In the course of subjecting myself to a night of election returns I've made a conscious decision to avoid what I've normally done, that being flip around from channel to channel...and getting ticked off at the bias in the process...yelling at the TV, etc... Not tonight. Strictly Fox News... Hid the remote.
One interesting fact, as a lot of people have suggested has been the case in the past, Obama is underperforming his poll numbers...as well as the exit poll numbers. In some cases by as much as 10%. We'll see how that impacts some of the toss up states.
9:10 - No surprises so far. As far as the presidential race, everything is pretty much how you could have bet your house on. The only big deal, other than a lot of close states McCain needs, Pennsylvania (where McCain thought he had a chance) has gone blue. So we essentially need all the swing states we knew we needed.
As for the Senate, we're down a net of 4 so far....NH, NC, NM and VA. Again, no surprises.
9:20 - OK, here's real news... Fox just called Ohio for Obama. That's big folks. In fact, that's pretty much the ballgame. The only very, very outside shot now would be to pick off a former blue state...like Oregon or Washington. Not likely.
One thing I'd like to point out, and I'll look more at this in the next few days, but pay close attention to the breakdown of those exit polls when it comes to the split among white evangelicals. Bottom line so far - McCain underperforming in this group...to the tune of about 10 or more points worse than Bush did four years ago. A fact which has everything to do with the fact that there has been little to no visibility of key, salient, cultural issues in this campaign...especially from McCain's campaign. A fact more all the more maddening given that Obama, the most liberal member of the US Senate, was the opposition.
9:35 - Mass. voters opt to keep their income tax [5]. Suckers.
10:04 - Mississipi Senate is called for Wicker, the Republican that replaced Lott. This takes a 60 vote Dem majority off the table.
Still no calls for Virginia, Florida, North Carolina...
Observation: for all the talk of racism, blacks are voting 9 to 1 for Obama...and it looks like whites average about 6 to 4 for McCain. How many stories about this do you think we'll see framed as racism tinged voting?
10:25 - liberal Republican Chris Shays goes down in CT....good riddance. Tom Rooney knocks of Dem Tim (multiple affairs) Mahoney...1st GOP pick up in the House.
10:15 - It looks like the Florida marriage amendment will pass [6]...currently has almost 64%...(just keep in mind that, in Florida, amendments must pass with 60%)
10:42 - Fox just called Virginia for Obama... Good night, Irene. Looks like Obama can thank Mark Warner for getting him over the half-way mark.
Thank the Lord they won't get to 60. And it's a good thing McConnell hung on in Kentucky... Now he's the face of the GOP, with the job of holding at least 40 of maybe 44 or so Republicans in line to defend filibusters of the coming liberal stampede.
A final note: this should put an end to the "strategy" of what I'll call "reachacrosstheaisleism". We were told (by everyone from the media, to the moderate elements of the party) that McCain was the only Republican that could win because he had a track record of "reaching across the aisle"...being a maverick Republican, etc...
And now we know. I'ts a strategy for defeat.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, we have to paint the differences between ourselves and the Democrats in bright, bold colors; not pale pastels. That means economic, national security AND social/cultural issues. And it helps to have a candidate that the base of the party sees as looking out for them.
I've had enough. I'll spare myself the messianic speech in Chicago. (I see Rocky's on AMC...)
