The famously loudmouth radical is "breaking his silence" in an interview with "Good Morning, America," tomorrow where he'll be promoting the reissue of his book, "Fugitive Days."

The great irony of calling out Obama for his association with an unrepentant, domestic terrorist is that the likely result will be a serious increase in the terrorist's speaking fees in the warped world of academia. Watch out for him on your campus.

It will not end with Ryan Lizza, the Washington Times, New York Post, and Dallas Morning News getting kicked off the campaign plane, if this profile of the prospective press secretary is to be believed.

They call Robert Gibbs the "Barack Whisperer," which reveals that he a) has a very close strategist relationship with the president-elect and that b) he should have Obama's very capable speech writers come up with his nicknames (The "Barack Whisperer" doesn't exactly roll off the tongues. "Boss Whisperer," maybe?).

On the trail, Gibbs got more guarded as his status rose, shouting matches with reporters were not uncommon, and critical reporters (such that they were) could be frozen out by the spokesman for weeks at a time.

If you're wondering what it takes to get on Gibbs' bad side, the answer is not much. Dean Reynolds of CBS, who wrote the much-linked account of Obama's gamy campaign plane, received a "rather tendentious note" from Gibbs. Gibbs said later the piece hurt staff's feelings and raised issues the reporter did not raise in person. Well, then. In the Obama White House, presumably critical reporters will have to say everything they write "to his face" before they write it.

Another way to get Gibbs' censure, apparently, is to veer from unfailingly fawning coverage for even one instant, as Newsweek had the gall to do in one or two of its Obama cover stories throughout the year.

Last spring, when Newsweek ran a cover portraying Obama as the elitist "arugula" candidate, followed weeks later by a cover story in which editor Evan Thomas wrote Obama an open memo on dealing with race, the campaign suddenly stopped cooperating with the magazine's quadrennial book project, which requires behind-the-scenes access. Thomas had to fly to Detroit and try to assuage Gibbs during a campaign flight before access was restored.

"I thought the Obama campaign was overreacting to those two covers," Thomas says. "They thought we were overly concerned with race." In light of the election, "maybe they were right."

The magazine covers in question are "Obama's Bubba Gap" of May 5, 2008 and "Obama, Race, and Us" of June 2.

The "Bubba Gap" cover was, perhaps, the most critical of the 11— count 'em, 11!— covers that featured Barack Obama over the past two years. Three of those covers featured him with others— one with Hillary, one with Biden, and one with McCain— but the rest featured him alone, and most were utterly positive.

Click through this slide show to see the scathing coverage that warranted Gibbs' freeze-out: "The O Team," "What He Believes," and "When Barry Became Barack," among them.

As we saw throughout the campaign, the Obama team is a disciplined message machine that puts a premium on loyalty and limits access, in much the same style the Bush administration has been maligned for. Because the press is predisposed to like Obama, his arm's-length treatment of the press never became the story, as it did about the McCain and Palin camps, which allowed Gibbs to punish press members for slights both tiny and imagined.

It will continue in the White House. This paragraph makes me lament the lack of a similar figure in the Bush White House:

He also monitors coverage intensively, pushing back against the smallest blog post he considers inaccurate.

In the late years of the Bush administration, the relationship with press has remained contentious, but without systematic push-back on controversial issues such as pre-war intelligence, even though press coverage pushed much more problematic memes than the "Bubba Gap."

Sounds like the Obama administration won't be making such mistakes. Will they ever go far enough in limiting access and punishing critics to turn off the journalists who love them so? Yeah, I won't hold my breath.

Bill Sammon's sources tell him Steele may announce as soon as Thursday, and is courting the endorsement of Newt Gingrich, which if landed, would do much to scare off the incumbent and possible challengers:

The source also contradicted a report in Tuesday's Washington Times that Steele and Gingrich were competing for the RNC post.

"There is no fight," the source said. "This tension between Michael Steele and Newt Gingrich is totally fabricated and, in fact, Gingrich and Steele are working together to create a new strategy for the direction of the GOP."

In a statement issued by the former House speaker, Gingrich said he was not interested in seeking the post of Republican party chairman.

