top 10 batsmen intest

ID	Rat.	Name	Nat.
1	900	S. Chanderpaul
2	880	Mohammad Yousuf
3	859	K.C. Sangakkara
4	832	K.P. Pietersen
5	825	M.J. Clarke
6	819	D.P.M.D. Jayawardena
7	810	R.T. Ponting
8	799	Younis Khan
9	797	G.C. Smith
10	771	G. Gambhir

The Note: Gonna Do Him Good? Obama’s ‘Change’ Shows Practical Side in Turning to Old Hands

Since the most transparent presidential transition in history is translucent at the moment, while the most open process ever is continuing behind doors marked “private,” here’s some of what the president-elect is learning:

1. Being more organized than Bill Clinton and less formal than George W. Bush doesn’t make a successful White House by itself — but may be a good start.

2. A new politics requires old faces — and those Clinton folks really don’t look so bad when it’s time to fill out a Democratic administration. (Even Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton herself may not be so bad to have around . . . )

3. That online army he brings with him doesn’t take orders from the top.

4. Being president-elect can mean acting like a president only when you want — but there are some crises too big to avoid.

5. There are a few campaign promises that may not be so bad to ignore for a very long while.

As the Bidens meet the Cheneys, Hank Paulson meets reality, the GOP meets to ponder a new path, Sarah Palin meets a few more cameras, John McCain meets politics again, and Alaska’s Uncle Ted meets the real fallout of his actions . . .

The various political scenes playing out all over Washington and beyond lack a major player: President-elect Barack Obama.

The no-drama edict/reality of the Obama campaign has morphed seamlessly into the transition, no leaks, no errors.

But can it last? With each new issue, and with each new name, the realities of governing threaten to clash with the rhetoric of campaigning.

Change is so hard to track — with new faces like Rahm Emanuel, John Podesta, Larry Summers, Madeleine Albright, Ron Klain, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, James Steinberg . . . (Think the Netroots are happy about this?)

Your new players (hope you kept your old program): “The Obama transition team yesterday rolled out a new list of officials who will help guide the process, singling out the Treasury, Defense and State departments as its first three areas of focus,” Anne E. Kornblut and Michael Abramowitz write in The Washington Post. “Three policy-oriented Democrats — Melody Barnes, Lisa Brown and Don Gips — will serve as co-chairs of the agency review process, the office of President-elect Barack Obama said.”

The list “sheds light on the types of people his administration will lean on and what institutions may claim clout in the new Washington,” The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler and Jonathan Weisman report. “The group is filled with second-tier veterans of the Clinton administration and workers in the technology and financial sectors. It includes four former lobbyists, three top campaign fund-raisers and two former employees of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, with some overlap among them. Four people in the group have ties to the consultant McKinsey & Co. and two have experience leading high-tech start-ups.”

Obama Offers Rahm Emanuel Job of White House Chief of Staff

ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama has offered the White House chief of staff job to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.

Emanuel, a knowledgeable source tells ABC News, has not yet given his answer. The sharp-tongued, sharp-elbowed, keenly intelligent veteran of the Clinton White House is said to have ambitions to some day be Speaker of the House. But he also has a keen sense of “duty.”

Today on “Good Morning America” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos reported Obama likes the fact that Emanuel “knows policy, knows politics, knows Capitol Hill” and has told associates that Emanuel would “have his back.”

There is a tentative plan to announce Obama’s chief of staff this week.

A win for U.S., and the world

Paul Pepperall, King City

With his “This is your victory” speech in Chicago, Barack Obama applied the final brush stoke on his political self-portrait. Strong and with finesse, he even made conciliatory overtures to the Republicans by invoking Abraham Lincoln and the values of self-reliance, individual liberty and national unity.

Americans are now ready to accept the notion that their country belongs to an inter-dependent global society and that this African-American president is the new face of leadership for the 21st century.

Obama is a man with a broader vision, a conservative Democrat who believes that real change comes slowly. He harbours no illusion about the importance of maintaining a strong military. But he will not allow the blurring of lines between national security and the “moral superiority” of the Bush years. Attempts to change other societies have failed. He will favour international diplomacy to strengthen his country’s alliances.

