Scientists reportedly believe the grave–with the remains of a mother, father and their two sons–is the first genetic evidence of what nowadays is called a nuclear family.

The amazing discovery is detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The grave is in what is now Germany.

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He met with Sen. Hillary Clinton and may make her his Secretary of State…

And, now he meets with Republican rival John McCain who apparently has pledged his cooperation with the President-elect.

But while all this window dressing is nice–it is, at the end of the day–window dressing.

For all the talk of change, many of Obama’s advisers–understandably–had some connection with the Clinton administration. It was always obvious that Obama would need to turn to these people to get the support and expertise he will need. But the pretense that he would bring fresh,new faces and thinking to Washington was clearly designed to win the election. Now that he’s got the job, it’s politics as usual in D.C.

I keep reading that critics are waiting to catch Obama in his first false move. I would suggest that they already have.

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Not likely, still—-Obama is meeting with McCain in ChicagoMonday in the spirit of Obama’s bipartisan politics.

In all probability, Obama wants the symbolism of his meeting with McCain to make the 6o’clock news–shows he meant it when he said he intended to reach across the aisle.

Still, there is nothing stopping Obama from offering McCain a high ranking cabinet position–and, a good reason for McCain to say yes:  McCain is no longer the future of the GOP—maybe, God help us–Sarah Palin is? And while a Senate seat is powerful, McCain may have reached the limits of what he can do there.

And just think–imagine an Obama administration with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Bill Clinton as —whatever it is Bill Clinton is?–and John McCain.   A dream administration? Probably. But stranger things have happened—-this election for one!!!

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CNN and other news organizations–like all of them—are saying that Clinton met with Obama in Chicago; that he asked her if she was interested in being Secretary of State; that he would make her an offer she couldn’t refuse if she is, in fact, interested?

And, why wouldn’t she be? She’d be the most powerful Secretary of State since Henry Kissinger and she’d get to be in the White House again—at least when visiting Obama there.

Should Clinton take the post, she, of course, comes along with Bill. Despite the tension between Bill and Barack during the campaign, the fact is, having a former president on your side is not a bad thing.

Can’t you picture this scene: Hillary: Your majesty, how are you? Oh, and you know my husband, Bill!”

My guess is Clinton would not have gone to Chicago to talk with Obama if she wasn’t really intersted.

I’ll bet we will know one way or the other in a matter of just days.

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Let’s see: applicants are being asked whether they have ever associated with anyone who might “impugn or attack your character…for government service?”

Obama, of course, was associated, no matter how little, with William Ayres, the radical who in the 60s had this rather keen interest in bombs and revolution.

Then, there is the very wrong Rev. Wright. Associating with the likes of him proved a nearly lethal friendship to the Obama candidacy.

Other questions ask whether there was anything in the person’s legal past that might embarrass the new Prez?   You know, smoking weed…maybe a little coke….that sort of thing. Oh, yes, nearly forgot, didn’t Obama admit to both of those things when he was a younger man?

The questionnaire, which will no doubt scare off more good people than it will screen out bad, even asks about former lovers!  What happens if you have to ask for an extra piece of paper on that one?

But–my favorite question is the one about whether the applicant for a job in the Obama administration has any enemies?

Well, for Obama–how about–John McCain, Sarah Pallin, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, a number of southern states….and on and on.

Nope, sorry, Barack. You have way too much baggage to get a job in the White House.

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GM is busy trying to sell the government on the notion that it needs taxpayer dollars to keep alive. This is no doubt true. And, it is also true that GM is so damn big, that should it go bankrupt–which is possible–it would ignite a financial fire that would make the demise of some banks recently pale by comparison.

So, it looks like, for better or worse, we, you and I, are going to have to go out on a further limb by risking our tax dollars to keep GM humming.

But there ought to be lots of strings attached to any government financial help–to GM or any of the two other major automotive players.

Some money already pledged to help the auto makers also mandates they build greener more fuel efficient vehicles.

That’s a good start. But only a start.

For years, many Americans have blasted GM and other U.S. auto makers for making a product that is, by and large, inferior to their European and Asian counterparts. U.S. cars tended to break down more easily, were less reliable, didn’t look or drive as good….you have no doubt heard of this before. And, it is all true.

