Carolina's polls will close at 7.30 pm and around 8.00 pm a large group of states will complete their voting.

It's been a wonderful experience to see over the last two years, up close, a great democracy in action.

Governor Sarah Palin was in Raleigh today for a campaign event. I went to the State Fairs grounds to see her in person and experience an GOP event. It was an interesting afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago I attended an Obama-Biden appearance in Greensboro.

With one week to go to the elections the amount of political ads on TV is getting spectacular.

Not only are Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama on air all the time (Obama had a special 30 minute add on 7 networks last night), but there are lots of other political races as well.

There's Ms. Dole versus Ms. Hagan, running for the Senate, in a race that is seeing increasingly nasty ads, for example about "godless" Ms. Hagan.

There will be more than 25 votes to cast next Tuesday, for President and Governor of course, but also for Commissioner of Agriculture and Commissioner of Insurance, among others.

Here's a nice movie about the Presidential debates:
Synchronised presidential debating.

This morning I heard on the radio that John McCain will be in North Carolina near Charlotte this Saturday, and I was considering to attend.

However, when I read the announcement I saw that the system is more complicated than with Obama's rally. You have to get tickets in advance, and the only offices that have tickets are in the Charlotte area. Plus, the doors open at 8.00 am on Saturday and that would mean I would have to leave Durham before 5.00 am to get in.

I would have liked to attend a McCain or Palin rally after seeing Obama and Biden three weeks ago, but this one is not for me.

Oh, I loves these debates! The long expected debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin was tonight, and I enjoyed watching it over dinner and a beer (tomorrow is a day off).

Ms. Palin did well, a lot better than in her interviews the last couple of days although she stayed really close to her one-liners and evaded a lot of questions. I'd say that Mr. Biden won the debate, on style and content, but as a blogger of The Economist put it, "Ms. Palin won the expectations game".

I just came back from Greensboro, NC were Vladi and I attended a rally with Barack Obama and Joe Biden. This was the second appearance of Mr. Obama in North Carolina in a week and since last week was not exactly a success for me I decided to try again today. The gates opened at 10.00 am, and Vladi and I were in line around 9.15 am. That turned out to be well on-time and when the event started at 12.15 pm we had a great place in the crowd with a good view of the stage.

Mr. Biden spoke first. It was their first public appearance after last night's debate and Mr. Biden slammed John McCain on things he said in the debate, saying Mr. Obama "owned" the debate yesterday. Mr. Obama spoke for about 30 minutes.

I took some pictures with my phone (see below). It was a lot of fun to attend this event.

Tonight we watched the first Presidential Debate of 2008. The topic was foreign policy but obviously the economic crisis got a lot of attention.

A few friends came over and we had a great time watching the debate with beers, chips and chili.

I'd say that the debate was pretty much a tie, something which works to Mr. McCain disadvantage since he's considered to be most well prepared for a debate on foreign policy.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are scheduled to appear in Greensboro, NC this Saturday. Surprisingly, given that Mr. Obama was in Charlotte last week (and I missed him). Greensboro is only an hour from Durham, so it would be great if I could attend that meeting.

The big question is, will Mr. Obama continue campaigning now Mr. McCain has halted his campaign? Mr. Obama is still saying he wants to debate Mr. McCain, but he has said to stop all campaigning because of the dire economic situation and the slow progress of the bail-out plan through Congress.