I hate to diss the folks at Pajamas TV, who were nice enough to let me come on recently to promote our worst predictions list, but sending Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher to cover the war in Gaza seems like a questionable decision:

Mr Wurzelbacher, 34, says he will spend 10 days covering the fighting in Gaza and explaining why Israeli forces are mounting attacks against Hamas.

He told WNWO-TV in Toledo, Ohio, that he wants "go over there and let their 'Average Joes' share their story".

If you're a little fuzzy on Joe's foreign policy views, just recall that he agreed with a voter on the campaign trail that a vote for Barack Obama was equivalent to a vote for the death of Israel.

Meanwhile, the Internet is still anxiously awaiting Joe the Blogger's debut. Joe the merchandiser is going strong though.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

All may not be lost for McCain-supporting Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman. It seems President-elect Obama won't be kicking him to the party curb after all. Apparently, supporting the opposition -- campaigning with Republican candidate John McCain, speaking at the Republican National Convention, and criticizing Obama's foreign policy cred -- wasn't enough of an offense against Obama to get Lieberman banished from the party altogether.

Not all Democrats are in a forigiving mood, though. Many, like Majority Leader Harry Reid, are still gunning to strip Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Senate Democrats are set to vote next week on whether or not Lieberman will keep his chairmanship. If Lieberman has spent any time kissing the reigning party's behind since the election in an attempt to keep his spot, he's not exactly apologizing for his recent behavior. Lieberman says he'll walk if he loses his gavel.

I have to get behind Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd's advice that Obama stay out of this one and avoid a political mess. Why would the president-elect waste such precious time and energy haggling over a Senate seat? And even more to the point, over Lieberman? Let's not gloss over Lieberman's voting recording. While he's fond of saying it's 90 percent in line with Democrats, it tends to go against the next administration's plans when it comes to matters of foreign policy -- Iraq and Iran to name two biggies.

The Connecticut senator has shown himself to be a hardy politician, one who's stayed afloat by swinging between parties. This time Lieberman played his hand, hoping to get another shot at the VP seat, and he bet poorly -- on McCain. If there's a pity party in his honor, I won't be going.

Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

The Arab daily Al-Hayat on Tuesday quoted a senior Hamas official as saying that United States President-elect Barack Obama's advisors met with members of the Palestinian militant group before the U.S. presidential election.

Ahmed Yusuf, a political advisor to Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, reportedly told the London-based paper that, "The connection was made via email and after that we met with them in Gaza."

Al-Hayat reported that Yusuf also said the relations were maintained after Obama's electoral victory last Tuesday. He said the president-elect's advisors requested that the relations be kept secret so as not to aid his rival, Senator John McCain.

So, we're supposed to believe that a campaign that was afraid to have its candidate filmed in front of women wearing hijabs, would take the risk of holding closed-door meetings with Hamas? Obama's advisors have already denied the report. I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot more of this.

Ouch:

[Carl] Cameron, the Fox beat reporter for the Republican presidential ticket, said he had been told by unnamed sources -- and on the condition he not report the details during the campaign -- that Palin could not name all of the countries that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He did not mention which one (or ones) she whiffed on, but there are only three: Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Nor, according to Cameron, was Palin aware that Africa is a continent.

Here's the video:

The results of last night's U.S. election swept the world over and over in waves of unbridled enthusiasm. It's as if the next American president doesn't just belong to Americans -- the global community feels that it, too, has a stake in Obama's success. 

But what about the Middle East, where the United States is famously unpopular? So far, No. 44 has been greeted with rhetorical flowers and sweets. Today's messages to the president-elect -- from Israeli leaders, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Iraqi ministers, and even Iranian lawmakers -- were largely congratulatory.

The U.S. election received notably unremarkable attention from the Iranian media, but the buzz on Tehran's streets is positive if not a touch pragmatic and Iran's "intelligentsia" are cautiously optimistic about Bush's successor. As MP Hamid Reza Haji Babai put it today, "Obama has promised change and this is both an opportunity and test for the United States. We are waiting for that change."

Iran, as I mentioned yesterday, is holding its own presidential election next June. With Obama -- an African-American bearing the middle name Hussein who has spoken openly of his intention to negotiate -- in the White House, it will be far more difficult for extremists to demonize the United States, at least at first. This puts incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, already losing his grip on the Iranian parliament, at a clear disadvantage and may "breathe life into Iran's opposition reform camp," as former Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi hopes.

Iran is just one among many countries where a fresh start for the United States might do some good. As Andrew Sullivan so presciently deemed Obama back in Dec. 2007, he is a man "who is a bridge between" worlds. From today's vantage point, at least, the possibilities seem endless.

Photo: BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

Here's an interesting stat about the U.S. election, via Global Dashboard:

The election cost $4.2bn ($5.3bn if you include the congressional and senate races). 120-130m Americans voted. So that’s nearly $35 spent for every vote cast.

Here's why you shouldn't try to use political events to explain random walks on Wall Street.

Exhibit A, James Surowiecki last night:

One interesting variable to consider in thinking about how the stock market might react tomorrow to tonight's election results is the possible reaction of foreign stock markets, which as we know have lately often had a powerful influence on how the U.S. market opens. At the moment, the Australian and Japanese markets are up sharply, presumably as a result of today's U.S. rally. But one could easily imagine that rally being extended—and, even more important, one could easily imagine European markets rising sharply—if Obama were to win, since it seems clear that he's the preferred candidate of most of the world. And that, in turn, could help the U.S. rally keep going. In fact, I think it's possible that an Obama election could have a longer-term impact in boosting global markets' confidence in the U.S., even if it's also possible that American investors would be happier with McCain. So it’ll be worth paying attention to what Asia and Europe do tonight once we have a clear sense of the winner will be.

