I’m taking Tuesday off, and am going to vote as early as possible and stay home and watch the news all day.  I’ll try to be posting here, but I’ll definitely be in #abg the entire day if anyone wants to join me.  I’m sure I won’t be the only one of us there, and Axel, JD and Brick may even update this post throughout the day.  It’s insanity!  That said, I can’t promise that the chat/posts will be "insightful" or "informative" or "sober", but I can promise that I’ll…be there?

Updates on Tuesday will be edited into this post below the cut, but I’m posting this now to say that even if you don’t care about participating in this, the important thing is that you vote on Tuesday.  It’s one thing to say you support a candidate and maybe even register to vote, but it’s a whole other thing to take the time to vote yourself.  This election is crucial no matter what side you’re on, and you don’t want to wake up on Wednesday morning counting yourself among those who coulda, woulda, shoulda.  So vote on Tuesday.  It matters.

Tuesday live-blogging after the cut!

Updates coming Tuesday morning!  Join #abg on Starchat (http://www.starchat.net or download mIRC free from www.mirc.com) to participate in the live chat throughout the day.

12:19pm:  Just got home from voting.  I stood in line for 2 hours in a cramped elementary school to do so.  Most Ohio counties uses touchscreens, and I didn’t see any problems but there were poll workers on hand urging the people there to use paper ballots more frequently to keep the line under control.  If the wait was two hours at 10am, I can’t imagine how bad it’s going to be when people get out of work tonight.

1:24pm:  Reports are coming in from all over about polling problems, and MSNBC had a lengthy piece on how they (and NBC news) will be treating the race tonight — basically, it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and no one wants to call anything prematurely.  It’s going to be a long night. 

1:30pm:  And just as I say that, MSNBC brings out a Presidential historian who brings up the Reagan Revolution, FDR, and JFK, all in regard to a potential Obama Presidency.  Not a lot of hype today.  Nope.

2:30pm: Evidently Virginia is in chaos right now because of every imaginable problem at polling places – wrong machines delivered to the wrong polling places, machines not working properly, etc.  Some are trying to get polling places to remain open for an extra two hours tonight.  So if you’re a Virginia voter, pack a lunch.

3:00pm: The networks seem to be avoiding any speculation on who’s going to win, I think to avoid the backlash they received in 2000 when several races were called prematurely and some people claimed that that influenced voters in those states who hadn’t gone out yet.  I haven’t seen any reports on exit polling yet either, which is either for that reason or because the crush of people voting today forced the exit pollsters to change their strategy.  Or it might just be too early.  So to fill up this time, there’s a lot of reflection on the campaigns Senators Obama and McCain have run in the past 21 months, and the consensus seems to be 50 state strategy = good, McCain idling during the end of the Democratic primary and suspending his campaign to save the economy = bad, Palin extremely bad, Biden kind of a mediocre pick.  Hard to disagree with that.

3:10pm: Very interesting points made in an interview with Obama’s campaign manager on MSNBC on the future of the internet in politics.  The Obama campaign specifically has used the internet  as a tool throughout the election, and there’s some questions about whether or not an Obama Presidency would continue to use the internet as a way to connect with the people.  Obviously, there are no formal plans in place, and no one in any formal role is going to look past today, but it’s an interesting thing to think about.  Both campaigns have made waves about making government more transparent and more accessible, and the internet can be used to accomplish both.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

3:55pm: I haven’t been watching any other channel’s coverage, because I’m really enjoying MSNBC’s refraining from guessing at what’s going to happen (though reading between the lines, they’re expecting an Obama win, and as I write this Luke Russert just used the word "landslide", and I got my second phonecall of the day from the Obama campaign making sure I voted.  Anyway, the point was, they’ve been spending a lot of time talking about the demographics behind the vote, there’s been a lot of talk of race and gender, and one Republican senator was interviewed about the rural vote.  It’s a Demography 101 lesson, and it seems pretty good natured.

4:25pm: The Virginia Board of Elections just issued a release saying that, yes, all of the polling places in the state are open, and yes, they are functioning properly.  Wow.  That’s going to be a story tonight when the polls close, no matter which way the state goes. More talk on MSNBC about Latino voters, who are being credited (on this station, anyway) for the potential turning of states like Virginia and Colorado from red to blue.  More talk on the changing image of the U.S., and it’s pretty cool.

4:30pm: Turnout in Indiana is off the chart, and Luke Russert is doing a good job talking about the youth vote.  He’s going to be one reporter to watch closely throughout the night because it’s impossible to not like him, not only because he’s a former PTI intern but you know that his father is in the thoughts of a lot of the media tonight and I think people probably want Luke to really kick ass tonight.  If Indiana somehow goes blue, it’ll be amazing. 

5:00pm: Gearing up for the first round of polls closing, and basically every state along the eastern seaboard is going to get some coverage tonight.  140 million voters expected overall, up 20 million from 2004.  That’s a substantial increase, and completely awesome all around.  I’m going to take a break from this for a couple of hours, just to enjoy the final push. 

6:45pm: The first round of polls close in 15 minutes, and it’s really exciting- the sense is that McCain needs a miracle to pull it out tonight, but we all know exit polling isn’t very reliable.  We’ll see!

6:55pm: "Obama Tsunami."

7:00pm: Obama takes Vermont, McCain Kentucky.  8-3.  Indiana, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, too close/early to call.  No surprise on the called states, kudos to MSNBC for not going out on a limb and gambling on a state going one way or the other incorrectly.  Sounds like Indiana Democrats have made tremendous gains there, which is bad news for the GOP.  Mark Warner picks up the Senate seat in Virginia, Lindsey Graham hangs onto his in South Carolina.  I know one of our forumgoers (I’m sorry, I can’t remember your SN off the top of my head) worked for the Warner campaign, so congrats are in order.

7:12pm: When Pat Buchanan of all people says that the Conservative Era is over and we’re on the cusp of a new, liberal America, it’s a tough night to be a Republican.

7:30pm: The traditional red states on the line right now haven’t been called yet, but they’re leaning McCain right now, though the numbers are changing constantly.  If McCain takes any of these states right now, it’s not necessarily news because they’re traditionally red.  If Obama takes them, it’s newsworthy, and then some.  This is ridiculously intense.  We’re slowly creeping into the final calls for the east coast and chunks of the Midwest; I am severely freaked out right now.

7:45pm: McCain takes South Carolina.  No surprise there.  McCain just gave a short speech from his plane which, in my opinion, did not at all smack of confidence, and could almost be considered a mini-concession speech.  He is clearly exhausted from today’s last-minute rallying, which made him look much more humble than he has, and so maybe he isn’t intending to look like a man who knows he’s fighting a losing battle but it came across like that. 

8:00pm: A massive flood of states being called, Pennsylvania being called for Obama.  103-34 for Obama according to MSNBC right now. 

9:15pm: The intensity hasn’t abated at all.  No calls for any swing states yet, and the "lean" states went the way you would expect them to.  The map right now basically looks like a map from the Civil War. 

9:25pm: MSNBC has it 195-85 for Obama right now.  I can’t update this anymore tonight, at least, not on any kind of schedule.  Enjoy the night, if you’ve paid any attention to this today.

12:35am:

President-elect Barack Obama.

I have my thoughts.  I don’t think they’re appropriate for the front page.  Suffice it to say, I am thrilled, thrilled beyond words, thrilled beyond rhetoric.  I need time to think about this, and I doubt any of you want to see my thoughts publicly.  In the unlikely event you’ve followed the updates today, thank you- if you haven’t, well, eat a dick, you won’t read this anyway.

 

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