"A number of people have asked me to consider running for Republican National Committee chair. They have been very flattering, and I am very honored by their support," he said.

The Washington Times' report on the "behind-the-scenes battle" between the two is here.

I like the direction this is heading, if correct. Michael Steele is an eminently likable guy who can communicate conservative values and ideas with competence and charm, and has always inspired the base. He comes without the significant political baggage of a Newt chairmanship, but will undoubtedly be bolstered by Newt's ideas, as Gingrich has signaled that he wants to be very involved in the remaking of a party that could use some new ideas.

As for the somewhat fallacious face-off David Brooks drew between traditionalists and reformists, a Steele and Newt alliance could offer both a fresh face and fresh ideas without succumbing to the temptation to fight Democrats by becoming second-rate, imitation liberals. Both are "Hayesian reformitionalists" (see the above link) in their public pronouncements.

Mike Duncan will likely make a bid to stay in place, but there is serious danger in leaving the three most visible members of GOP leadership in place--Duncan at RNC, Boehner in the House, and McConnell in the Senate. If GOP voters and the rest of the country notice that Republican party leadership is subject to fewer consequences than team leaders on "The Apprentice," they will continue to impose their own punishment at the polls.

Meet Renegade, Renaissance, Radiance and Rosebud.

I'm mostly just goofing, although three-syllable code names are not usually the order of the day. Renaissance? George W.'s and Laura's names are Tumbler and Tempo, respectively. Sarah and Todd Palin were reportedly Denali and Driller, which are equally reflective of their personalities and approaches as the Obamas' names.

If you were to read Nicholas Kristof today, you'd conclude Obama had lobbied for "Niebuhr" and "Nietzsche" but was rebuffed by the stiflingly anti-intellectual environment engendered at the White House during the Bush years.

In other Secret Service news, Scott McClellan needed a name? And, he warranted "Matrix?" If I were Renaissance, I'd lodge a complaint.

Obama makes a joke at Nancy Reagan's expense at his first post-partisan, uplifting press conference. The press corps enjoys it.

Ronald Reagan's 86-year-old widow is currently recovering from a broken pelvis suffered in October.

Perhaps picking on her is part of Obama's vaunted "social perception," as praised by David Brooks.

Reagan consulted an astrologist, after her husband was shot. There's at least one account of Hillary Clinton attempting to speak to the deceased Eleanor Roosevelt during her time in the White House in the spiritual biography, "God and Hillary Clinton," by Paul Kengor.

H/t Allah.

Let's add some context to the Carl Cameron and Newsweek airing of rumors from anonymous McCain/Palin staffers. The most controversial claims, all of which come without names attached because the purveyors are apparently determined to stick around to undermine future campaigns and candidates, are that Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent as opposed to a country, and that she didn't know who the members of NAFTA were.

Let's start with NAFTA. If folks want to believe Gov. Sarah Palin did not know even the most basic facts about NAFTA, they have to believe a couple other improbable things.

Before she became governor, Palin's husband Todd's commercial fishing business on Bristol Bay accounted a decent percentage of the family's income. The couple reported about $46,000 from the business last year on a license Todd purchased from his grandfather in the 1970s. He has been a lifelong commercial fisherman and she has often been his partner both in the business and literally on the boat.

Surely while the two were working in the commercial salmon fishing industry in post-NAFTA Alaska, they would not have missed the effect farmed-salmon imports from Canada had on the industry, causing the number of fisherman, the size of the harvest, and the value of permits to go down significantly in Alaska. According to a 2003 AP article:

"This loss of equity, which for self-employed fishermen is equivalent to retirement accounts, will continue to reverberate throughout the Alaska economy in coming years," Gilbertsen said.

The economic losses have ricocheted through coastal communities as fewer fishermen have caused a decline in both crews and shore-based services. Monthly employment in the state's seafood processing industry fell from 11,200 in 1992 to 7,400 in 2002.

Chile and Canada are the two major suppliers to the U.S. market of farm-raised salmon. The two countries accounted for 94 percent of the Atlantic pen-reared salmon, valued at $818 million.

