After tonight, one of these two men won't be able to press as much flesh or kiss nearly as many babies anymore. Or if he tries, he might get arrested.

The polls are starting to close and results are gradually trickling in. Or, at least those devious devils known as exit polls are starting to roll in.

• Kentucky to Mac (8 electoral votes and a horse) and Vermont to Obama (3 electoral votes and a buttload of maple syrup). Check out the Rocky's electoral map, which is scores cooler than the other one, as ours shows which way the state is leaning or if it's currently too close to call.
• I wanted to take a moment for a shout out to my mom. She was going to cover her ears and have my dad break the news to her gently at the end of the night, but she gamely agreed to read this liveblog instead.
• Maine is currently reporting a whopping two votes for Obama and one for McCain. That's either a mandate, or a sign that voters would rather be out catching lobster.
• Poll watching entertainment: Remember the South Park "Vote or Die" rap?
• A reminder from K-Lo: Don't call Florida yet... because people are, like, STILL VOTING.
• Liddy Dole got slammed in North Carolina Senate race. Sununu lost New Hampshire. Yikes!
• A source in California just e-mails me and says a robo-call from the Obama camp is going around: "The call opens up with the voice stating that the call is 'breaking news' and that Obama has run away with the battleground states." For the record, California polls don't close until 8 p.m. Pacific time. Trying to dissuade people from the polls is low.
  
• Real Clear Politics is showing McCain edging Obama out on the popular vote. That won't last, but it's an interesting scenario to look at for a little while.
• We're coming up to the next round of poll closings, looking at not only a grip of electoral votes but Al Franken's Senate race.
• Colorado polls have just closed. The Rocky home page is keeping tabs on key races and amendments.
• So far, Dems have gained three and the GOP have lost three in the Senate, and Dems have gained four and the GOP have lost four in the House. If there's any emotion I'll come away with tonight, it will be mourning the loss of checks and balances in D.C. Depending on the presidential outcome, I'll start mourning the loss of originalist justices to "creative" justices.
• We're now calling Mark Udall as Colorado Senate winner. I'm just glad that nasty race is over.
  
• Amendment 47 is losing early on. Come on, people, firefighters will be able to fight fires even if people aren't forced to join unions. Which one of these is not like the other??
  
• From my grandmother: Imagine if they took all the money that had been spent on these presidential campaigns and put it toward paying down the national debt. Go Grandma.
• Ohio has been called for Obama. Ed Stein is a happy guy. On the positive side, Amendments 58 and 59 are failing.
  
• Vodkapundit reveals his libertarian loyalties: "I'll remind you of something I wrote on VodkaPundit earlier this week: That I would vote my conscience and drink heavily. Bob Barr, this one's for you!" On that note, I think I'll have a shot for Ralph Nader, not because I agree with his politics but because he has the chutzpah to always hang in there in a climate that values third parties about as much as Obama likes guns and religion.
• Only about 235 precincts out of 3,215 in Colorado are reporting. This is due to the state's sophisticated voting system, whereby paper ballots are secured first and then brought by burro to processing stations.
• The popular vote between McCain and Obama is razor-thin, but this is without California polls having closed yet. I know the Dems have gotten screwed on popular vote vs. electoral college before, but if this holds it will be far from a mandate, just as eked-out-two-wins Bush didn't have one.
• Joe Biden won a seventh term to his Senate seat. Meanwhile, Joseph Biden is going to be vice president. Busy guy. I bet that lousy neighborhood he always waxed about on the campaign trail is proud.
• Amendment 51 is failing. That saddens me, because the legislature here has been unresponsive to the needs of the developmentally disabled and The Arc was driven to this statute as a last resort. It would have done such good for the most vulnerable of Colorado's citizens. It's not too surprising, though, that the thought of any tax increase in tough economic times would make voters recoil and start spitting up pea soup.
• Fox News is pegging Udall-Schaffer as too close to call, even though we called it a while ago.
• Gamblers (and community colleges) rejoice: Amendment 50 passes.
  
