French president Nicolas Sarkozy on the results of the U.S. election: "Obama is my buddy... I never believed Hillary Clinton would win." [Der Spiegel]

♦ Frank Bruni of the Times visits Bobo this week, and awards one star to new chef Patrick Connolly for his "ambition" and "good intentions," although he also points out that the restaurant "hasn't wholly surrendered its attitude and put service before sheen." [NYT]
♦ The NYPD shut down Serge Becker's "guerilla" election night party at La Esquina last night. [NYO]
♦ Boqueria's Soho location has been granted a liquor license and should be open by next week. [GS]

The list of election '08 losers is a long one: There's John McCain, of course, who will die angry and bitter, notwithstanding his rather gracious concession speech last night. Steve Schmidt, McCain's chief strategist, will probably have trouble finding a Little League team to advise, unless he manages to redeem himself somehow. From Republicans on the Hill to GOP strategists to snowmobile and hunting enthusiasts, plenty of people will feel the cold wind of electoral defeat for a long time to come. After the jump, a roundup of New York City's nine biggest losers.

The market was up big yesterday as investors looked forward to an end to the political uncertainty in Washington. Now they're back to reality, apparently. The Dow tumbled 486 points today amid "renewed worries about the struggling economy." [CNNMoney]

You can't fault the New Museum for trying to capture a bit of the election buzz. The institution unveiled an oil portrait of Michelle Obama today by Elizabeth Peyton, which features the First Lady-to-be listening to her husband address the crowd at the Democratic National Convention with daughter Sasha sleeping in her lap. It's now part of Peyton's exhibition, "Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton," and will be on display until January 11th. [Unbeige]

Diddy on the election last night: "I felt like my vote was the vote that put him into office." Also, he says he felt like Martin Luther King when he stepped into the voting booth yesterday. [AP]

The Mayflower in Washington has quite the offer for anyone interested in going to D.C. for Barack Obama's inauguration. The "Ultimate Presidential" package includes a three-night stay, limo service, "his and hers inaugural jewelry," Dom Perignon champagne, in-room massages for two, 24-hour butler service, and his and hers "inaugural garb" from Burberry ("to keep special guests warm during the inaugural ceremony"). And it's only $51,000. What a steal! As for whether you'll be staying in the same room where Eliot Spitzer shared some special time with Ashley Dupre, you'll have to call and ask. [HotelChatter]

Michael Bloomberg has revealed how he plans to slice $1.5 billion from the city's budget this year and next. Some 3,000 city employees are going to be losing their jobs, he's rescinding the 7 percent property tax cut, and he's also suspending those annual $400 property tax rebate checks. [NYT]

♦ ABC appears to generated the highest ratings as the election results rolled in last night. NBC came in second and CNN ranked third. [TV Decoder]
♦ Time is rushing to produce a commemorative issue of the mag by the end of the week. [HuffPo]
♦ Both People and Us Weekly will feature Obama on the covers of the next issue. [NYP]
♦ Can The Daily Show survive an Obama presidency? and how will other media outlets deal with the post-election dropoff? [Politico, AdAge]
♦ An explanation of that holography thingie on CNN last night. [YouTube]

Richard Fuld, the disgraced CEO of Lehman Brothers, will officially leave the firm by the end of the year. (With no bonus, not surprisingly.) In other Fuld family news, the couple's $20 million collection of Abstract Expressionist drawings will be auctioned off at Christie's a week from today. [Bloomberg]

With the election madness, we almost missed Arnold Diaz's interrogation of Martha Stewart outside her office earlier this week! It seems some sort of Martha-branded glass table at Kmart spontaneously explodes "for no apparent reason," which is reason enough for the dogged Fox5 reporter to pop out of nowhere and pester her with questions before inducting her into his "Hall of Shame." Just so you know, though, Martha says she is not to blame for small kids getting sliced by shards of glass. Blame the Chinese. "We just designed the tables. Kmart manufactured them in China." Click through for the video.