Canada is a partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement, which removed certain trade barriers, and Chile has fewer environmental regulations and cheap labor, the analysis showed.

"The fact that Canada is a NAFTA partner, and that the U.S. has just approved a bilateral free trade agreement with Chile, would seem to indicate that these imports will continue to grow," Gilbertsen said.

So, let's say for argument's sake the couple missed that bit of information. They would also have had to miss the fact that in 2002, the federal government decided to make commercial salmon fisherman on Alaska's Bristol Bay eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance under the North American Free Trade Agreement due to the impact Canada's farmed-salmon had on the industry. From a 2002 AP brief:

The U.S. Department of Labor has certified about 200 commercial salmon fishermen in the Bristol Bay area as eligible to apply for transitional adjustment assistance under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The certifications cover Sept. 5, 2001, to Nov. 25, 2004. Workers laid off or reduced to part-time work during that time may be eligible for extra benefits and services.

The Labor Department found that major customers for Bristol Bay salmon increased their reliance on imports of salmon from Canada, adversely affecting fishermen.

NAFTA authorizes assistance to cover workers affected because of increased imports from Mexico or Canada or shifts in production to those countries.

After they are certified as eligible, workers may apply for benefits at a state employment service office. They may receive retraining services, career counseling, job placement assistance and income support.

On the flip side of the coin, Canada is within the top three of Alaska's trading partners, a position it moved into in the increased trade years after NAFTA was passed. It's a huge market for seafood and metals mined in Alaska.

Disgruntled McCain staffers not only require you to believe that the chief executive of the state of Alaska knew nothing about one of her state's most important trading partners, but that she was equally oblivious to the economic winds affecting the industry that provided her very own livelihood. Perhaps they should head to the NYT next, which has a history of employing anyone who has a penchant for writing slam books about Republicans.

This accusation didn't pass the smell test to begin with, but because McCain staffers are requiring us to defend our popular former vice presidential nominee against NYT-like attacks, there are some facts to consider.

In Baghdad, the reaction to Obama's election:

In the normally querulous Union of Iraqi Writers club in Baghdad, there was a rare unanimity among the secular, the religious, Shiites, Sunnis and former regime loyalists: While the election of the first black man to the highest office in the United States was admirable, Mr. Obama’s promise to start withdrawing troops from Iraq was a cause for great concern.

At the club’s restaurant and bar, which has survived the wrath of religious extremists over the past few years, Daoud al-Rahmani, a self-styled poet, writer and satirist, gathered at one table with two of his colleagues for an early lunch. They drank beer and nibbled from little bowls filled with marinated fava beans served as hors d’oeuvres
.
“There will be chaos if they leave,’’ Mr. Rahmani said. “We are still in disagreement. Sectarianism is ingrained in us now.”

Listen to Mr. Rahmani, Mr. President-elect.

Meet the bad cop to Obama's good:

Democratic officials say Barack Obama's fellow Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel has agreed to be White House chief of staff.

One of Obama's first decisions as president-elect was to ask the Illinois congressman to run his White House staff. Emanuel accepted Thursday after struggling over family and political considerations.

I know what you've been thinking. Sure, America is engaged in two wars, is in the beginning stages of the worst economic downturn in a quarter century, and has a bloated government that is perhaps impervious to reform. But you have your eye on the real prize. You've been wondering, along with several hundred other people, how Obama's victory will change the Beltway social scene:

At weekend soccer games, parents wonder aloud which of the city’s exclusive private schools might win the presidential sweepstakes by enrolling Malia and Sasha. (The Obamas could, of course, go the Jimmy Carter route and enroll their daughters in public school; Michelle Obama has said privately that she did not intend to make a decision about school until after the election.)

At the Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, the Rev. Robert Maddox Jr., a onetime Carter adviser, has already sent a letter inviting the Obamas to join. “We’ve gotten word from the grapevine that they will not decide where they go to church until they get in and settled a bit,” he said. “But they will obviously be looking for a place where their girls can be involved.”