On election night we were all swept away by the intensity and immediacy of Obama’s success. Especially moving was his account of Ann Nixon Cooper, a woman born a generation away from slavery, who endured the hardships of segregation and exclusion by gender. As a new era dawns, do we dare hope that one day there will be a similarly inspiring victory speech by the first female president of the U.S.?

Raffaella Mio, Woodbridge

I am a white grandmother from Georgia, but I also live in Oshawa and love both countries. I returned to Georgia because I felt it necessary to vote in this election. I voted in a county that is very racist and very white. I am proud to be an Obama supporter. The world was watching and the world won.

Sandra Jean Allen, Georgia

Four years ago today, when I learned that George W. Bush had been re-elected, I applied for Canadian citizenship. Then I wrote a letter that was printed in the Star, pouring out my anger and despair over what I saw happening to my country. I couldn’t reconcile myself with the image of what America was supposed to be and what it had become in the eyes of the world. I was ashamed of being American.

As I watched Obama give his acceptance speech from my home state of Illinois, I felt a warm feeling in my stomach for the country where I was born and raised, for the first time in eight years. Now I can proudly say I’m a citizen of two countries: Canada and the U.S., which again feels like home.

Lisa Levy, Toronto

Obama’s win is a victory for humanity and for those people who dream of making the world a better place. It has proved that America is a superpower not only in arms, but a true champion of democracy, a country where democracy breathes in the heart of people. Like the U.S. astronauts landing on the moon, this was a giant step for mankind.

Sajid Manzar, Brampton

The greatest obstacle John McCain faced was Iraq invader and economy destroyer, Bush. America could not afford the continuation of these failed policies under McCain.

Kris Sahay, Winnipeg

At a time when America’s global image was at its lowest ebb, the ideals of democracy have prevailed. Even the most vocal detractors of the U.S. will now ponder what constitutes a great nation. America, before Bush era, was a beacon of human rights, moderation and progress. The Bush-Cheney duo’s war hysteria made the U.S. a violator of those ideals. Certainly we are witnessing history in the making.

Bahadar Ali Khan, Markham

Congratulations to the American people and nation. You have come into the 21st century with both honour and dignity.

Kenneth T. Tellis, Mississauga

The U.S. secret service now has one of its most critical assignments in generations: protecting its nation’s most precious asset!

K. Nolan, Caldragh, Ireland

I watched a remarkable nation, her people with tears in their eyes, stand proudly once more, galvanized by a new sense of hope. Now, the world can dare to dream again.

Jonathan O’Mara, Whitby

The hopes of my generation were partially extinguished with the assassination of JFK. With the selection of Barack Obama, the torch of hope has been re-kindled. May we be so fortunate in Canada.

John Bullick, Mississauga

Merely by becoming president, Obama has dispelled many myths about America. He has made it far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan, and far harder for autocrats to claim that American democracy is a sham. At home he has salved the ugly racial wound left by America’s history. This is not just a win for the Democrats, the U.S., or Obama, but for the free world.

Luke Mansillo, Sydney, Australia

Congratulations to the Star. Your paper went to press at 1:30 a.m., but it wasn’t just the front page that was held for election news. Even the cartoons were up to date. How about a story on how you could do this and still be on the street for early morning delivery? Well done!

Iain Campbell, Toronto

It’s bitter-sweet that Alabama, where the civil rights movement began, did not vote for Obama.

Douglas Cornish, Ottawa

The most amazing moment of a historic evening was after Obama`s speech, when his and Biden’s family assembled on stage, all mixed together. This is a picture that will remain in my mind for a long time.

Ashley Varadi-Starer, Thornhill

The American people must be commended for saying No to the extremism and arrogance of the Bush administration. The entire world rejoices in Obama’s win. The American people have spoken – loud and clear – in favour of change. Obama’s win should be a wake up call to other leaders who followed Mr. Bush’s failed policies, such as Stephen Harper. Extremism only leads to hatred that will destroy our global village.

Abubakar N. Kasim, Toronto

Obama adds symbolic NC victory to White House win

President-elect Obama won North Carolina on Thursday, a symbolic triumph that underscored his political strength as he turned nine states that President Bush won in 2004 to Democratic blue.