Exhibit B, major world stock indices as of 12:08 p.m. ET:

What else could it be today? Here's the LA Times' latest projection. Click to create your own scenarios.

Our own Blake Hounshell has also put together the following invaluable guide to the states you need to watch tonight:

Click here to download.

In the 2006 midterm elections, Americans living abroad returned only a third of the approximately one million absentee ballots mailed out to them. With roughly six million Americans serving in the military overseas or living abroad eligible to vote, that works out to a pretty dismal 5.5% turnout rate. In this election, expatriate voting rates should be much better -- and not just because of the presidential race at the top of the ballot.

The voting process has always been especially difficult for Americans serving in the military, who are often posted to remote locations and move around a great deal. The military postal service recommends that soldiers mail their completed ballots by Sept. 30 in order for them to be counted, but acknowledges that only 24 states have absentee ballots available by that date. Some states also prohibit methods of delivery other than by the United States Postal Service, or require American witnesses to verify the legitimacy of absentee ballots, which further complicates the process.

This year, however, a joint effort by the nonpartisan Overseas Vote Foundation and Fedex has made voting easier for Americans abroad. The Overseas Vote Foundation showed voters how to order their ballots online -- and Fedex shipped the ballots back to the United States for free, or at drastically reduced rates. Expatriates who ordered an absentee ballot that never arrived also have the option to print and fill out a federal write-in absentee ballot, which allows them to vote only for federal officials, and then mail it back to their voting office.

In this election, expats have no excuses.

OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images

Zambia has chosen today, of all days, to act out every American's worst fears about their own election. Michel Sata, leader of the Zambian opposition Patriotic Front Party, announced that he will challenge the result of Zambia's election last week. Sata had announced before the vote that he would not accept a defeat, and has evidently made good on that promise by accusing the army of "intimidating people," and "[fixing] the election" in favor of his opponent, Rupiah Banda.

Could the American election reach Zambia's levels of dysfunction? Well, probably not, though there have been signs that the voting hasn't gone entirely smoothly. The process got off to a bad start yesterday, when thousands of pages of voter information were found inexplicably lying on the side of a highway in Florida. Today, The New Republic's David Jamieson reported complaints ranging from a lack of ballots at polling places, flyers telling people to vote on Wednesday, and even "wet ballots."

Here's hoping for an Election Day with a bare minimum of soggy ballots, and which evokes no parallels to Zambian politics.

A musical based on Barack Obama's life will open on Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya:

The play tells the story of Mr Obama's life.

It begins with his father's move to America to study and his meeting with Barack Obama's mother, before covering the events of the young Obama's life.

Mr Orido says he came up with the idea of the play three years ago, as Mr Obama rose to prominence.

"Music is the universal language and Obama is a universal figure," he said. "If you want to tell his story, you have to tell it in a universal language so that everyone can understand." [...]

The play ends with an enactment of Mr Obama's acceptance of the Democratic nomination, shying away from predictions about who will emerge victorious after the 4 November elections.

The play's author hasn't ruled out a sequel, but I suppose that depends on what happens tonight.

(Hat tip: Chris Blattman)

While numbers show that Barack Obama has much of the world rooting for him in tomorrow's election (take a look at FP's interactive map), it seems one young Palestinian campaigning from Gaza on behalf of the Democratic candidate is stirring up a mess of controversy this week.

Twenty-four-year-old Ibrahim Abu Jayab, a media student at Al-Aqsa University, has been calling random U.S. phone numbers via Skype, imploring Americans to vote for Obama. Not an English speaker, he's memorized the heart of the message: "I think the Senator Obama achieve the peace in the world and in my area. For the peace, please elect Senator Obama. Thank you very much."

Although Al Jazeera reported the story back in March, it seems the last days before the election are the prime time for extreme conservatives to finger this as evidence Obama has links to terrorists, Hamas, and haters of Israel. Among them Rush Limbaugh who, after adding to those charges, mocked Jayab on his show last week, said he finds it "interesting" that Jewish voters could support Obama.

Why are people insisting that Obama is bad for Israel? Even a Fox News anchor, Shepard Smith, chastised Joe the Plumber for saying as much. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are in serious jeopardy, but citizens from both sides are tired of stalled negotiations and are ready for peace. Even many Israelis recognize that talking to Hamas will be necessary. To make any progress, though, the next U.S. president will need to convince the Palestinians of the merits of any deal.

Against this backdrop, I just don't get what the critics are saying. How does one inspired Gazan youth -- in a region where support for the United States is hard to come by -- really work against Obama?

Is it possible that the biggest challenges that a McCain or Obama administration will face will not have anything to do with the global financial crisis, Iraq, or terrorism?

It's hard to imagine such a scenario now, but elections are often a pretty poor predictor of the major issues that those elected will face. In all of George W. Bush and Al Gore's 2000 debates, for instance, al Qaeda, Afghanistan and Pakistan were never mentioned and Iraq came up only in passing. The major economic issue was not how to prevent catastrophe, but how to spend a budget surplus.

In this week's List, we look beyond the front pages and try to anticipate some of the major issues that were rarely, if ever, discussed during this election, but might nonetheless be among the next president's major foreign policy challenges.

If you need a late-afternoon laugh, check out this video of Nozomu Sato, a Japanese comedian who has been impersonating U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama lately. And, he's 5 foot, 7 inches, tall -- only about half a foot shorter that the real thing.