• Someone on our YouTube site just left a comment on Amendment 55, even though it was tossed a long time ago (we left the videos up because they're still interesting): "This amendment would force the companies to give you a better reason to fire than they just don't like you or you don't belong to a click." Can they fire you for bad spelling?
• Cali is going to put Obama over the top for the electoral votes he needs. It's over.
• BUT it's still too close to call on Amendments 46 and 54, and the gaps are closing on 58 and 59. Unfortunately, Jon Caldara's sock puppets didn't push Amendment 49 to victory. How can you win, though, when the union Godzilla has mailers like this stomping all over you?
• Republicans have lost nine in the House and five in the Senate. This is part because the party has lost the meaning of "Big Tent."
• Al Franken and Norm Coleman are locked in a dead heat. This is DISASTEROUS.
• Karl Rove just was explaining the Franken race. Seems that a third-party candidate is sucking away GOP votes.
• Square State reported this afternoon, "We are hearing reports that Sheriff's vehicles and uniformed officers are being placed close to the entryways of voting locations in heavily Democratic precincts of Weld County. Weld County Democrats are registering their concern that this might have a chilling effect on voters approaching the polls." I'm not buying it. Who's afraid to walk past cops unless they've done something wrong? Really!
• Mount Virtus said a mouthful: "It's hard to live up to the promise of live-blogging when there isn't much good news to report."
  
• Jeralyn at TalkLeft lists these as the reasons McCain-Palin tanked: "1) President Bush (the McCain=Bush III argument) 2) The Economy 3) Sarah Palin 4) McCain's bad judgment in picking Palin 5) McCain's age, lack of leadership qualities, and temperment problems.6) No one bought his change or maverick arguments and everyone hated his negative attack ads." ... Let's be serious, Obama didn't exactly run a clean campaign!! But I have to agree with Nos. 3 and 4. And if GOPs start blaming this loss on Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan, I'm gonna scream.
• From The People's Cube: "Glorious news from Colorado, polls show 52% of our comrades voted early and often! They say Co is a purple state right now, it will be purple once the nightsticks are properly applied! Our time is at hand comrades, I must go sharpen my shovel." But did anyone see the dead voting?
• Greg Gutfeld reasons that "of the two candidates, Obama is more likely to bomb the hell out of something." A treatise well worth reading.
• Coleman has slightly pulled ahead of Franken. Please, please...
• Let me pause to explain why I'm glad 58 and 59 tanked. On the severance tax, you don't penalize a major state industry, oil and gas, and encourage it to go elsewhere in a time of economic need, when industry folks need their jobs. Plus, Ritter's random scholarship plan was just cockamamie. On 59, I just thought the campaign was so disingenuous. I mean, look at our own pro-59 video. The teacher just presented it -- as the scripted campaign did -- as a savings account for education, something needed for the kids. In reality, it was TABOR deconstruction. Smoke screens suck, and sometimes the voters thankfully see through them.
• Dirty Harry offers a little prayer: "Lord, we've taken our beating. We're listening. We'll be better. So if you could see your way clear to not make Al Franken a Senator, that would be great."
• Speaking of that beating, GOP has lost 13 House seats and 5 Senate seats.
• And these horn-honkers on Colfax are driving me crazy.
• Was just getting beaten up on via Facebook by an old colleague saying "you guys" (GOP) when I had to remind him I'm an independent.

So the night is over, a storm's blowing in, and I'm finally back with my chinchilla, where I liveblogged all those everlasting debates. Leaving the Rocky, there was a mess of police cars over on 15th, a homeless guy wildly playing bucket-drums out of his shopping cart on Cleveland, and two Obama supporters near the park trying to get passing cars to honk. Even now, checking at home, the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative is too close to call. Tom Lucero and the clean government folks eked out a surprise win on Amendment 54, which will likely get targeted by the big union machine in court. I passed a bunch of "Yes on 59" signs on the way home and nearly stopped to take a smart-alec R.I.P. photo.

And Al Franken? Trailing by only about 11,000 votes with 20 counties still to be counted in Minnesota. But I'm happy to see that, in California, farm animals will get more room in a win by about 62 percent. And now, it's time for bed. Finally.

Discussion

• November 4, 2008

  8:17 PM

  anonymous writes:

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