The Associated Press declared Obama the winner after canvassing counties in North Carolina to determine the number of outstanding provisional ballots. That survey found that there are not enough remaining ballots for Republican John McCain to close a 13,693-vote deficit.

North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes brings Obama’s total to 364 — nearly 100 more than necessary to win the White House — to McCain’s 162. Missouri is the only state that remains too close to call, with McCain leading by several thousand votes.

Obama’s win in North Carolina was the first for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter won the state in 1976.

Of Bush’s 2004 states, Obama captured Virginia, Florida and North Carolina in the South, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa in the Midwest and Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico in the West.

Obama ran an aggressive general election campaign in North Carolina after his wide primary victory in the state over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested he could win a trove of electoral votes that most assumed would belong to McCain.

McCain spent months watching North Carolina from afar during the summer as Obama visited regularly, but the GOP nominee returned to the state in the campaign’s final few weeks as polls suggested an Obama victory was possible.

Obama spent millions of televisions ads that were buttressed by hundreds of staff members in dozens of offices to take advantage of North Carolina’s rapidly changing demographics and a large bloc of black voters galvanized by his bid to become the first African-American president.

North Carolina’s growing population includes a booming urban corridor from Charlotte to Raleigh along Interstate 85, while retirees from northern states — who are more willing to vote for Democrats — are filling the state’s coast and mountains.

Exit polls also showed that some 30 percent of voters considered race a factor in their decision, with the numbers split evenly among voters who backed McCain and Obama. Nearly one in five voters considered race an important factor.

The economy also played a role — with 60 percent of voters considering it the top issue, with those voters breaking slightly to Obama. The state’s manufacturing industry has been devastated by competitive imports, and the state’s banking economy centered in Charlotte was struck by economic turmoil that led to the downfall of Wachovia Corp., in the weeks before Election Day.

Obama’s win completed the party’s sweep at the top of the North Carolina ticket. Beverly Perdue was elected the state’s first female governor, while Kay Hagan unseated one of the GOP’s most respected figures in Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

U.S. Election: Going Obama’s way, but not over yet

John McCain needed a breakthrough during Tuesday night’s debate. If he got it, I must have been watching the wrong channel. Yes, McCain definitely seemed more comfortable with the town hall setting than with the earlier debate’s more traditional format. And, for the first time this year, McCain articulated some semblance of an economic message. But none of this changed the trajectory of the race, which is increasingly headed in Barack Obama’s direction.

Going into this week’s debate, Obama held a 9-point lead in Gallup’s national tracking poll. That was his widest edge so far, and it marked 11 consecutive days in which the Democrat held a statistically significant advantage over McCain in the Gallup survey. State-level polls also show Obama pulling ahead — not just in every state that Al Gore won in 2000 or John Kerry won in 2004 but also in some key states that George W. Bush carried twice, such as Colorado, Florida, and Ohio. The contests in several other Bush states, including Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, and Virginia, are now dead heats.

Heading toward the end of the second week of voting in some states — and with as many as one-third of votes nationwide likely to be cast early — this election is settling into a very bad pattern for McCain and the GOP.

What has happened? Veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart, drawing on his latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey and on a focus group he recently conducted in St. Louis for the Annenberg Public Policy Center, wrote to his clients before Tuesday’s debate. “The reason we have reached an important inflection point in this campaign is that the economy is not just another issue being highlighted, but the issue in voters’ personal lives,” he told them.

The heightened economic and credit crisis has effectively changed the venue of this election to turf that is virtually unwinnable for a Republican presidential candidate. If voters are focused on the economy going into Election Day, the outcome will almost certainly favor Democrats. But Hart also said that if the public’s priority ends up being national security, Republicans not only could, but probably would, win.

“John McCain has lost control of the economic issue, and the debate over the financial crisis has made voters doubt him,” Hart wrote. “The economy is overwhelming all other issues.” He noted that 59 percent of voters cite economic issues as their greatest area of concern and that “these voters who consider economic issues most important are voting for Obama by 15 points. Also, McCain’s handling of the financial crisis has made voters feel less reassured about him — 25 percent more reassured, 38 percent less.”