This city has had eight years of a president who goes to bed at 9 p.m.; Laura Bush, the first lady, once said that she and Mr. Bush did not come to Washington to make new friends. A big night out on the town for the Bushes is dinner at Karl Rove’s house. With the Obamas, the capital’s hostesses are hoping to get back into high gear.

Good to know that at least some of us have our priorities straight.

He'll make way for Eric Cantor of Virginia. Adam Putnam has already stepped down, and while Boehner is expected to stay on, there are rumblings in the grassroots about ousting him. He makes his case, here.

Blunt's letter on his decision:

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Dear Republican Colleague,

In January 2007, I wrote myself a letter and mailed it to my office. The letter, unopened, sat on my desk until Wednesday. Almost two years ago, I wrote that our ideas didn't lose the mid-term election, we did. I wrote that it was my intention to spend the next two years holding the Democrats accountable and defining the differences between our parties. I also wrote that, were we not successful in recapturing the majority in 2008, it was my intention to serve only two years as Minority Whip.

With another election behind us, I still believe that conservative ideas define where the country wants to be and needs to be. And I believe that together we held the Democrats accountable and that we began to define some of the differences between our parties.

Against the pundits' best predictions, we stood against a flawed expansion of government run health care in the SCHIP bill. When many were saying it was political suicide, we gave the surge a chance to work and today we are rapidly handing over control of Iraq to a stable government capable of securing the peace. We stopped billions of dollars in frivolous spending. We won an unprecedented number of motions to recommit, defining the differences between our parties and on a few occasions forcing the Democrats to pull their own bills from the floor. And when an energy crisis threatened our families and our whole economy, we advanced common sense solutions that resonated with the American people.

A few weeks ago, Robert J. Samuelson wrote an excellent column describing why young people should be angry.

Here's why. The two largest government programs, Social Security and Medicare, transfer wealth from the young and working to the old and retired. These programs are set to grow much, much larger in the coming years, as the Baby Boomers retire and live longer (a good thing!). This threatens the fiscal position of the United States, because the number of workers supporting each retiree is going to shrink.

Reasonable solutions to this problem include raising the retirement age, indexing benefits to prices not wages, progressive indexing of benefits (so that wealthy retirees don't receive as much as middle-class retirees), and increasing Medicare co-pays while introducing competition into the system (see: Medicare Advantage). But since these solutions are reasonable, they stand no chance of happening. President-elect Obama, for example, has pointed to Medicare Advantage as one of the few programs he wants to cut. He wants to increase governments' responsibilities while sheltering individuals from risk. If entitlements grow without reform, either taxes or the deficit will skyrocket, and possibly both. You get stuck with the bill.

Today, though, economist Casey Mulligan has a fascinating post on why Obama's victory may prove troublesome for those who do not want to reform our gerontocratic entitlement system:

2008 did not stop the aging process for the baby boom, or for anybody else. However, the stock market and housing crash delayed many retirements. With many of the baby boomers remaining in the workforce with the young, it is less likely that they will identify with retirees. Even if they do, work will keep them busy -- maybe too busy to pay much attention to political matters.

This year also witnessed significant innovations in political fund raising, with much of the credit going to the Obama campaign. The previous campaign finance reform ultimately did not stop the collection and disbursement of hundreds of millions of political dollars.

The young survive to fight another political day, and to do so with more numbers and dollars than we previously expected.

We'll see.

Meet the new face of the Obama White House. A little McClellan-esque for my taste.

This is my favorite Robert Gibbs moment of the campaign, when Mark Halperin got surprisingly tough on him about the Obama-Ayers relationship. He's also well-known for a pretty decent shouting match with Sean Hannity. Below is what the ferocious spinning will look like for the next four years.

Update: Here's Rahm Emanuel saying his family life might keep him from a second run in the White House. Video at the link.

Emanuel is a serious and sometimes mercenary partisan, but he's no ideological lefty, often picking and backing Blue Dog Democrats to the dismay of liberal activists. It's certainly a bit of a P.R. snafu for the new Obama White House that its first publicly named pick may be turning them down, very publicly.