But if the auto makers want us to bail them out, shouldn’t we have a say in how they actually make their product? And, not just in the marketplace?

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If you read the papers–or surf the web–you no doubt know that the government has restructured the bailout of American International Group, the giant insurance company that is now pretty much owned by U.S. taxpayers who will get stuck holding the bag should all that money AIG is now getting fail to save it.

AIG is now getting $150 billion from Uncle Same–some $27 billion more than before.

True, the government walks away with a $40 billion equity stake in AIG, but is also now exposed, as Reuters points out, “to billion of dollars of potential losses.”

Of course, this may all pale by comparison once the government goes into the car manufacturing business as seems likely to happen.

Is there no end to what businesses the government won’t pump tax dollars into in order to save them and, allegedly, the world from financial ruin?

Doesn’t look like it.

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The sign on the podium in front of Obama read Office of the President-elect–not even sure there is such a thing…certainly not in the Constitution. But he was, I think, making an important point.

While he is smart enough to say that there is only one president and, right now, that happens to be W., what matters, as Ronald Reagan’s media advisers well knew, is what information the pictures convey.

With a small army of grim looking economic advisers–and the Vice-President -elect (is there an office for that???) behind him against a curtain of American flags, Obama looked and sounded more presidential than the current occupant of the White House. Of course, Obama speaks English and Bush doesn’t.

Then this morning, Obama took to the airwaves again…this time, a radio address. Again, he sounded more presidential than Bush, who delivered his weekly radio address today as well.

It is a tricky thing Obama is trying to pull off–appearing, acting and sounding like the President, while saying publicly that he is not…..yet!

But, for better or worse, Obama has proven to be a master at illusion–of making people think he is whatever it is they want him to be at the moment.

Right now, election day showed, they want to think of him as President!

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I was not one of those ungodly “undecideds” who couldn’t, after two years, discern any differences between the two major candidates.

I was an early supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton because I felt–and still do–that she has the experience needed at a time when the country faces its worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression and is embroiled in two wars…one needed, one a mistake.

Obama’s cult of personality bothered me. Still does.  I understand why many feel they need a savior, but that sort of thing is best left to religion than to politics where it is historically always dangerous.

Obama’s experience has mostly been running for office….He has spent two years of his first Senate term running for President.

And, I thought he was being disingenious when he told his supporters that he was about a different kind of politics and about change.

The fact is, as predicted here and elsewhere, Obama is turning now to the very Washington (and former Clinton aides) insiders he derided when campaigning against Clinton. In fact, he is gravitating toward many of the same people Clinton undoubtedly would have also approached for top positions.

Obama is smart, a great speech maker and, if nothing else, a pragmatic politician…he does what he needs to do in order to win. And, he will do the same in order to govern.

So, with all of these reservations, why did I, in the end, vote for Barack Obama?

Up until the very last few days, many polls indicated that Obama would smash John McCain and have an easy victory.

Under those circumstances, I  had decided to register a protest vote for one of the minor party candidates knowing that it would not stop the inevitable–an Obama victory, which would have stopped Sarah Palin from going to Washington for anything other than a tour of the White House.

Palin is, like Obama, a good public speaker. She is, in her own Alaska sort of way, street smart, if not politically so. She is also dangerous and her ascension to power in D.C. would have turned the clock back in this country to the 50s.

McCain strikes me as a descent enough man who has endured a lot of suffering in his life–the type of which few among us could ever really understand or appreciate.  But he is old and Palin is young. He is the past of the Republican Party and the idea that Palin might be its future was appalling to me.

In the last few days before the election, some polls started to show a closing of the gap, as pollsters like to say. And, while most still predicted an Obama win, they were no longer so sure…some even suggested a possible McCain upset.

When viewed from this angle, the choice for me became clear. The McCain/Palin ticket had to be stopped and the way to do that was to vote for Barack Obama.

His election is, of course, historic, and in a positive way. Palin’s election would have also been historic, but a historic mistake!

Obama will disappoint as surely as he will inspire. He will play political hardball with the best of them. He will find that talking about bridging political parties is far different from actually doing that.

Being elected America’s first African-American president is an enormous achievement. Being a good, let alone great, president is his challenge.

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