Talk of the Nation on WFAE

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FLORA LICHTMAN, HOST:

And one last salute to science before the weekend. Here are some news you can raise the glass to. Microbiologist Tomas Villa and colleagues report that they may be able to bioengineer better beer foam. That's right.

TOMAS G. VILLA: Beer foam. Foam is what you like the most in a beer. And a beer drinker wants foam to stay longer, right?

LICHTMAN: Of course. And the secret to long-lasting froth, proteins, produced by barley and yeast during fermentation.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Before the election recedes too far, there are a couple more takeaways that deserve attention. One is the money. Spending in the 2012 campaign reached record heights. Some estimates put the total at more than $6 billion, and the new outside groups, the superPACs and the nonprofits, spent more than a billion to buy maybe one million television ads. In a moment, the effect of that unprecedented flow of cash.

The handover, only the second orderly transition of power in China under communist rule, began Thursday. Party leaders kicked off a weeklong congress that will end with President Hu Jintao handing power to Xi Jinping. NPR's Shanghai correspondent Frank Langfitt talks about China's new leaders.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

With all the election news, we couldn't get to it earlier, so it's Thursday and time to get to your comments.

President Obama was the headliner Tuesday night, but most members of Congress also faced elections. Democrats retained control of the Senate while Republicans held on to control of the House. Now both sides of the divided Congress face significant challenges addressing the nation's fiscal problems.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. The president scores four more years; a divided Congress remains, well, divided; and guess what? Florida is still counting. It's Wednesday and time for a post-election edition of the Political Junkie.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDINGS)

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: There you go again.

VICE PRESIDENT WALTER MONDALE: When I hear your new ideas, I'm reminded of that ad: Where's the beef?

SENATOR BARRY GOLDWATER: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

It's already tomorrow, Wednesday morning, in the American territory of Guam, 15 hours ahead of East Coast time. Residents there don't get to vote for president, but they do hold a straw poll on Election Day. Those results are just in. Since 1984, Guam's straw poll has correctly predicted the winner of the U.S. presidential election.

Jayne Flores is a contributing reporter to KPRG, our member station in Guam, and she joins us now from her home in Mangilao.

And did I pronounce that correctly, or anywhere close to correctly?

Talk of the Nation's favorite film buff Murray Horwitz lobbies for his picks for the best Election Day movies of all time. From Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick running for student council president in Election, to Chris Rock playing a fictional first black president in Head of State, cast your vote.

The most expensive election in U.S. history could be decided by one a tight margin. As results begin to roll in, all eyes are on Ohio, Florida and other swing states that are still too close to call. And both campaigns have lawyers at the ready in case of recounts or problems at polling places.