Rolling Election Liveblog-O-Rama

by John Hawkins | November 4, 2008 5:31 am

Tonight, starting at 6 PM EST or so, I will begin doing a slow, rolling liveblog of the election as news breaks or every 30 minutes or so.

If any big news breaks before then, I’ll certainly chime in.

PS: After much consideration, I decided not to handicap House races this year. Perhaps because the polling agencies were spending so much time on doing national polls, there was a real dearth of polling data in the congressional races. I mean, seriously, would you want to try to call who’s going to win and lose races based on 2-3 week old polls sponsored by the Daily Kos?

Anyway, as watching the race, make sure to head back over to Right Wing News tonight to check out the coverage.

3:26 PM: Castro seems excited [1] to see that someone who shares his views about “spreading the wealth” is on track to take charge in the US. Can you blame him?

“Cuba’s former president, Fidel Castro, said U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is the “more intelligent” choice though he cautioned that the Democratic senator isn’t concerned with the world’s biggest problems.

Castro, who handed governing authority over to his brother this year after ruling the communist country for 49 years, noted that Obama plans to cut taxes for the middle class and increase taxes for the rich. U.S. voters will decide between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain in today’s election.

“He’s without a doubt more intelligent, refined and even- handed than his Republican adversary,” Castro wrote in a “reflection,” which was sent via e-mail. “McCain is old, belligerent, uncultivated, unintelligent and in poor health.”

Expect almost every terrorist, tin pot dictator, and America hating thug on planet earth to publicly celebrate if Obama is elected President. Chavez will be thrilled, Al-Qaeda will call it a victory, the Palestinians will be publicly celebrating, and the same people who have publicly trashed America for 8 years will be cheering at the top of their lungs. Now, why do you think that is? Some people might be foolish enough to believe that they suddenly have our best interests at heart, but the truth is, at times, our enemies are able to see us much more clearly than many of the people in our own country do…

3:29: If you have the BBC, make sure to check out my co-blogger Melissa Clouthier[2] doing election commentary. Also, my pal Karol Sheinin from Alarming News[3] will be doing CNN.

6:28: The polls have closed in Indiana and that will be our first “test” state. In order to win tonight, he almost certainly needs to take Indiana, which should be close.

6:40: From James Pethokoukis[4],

Here is the latest from inside Team McCain: Florida looks good. Ohio, Penn., Virginia and NC are too close to call.

If that’s true and Virginia and PA are really too close to call, that would be a strong indication McCain is running much better than his poll numbers looked. We’ll see if it plays out tonight.

6:50: Mort Kondracke: If Mitch McConnell wins tonight, he probably reminds Senate Minority Leaders. Surely, they couldn’t possibly be that stupid, could they? Wait, we’re talking about the Republicans, so of course they could.

7:05: So far, we’ve yet to have a key state come in. Indiana, which is a must win for McCain and Virginia, which will probably go Obama, should be first unless they’re really, really close.

7:12: Oh joy. That sack of crap Lindsey Graham has already been reelected.

7:37: Obama is up 160k votes in Florida right now according to Fox. They aren’t calling it, but that is a scary number….

8:32: Just finished the radio show and I have good news and bad news for you. The “good news” is Mitch McConnell won his Senate race. The bad news is Elizabeth Dole lost, Obama has Pennsylvania, and Florida and North Carolina are leaning heavily towards Obama. I think he’s going to take both states and McCain can’t afford to lose either.

8:39: Good News: McCain won Georgia. Bad News: He’s pretty much supposed to win Georgia.

8:42: Saxby Chambliss wins by over 50%. No run-off. Excellent. Now, if Norm Coleman wins as expected, the Dems only get 7 Senate seats. Sigh. “Only” 7 seats.

8:58: You know, before this election, people kept telling me I was too pessimistic about our election chances. At the moment, it looks like I was a little too optimistic about the number of states McCain was going to win…

9:01: Oooof. Minnesota and Ohio for Obama. Game over.

9:39: The key thing to watch at this point: Coleman vs. Franken in Minnesota. If we win that one, the Dems max out at 7 seats added.

9:56: Missouri, Virginia, Florida, Indiana, and North Carolina haven’t been called yet. If McCain were to somehow win all of those states, well, he’d still lose without Pennsylvania or Ohio, but it would be a lot closer.

10:30: It’s a whole mess ‘o’ ugly out there at this point. We’re bleeding House seats. Pat McCrory, who I thought would win Governor of NC, lost. It’s like 2006 all over again.

10:38: Poor Brit Hume. He looks a little shook.

10:41: McCain made it closer than I thought it would be, but Obama carries Virginia.

10:57: Franken and Coleman are tied with 22% of the vote counted in Minnesota. That’s a huge seat. The Dems need that one to get 8 seats. And can you imagine that jackass Al Franken in the Senate? Actually, he’d probably fit right in. Go Coleman, beat that son of a gun…

11:00: They call Cali for Obama and he has now officially cracked 270. Game officially over.

11:28: I just watched McCain’s concession speech. It was, as you’d expect, it was extremely gracious.

11:41: Florida goes Obama by two. Ouch.

11:48: Franken and Coleman are still tied, but Karl Rove says that the remaining districts look to be leaning Franken’s way. If Franken pulls it out, that would give the Dems an 8 seat pick-up.

12:04: Obama is giving a gracious victory speech at the moment. Actually, it was an excellent speech. That’s pretty much the one thing he does well other than raise money, come up with mindless slogans, and lie…

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