Word has it there's been a bloodbath at Goldman Sachs today: "No big names have been told to pack up their staplers yet, but they may actually be praying to be given the boot. We're told there will basically be no bonuses this year, especially at senior levels." [Dealbreaker]

If you haven't picked up a copy of the Times today, don't bother. Vendors across the city report they sold out this morning as people snatched up multiple copies to keep as collector items. Let the Ebay sales begin! [City Room]

Feeling a bit blue this afternoon? Perhaps a little anxious or depressed, even though the presidential candidate you supported ended up winning? You're not alone. Psychologists are predicting that many people "will find a hole in their lives and time on their hands" now that the election is over and they no longer have a reason to spend hours every day monitoring political coverage on TV and obsessing over the latest poll numbers. It's not unlike what little kids experience the day after Christmas, or what happens when a junkie stops taking drugs, expert say. (Well, except for the fact you're not going to be spending the next three days vomiting into a plastic bucket.) So what's an Obama-obsessed New Yorker to do?

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard leaving their polling precinct yesterday in Park Slope ... Natalie Portman working at an Obama phone bank ... Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick and son James leaving the pollsi in the West Village ... Naomi Watts going to the movies at the Angelika Film Center ... Elisabeth Hasselbeck taking an Election Day jog on the Upper West Side ... Keri Russell walking in Brooklyn with son River ... Jessica Alba on the set of her new movie ... Beth Ostrosky walking her three dogs in Midtown ... Katie Holmes and Suri walking to get pizza at Pie by the Pound on Fourth Avenue ... Eva Mendes on the set of her new movie in Chelsea ... and Paris Hilton arriving at JFK airport to catch a flight back to LA.

The black-and-red Narciso Rodriguez dress that Michelle Obama wore in Chicago last night? A good deal of the reaction online has been negative ("just short of hideous"), although some critics have applauded the boldness of her choice and the apparent symbolism ("patriotic red bursting out of black like a firecracker out of the night sky.") At the very least, though, it should provide a nice boost for Rodriguez, who has struggled to build a business in recent years and parted ways with Liz Claiborne several weeks ago after the two sides had "creative differences." Take heart, Narciso: Maria Pinto, the Chicago-based designer who dressed Michelle for several campaign events, says she's seen retail orders increase 45 percent over the last year.

Bernie Kerik needs your help! The former police commissioner is defending himself on charges he accepted bribes, didn't report the freebies to the IRS, and later lied when he was being vetted for Homeland Security chief in 2004. But he's run out of money to pay his lawyers, and is having trouble paying for his Jersey mansion and his BMW and Range Rover! So he's turning to the public for help. He's set up a sad, little website with photos of him posing alongside his former BFF, Rudy Giuliani. Even sadder: He's throwing a fundraiser at a catering hall in Paterson, NJ in a few weeks and hoping to get people to hand over $75 to attend. [NYP]

The Sun folded over a month ago, but the paper's vending machines remain. At least they were kind enough to stamp an "E" on the front to remind people it's empty.

♦ Pharma mogul Richard Ullman is reportedly the man behind the new $75 million listing at 15 CPW. Ullman paid just $23.5 million for the 18th-floor duplex penthouse back when he bought it in March. [NYO]
♦ Jewelry exec Leonard Littman and his wife Barbara have sold their 44th-floor apartment at the Museum Tower on West 53rd Street for $5.5 million. The couple originally listed the two-bedroom condo for $6.45 million back in July. [Cityfile]
♦ UBS exec Ramesh Singh is having a hard time unloading the two Park Avenue apartments he has on the market. His co-op at 860 Park was first listed for $13.4 million; it's now down to $9.5 million. Meanwhile, his 15-room duplex at 823 Park, which was originally listed $24.75 million, is now $19.95 million, less than what he paid for it four months ago. [NYO, Corcoran, BHS]

John McCain and Sarah Palin may have lost last night, but there is still plenty of work for Republican strategists to do. Like shift the blame for McCain's embarrassing defeat! There is lots of blame to go around, of course, and the finger-pointing will likely go on for weeks and months (years?) as the GOP struggles to come to terms with the loss. But watching Sarah Palin get pummeled by anonymous GOP insiders and get handed the blame for everything that went wrong in the final weeks of the campaign will certainly be the most entertaining thing to watch. Several former "top advisers" to John McCain, for example, are now speaking with Newsweek about Sarah Palin's spending spree, and they now say her shopping expeditions were actually even more outrageous than previously reported. (Naturally, they go on to share just how upset the McCain team was by her "outrageous profligacy.")