Obama Heading For Victory

Posted on November 4, 2008

Voting turnout today was very high across the nation. Although there were the usual reports of broken voting machines, incorrect voting rolls (activist and actor Tim Robbins was turned away from his polling location), and long lines, generally speaking things went smoothly.

As of 9:26 pm central time, Obama appears to be sailing ahead to an easy victory. Both CNN and Fox have called Ohio for Obama. He's also projected to have won New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maine, Delaware, Maryland and Delaware. With California and the west coast still to be counted, it looks like we have a President-Elect Barack Obama. The Senate races are looking interesting. Elizabeth Dole (R - North Carolina) lost her senate seat to Kay Hagan (despite the Godless ad) and so did John Sununu (R-New Hampshire). It doesn't look like the Democrats are getting to 60 seats. In the House of Representatives, John Murtha did manage to hold on to his congressional seat, despite calling his own constituents a bunch of racists.

CNN has the latest electoral map with projections and popular vote counts. As for television coverage, the CNN coverage is competent: we always perk up when James Carville starts ranting. That's always fun. Alex Castellanos looks horribly depressed. The coverage took a sci fi tone when Jessica Yellin beamed in via hologram from another planet to talk about...something. That bit was so odd, I totally missed what she was saying.

Over at Fox News the tone is positively funereal. Bill Kristol literally had his head in his hands at one point. He looks miserable: he can't seem to summon up the energy to make his usual snide remarks. He is, of course, the one who convinced McCain to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate. The other day he was talking about how Palin will be president in 2012, which seems highly unlikely to me.

Fox has a new set and everyone seems confused about where they are supposed to sit and/or stand. Karl Rove predicted the result last week when he said that McCain would need a miracle to pull this off. No miracle today. As for MSNBC, Rachel Maddow appears to be drinking cocktails which surely violates some kind of FCC rule. Then again, it's election night so hey -- go ahead and have a celebratory (or consoling) drink.

Update: Fox News has called the race for Barack Obama, referring to him as the President-Elect as it is now mathematically impossible for John McCain to win.