For just the second time since change came to America, the respective leaders of the Obama and McCain campaigns sat down at the same table -- last week, at the Harvard University Institute for Politics -- to set the record straight about what went wrong, what went right, and what happened behind the scenes during Campaign 2008.

By now we've seen the photos of Barack Obama's grandmother celebrating his victory in her village in Kenya. But that's just the beginning. Here's just a quick selection of tidbits from the international media, covering the response to Obama's election:

Portland Phoenix managing editor Jeff Inglis will be on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program this afternoon from 2:40 to 3 pm, talking about the importance of voting and taking calls from listeners.

Inspired by a piece I wrote about "RickeyPAC" (see "Who's Your Rickey?", October 17), and based on the effort of a group of friends of mine to convince another friend to vote, NPR is including our effort in their coverage of the run-up to the presidential election.

Despite her being the prettiest vice-presidential candidate in American history since John Edwards, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has yet to win affection from the lesbian community. And here’s the real surprise: she doesn’t care much for them either.

According to a press release from Alaskans Together for Equality, gay rights advocates were “heartened” that, in this past week’s vice-presidential debate, Palin called for tolerance regarding “adults in America choosing their partners [and] choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves.

There’s an important use for the Obama campaign’s text-message database that’s not being discussed, and it’s a way to help prevent the Republicans from stealing the election.

We know that Barack Obama’s campaign has done a much better job at getting people’s cell-phone numbers, from his various text-message initiatives (including the contest at the DNC to see which state would send in the most text messages).

First of all, shana tova.