Another important dynamic in recent weeks is that Obama, through his first debate performance, seems to have cleared a threshold, much as Ronald Reagan did in his October 28, 1980, debate with President Carter. In that encounter, Reagan took advantage of voters’ animosity toward the incumbent and his party. The former California governor went on to ride a wave of change that had eluded him until a sufficient number of voters felt comfortable with the idea of his being president.

Reagan’s background as an actor and his lack of congressional, Cabinet, or national security experience had given voters pause, but the debate allowed him to clear that hurdle. For Obama, his relative youth and lack of national experience, as well as his race, had worked against him until he projected a high level of intelligence and knowledge about issues in the first debate. He was also confident, poised, and sufficiently tough to persuade enough recalcitrant Democratic and independent voters to join ranks behind him. That’s when he began to pull away in the polls.

This contest is not over yet, of course. McCain needs something big to change the dynamics — something bigger than a kick-ass ad, a strong debate performance, or a misstep by Obama. If voters stay focused on the economy, this contest could soon be out of McCain’s reach. If their attention returns to national security in the next week or so, he could still come back.

U.S. Election: Going Obama’s way, but not over yet

John McCain needed a breakthrough during Tuesday night’s debate. If he got it, I must have been watching the wrong channel. Yes, McCain definitely seemed more comfortable with the town hall setting than with the earlier debate’s more traditional format. And, for the first time this year, McCain articulated some semblance of an economic message. But none of this changed the trajectory of the race, which is increasingly headed in Barack Obama’s direction.

Going into this week’s debate, Obama held a 9-point lead in Gallup’s national tracking poll. That was his widest edge so far, and it marked 11 consecutive days in which the Democrat held a statistically significant advantage over McCain in the Gallup survey. State-level polls also show Obama pulling ahead — not just in every state that Al Gore won in 2000 or John Kerry won in 2004 but also in some key states that George W. Bush carried twice, such as Colorado, Florida, and Ohio. The contests in several other Bush states, including Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, and Virginia, are now dead heats.

Heading toward the end of the second week of voting in some states — and with as many as one-third of votes nationwide likely to be cast early — this election is settling into a very bad pattern for McCain and the GOP.

What has happened? Veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart, drawing on his latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey and on a focus group he recently conducted in St. Louis for the Annenberg Public Policy Center, wrote to his clients before Tuesday’s debate. “The reason we have reached an important inflection point in this campaign is that the economy is not just another issue being highlighted, but the issue in voters’ personal lives,” he told them.

The heightened economic and credit crisis has effectively changed the venue of this election to turf that is virtually unwinnable for a Republican presidential candidate. If voters are focused on the economy going into Election Day, the outcome will almost certainly favor Democrats. But Hart also said that if the public’s priority ends up being national security, Republicans not only could, but probably would, win.

“John McCain has lost control of the economic issue, and the debate over the financial crisis has made voters doubt him,” Hart wrote. “The economy is overwhelming all other issues.” He noted that 59 percent of voters cite economic issues as their greatest area of concern and that “these voters who consider economic issues most important are voting for Obama by 15 points. Also, McCain’s handling of the financial crisis has made voters feel less reassured about him — 25 percent more reassured, 38 percent less.”

Another important dynamic in recent weeks is that Obama, through his first debate performance, seems to have cleared a threshold, much as Ronald Reagan did in his October 28, 1980, debate with President Carter. In that encounter, Reagan took advantage of voters’ animosity toward the incumbent and his party. The former California governor went on to ride a wave of change that had eluded him until a sufficient number of voters felt comfortable with the idea of his being president.

Reagan’s background as an actor and his lack of congressional, Cabinet, or national security experience had given voters pause, but the debate allowed him to clear that hurdle. For Obama, his relative youth and lack of national experience, as well as his race, had worked against him until he projected a high level of intelligence and knowledge about issues in the first debate. He was also confident, poised, and sufficiently tough to persuade enough recalcitrant Democratic and independent voters to join ranks behind him. That’s when he began to pull away in the polls.

This contest is not over yet, of course. McCain needs something big to change the dynamics — something bigger than a kick-ass ad, a strong debate performance, or a misstep by Obama. If voters stay focused on the economy, this contest could soon be out of McCain’s reach. If their attention returns to national security in the next week or so, he could still come back.