Fact x Importance = News (Nov 10)

Other stories that caught our eye last week:

• Barack Obama's election victory is already altering the tenor of Iraqi politics.


• An 'unknown "foreign entity"' hacked both the Obama and McCain campaigns' computer systems.


• Michael Lind thinks the US is witnessing the dawn of its Fourth Republic- though it may actually have begun four years ago.


• Cyber-terrorism in Pakistan could be punishable by death.


• The latest photograph of Kim Jong-il is probably fake.

Discuss these stories- and let us know what else we've missed- in the comments below.

Blue State Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has congratulated Barack Obama on Tuesday's victory. In a letter mercifully much shorter than the 18 page missive he sent to Bush in 2006, Ahmadinejad implores Obama to "leave a good name behind for yourself":

People expect an immediate and clear response to the pressure for fundamental change in the American government's policies, both foreign and domestic. This is the desire of all the world's nations and of the American nation as well, and it should be the objective and basis of all your future government's programs and actions.

...

In the sensitive Middle East region, in particular, the expectation is that the unjust actions of the past 60 years will give way to a policy encouraging full rights for all nations, especially the oppressed nations of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The really interesting part for me is when the Iranian President confesses that, "Iran would welcome major, fair and real changes, in policies and actions, especially in this region." What's to stop Obama taking taking his advice? The world wants to believe that Obama's ready to move away from Bush's hawkish policies, and Obama has more political capital to spend than any recent US president. Suggestion- in January Obama takes Ahmadinejad at face value and promises 'major, fair and real changes, in policies and actions' in the region, in exchange for a halt to Iranian nuclear development. He'll be making those sorts of promises anyway- why not put them to good use in Iran?

Scott Lucas on BBC Radio Scotland: What Now for the Republican Party?

My discussion with Robert McGeehan, of Chatham House and Republicans Abroad, on Good Morning Scotland is now on-line: it's at the end of the programme, just past the 2:53 mark.

48 Hours Later: Chuck Gannon on Obama and "Change"

On our big-sibling academic site, Libertas, Professor Chuck Gannon has written an outstanding article on Obama, America, and "change":

He will make mistakes; he will stumble; he will misspeak (and, far more frequently, be quoted out of context). But he has given us all hope again, and we can go on to finish the work that he will have only set in motion, whether he is to enjoy one term or two in the White House. He is not the most intelligent man, or the most moral man, or the wisest man: but he *is* the man who, being the right person at the right time, has midwifed a new hope into the world–-and for that alone, he is worth all the risks, all the uncertainties, and all the challenges that might lie before us. Lest adherents of real politick think this is anti-logocentric nonsense, I assure you otherwise: I simply observe that the quantifiable rules of economics and politics do hold sway 95 % of the time–but the other 5% see them swept aside and trumped by that most powerful of all forces: human hope and will.

Live Blog: Closing up the Shop

We'll come back with any changes, but I think we can call a moratorium on the Presidential/Senate updates. No significant changes since our last posting with Missouri and North Carolina too close to decide (and, for CNN, Indiana).

Al Franken is 600 votes short in Minnesota. That race plus Oregon and Alaska go to recounts --- Georgia is still undeclared because of possible problems with the count.