Tomorrow will be a year to the day that Barack Obama was elected president of these United States.

With all that has happened since then, it's getting harder to remember the headiness of that time -- whether Democratic or Republican or Independent, you can't dispute the historic nature of the 2008 election.

HBO's "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama" (9 tonight) reminds us not just of election day, but President Obama's journey to his victory. And even if the memories and the emotions linger, you'll still learn something.

Brooks Brothers announced this week that they are introducing a Limited "Mad Men" Edition suit designed by Janie Bryant, the Emmy Award-winning costume director connected to AMC's hit drama. The "Mad Men" suit is inspired by the suits worn on the show by characters Don Draper and Roger Sterling (left), but with a slightly more updated look (and price tag -- the suits will retail for $998).

The Fayetteville Observer wrote a nice article on Tuesday about the suit's launch which connects Brooks Brothers and "Mad Men" back to a tiny town in eastern North Carolina where a Brooks Brothers shirt factory is located. (I happen to know a little bit about this town -- Garland, N.C. population 808 -- and the Garland Shirt Factory which makes those Brooks Brothers shirts. I grew up there, and my grandmother worked as a seamstress in that factory in the 1960s and early 1970s). 

The Fayetteville article gives some nice background on the factory, and indicates that the actors on "Mad Men" wear shirts which are made there. They also reported that the factory makes custom shirts for famous people such as . . .

President Barack Obama wants you to to vote in today's Wake school board elections.

Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, sent out a message today urging people to come out to the polls. The group doesn't name specific candidates but you'd guess they'd prefer you vote for the candidates backed by the Wake County Democratic Party.

Here's the group's message:

David Letterman is on a roll this week, scoring not one but two presidential interviews.

Tonight, President Barack Obama will appear on "The Late Show with David Letterman," presumably to discuss health care, but perhaps also to discuss the various jackass qualities of Kanye West also, according to a WarmTV source inside the taping, about former President Jimmy Carter's recent comments on race, and about his family's adjustment to the White House.

Tomorrow night, Letterman will have former President Bill Clinton on the show.

"Late Show" airs at 11:30 on CBS.

It looks like school board member Ron Margiotta was not happy about President Obama's speech to the students today.

ABC 11 is reporting that Margiotta tried to get his colleagues to vote today on whether they supported showing Obama's speech in the classroom. While conservatives have called today's natonwide speech a political attempt to indoctrinate children, Obama's supporters point out that Presidents Reagan and Bush also spoke directly to students.

Wake left it up to individual principals whether to air the speech to students. Parents were allowed to opt out and have their children perform an "appropriate alternative educational activity."

UPDATE

Click here for today's article by Lynn Bonner and Thomas Goldsmith about how Triangle schools handled the speech.

You've probably already heard about some of the controversy about President Barack Obama's address to students Tuesday. We ran a story yesterday about what some of the local schools and politicians are saying.

Durham Public Schools say it'll be up to individual principals to decide whether or not to stream the speech. But I know one school that'll definitely be watching: Southern High is getting a visit the day of the speech from Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson.

The White House is sending officials from different departments to schools around the region to encourage students to work hard and watch the live streams with classes.

Obama is not the first president to directly address students, but he's being accused of pushing a political agenda during the height of the health care debate. Then again, the White House is planning to release an advance copy of the speech Monday to quell parental fears.

What do you think about Obama's plan to speak directly to students Tuesday?

In the paper today, a Chapel Hill resident writes in knocking the UNC system's recent approval of a plan that will require all public university students to purchase health insurance.

She writes in part that the insurance mandate is "nothing more than a blatant attempt by the university administrators to force the proposed Obama/Democratic health-care policies on students without giving them a say in the matter."

The UNC system folks I've talked to about this program say they did it to create equity across the UNC system. Currently, each campus offers its own health insurance plan. Some mandate it, others don't, and coverage costs and terms vary pretty widely.

So is the health insurance plan a good idea? A political move? What say you?

Here's our story on the plan.

A fond farewell to Ted Kennedy, the senior senator from Massachusetts who has died from brain cancer at age 77. Anybody who annoys Ted Nugent this much can count his time on earth a success. And we should all be so lucky as to have the president sing us happy birthday sometime.

More electric cars are coming to Raleigh.

The White House announced $2.4 billion in grants today to accelerate the development of electric cars, batteries and other projects.

One grant will give Ford $30 million to deploy up to 150 plug-in hybrid cars. And some of those will go to Progress Energy.

As many television viewers may have noticed, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker greeted President Barack Obama when Air Force One arrived at RDU on Wednesday.

Meeker, a fellow Democrat, said this was the second time he'd met Obama, the first being a brief encounter on the Wednesday before the November election when the future president was in town for a campaign event.

Meeker said Wednesday's meeting was also brief and "entirely ceremonial."

"I thanked him for coming back to Raleigh and working hard on this health care and he said we’re going to get it done and got in the car and took off."