Meanwhile, Emanuel's father, speaking about his son's possible new job, apparently didn't get the message about hope and change:

In an interview with Ma’ariv, Emanuel’s father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, said he was convinced that his son’s appointment would be good for Israel. “Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel,” he was quoted as saying. “Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House.”

Baseball season is over, but inside baseball season is just beginning.

Florida Rep. Adam Putnam announced today that he will relinquish his post as House Republican Conference chairman. Putnam's departure as the third-ranking Republican leader in the House, opens the door to Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling.

Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. John Boehner are looking to keep their positions as minority leaders in the Senate and House, respectively, but Boehner will likely face some opposition.

Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) is thought to be safe in the Whip position, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) will keep his conference chair.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) is running for the No. 5 spot in the Senate, conference vice-chairman, while Sessions, Burr, and Murkowski are also considering the post.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) will run for head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Norm Coleman will be his likely opponent after a recount in the Minnesota race.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) will leave his NRSC spot for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's Republican Policy Committee slot, as she ponders a run for Texas governor in 2010.

Cantor is a very bright, solid conservative with proven political and fund-raising skills. The word is that he plans to run for House Republican whip.

What a weird night. When it comes to marriage, it appears there are no red states or blue states.

Florida also passed a gay marriage ban narrowly, as did Arizona.

Methinks if California is passing gay marriage bans, the great leftist mandate and majority have not yet arrived.

Norm Coleman and Al Franken are separated by mere hundreds of votes with 95 percent of precincts reporting.

Coleman is currently up about 400 votes, with the Independent candidate garnering 400,000. Michael Barone said earlier in the evening that, given what's left to report, he thought the state would go to Coleman, but my, it is close.

On the brighter side, the Oregon senate race is extremely close, with Republican Gordon Smith leading by a hair, but only 45 percent of precincts are reporting.

Stevens is inexplicably leading in Alaska. I believe Palin would appoint his replacement when he, umm, goes to jail?

Taking into account all House races, Democrats are poised to gain a net of at least 17 seats with a possibility of gaining a total of 25 seats. Worst case scenario for the GOP will be a 261/174 breakdown in the House.

Democrats are leading comfortably or have been declared the winner in these Republican-held districts:

VA-11: Gerry Connolly (D) v. Keith Fimian (R)
NC-8: Larry Kissell (D) v. Robin Hayes (R)
CT-4: James Himes (D) v. Christopher Shays (R)
FL-8: Ric Keller (R) v. Grayson (D)
FL-24: Suzanne Kosmas (D) v. Tom Feeney (R)
IL-11: Debbie Halvorson (D) v. Marty Ozinga (R)
PA-3: Kathy Dahlkemper (D) v. Phil English (R)
AZ-1: Ann Kirkpatrick (D) v. Sydney Hay (R)
CO-4: Betsy Markey (D) v. Marilyn Musgrave (R)
MI-9: Gary Peters (D) v. Joe Knollenberg (R)
NY-13: Michael McMahon (D) v. Robert Straniere (R)
NY-25: Dan Maffei (R) v. Dale Sweetland (D)
NM-2: Harry Teague (D) v. Edward Tinsley (R)
NM-1: Martin Heinrich (D) v. Darren White (R)
NY-29: Eric Massa (D) v. Randy Kuhl (R)
NV-3: Dina Titus (D) v. Jon Porter (R)
VA-2: Thelma Drake (R) v. Glenn Nye (D)
OH-1: Steven Driehaus (D) v. Steve Chabot (R)
OH-16: John Boccieri (R) v. Kirk Schuring (R)
AL-2: Jay Love (R) v. Bobby Bright (D)
NJ-3: John Adler (D) v. Chris Meyers (R)

Republicans are leading comfortably or have been declared the winner in these Democratic-held districts:

FL-16: Tom Rooney (R) v. Tim Mahoney (D)
LA-6: Bill Cassidy (R) v. Dan Cazayoux (D)
TX-22: Pete Olson (R) v. Nick Lampson (D)
KS-2: Lynn Jenkins (R) v. Nancy Boyda (D)

These Republican-held seats are still pretty close:

VA-5: Virgil Goode (R) v. Tom Perriello (D)
OH-15: Mary Kilroy (D) v. Steve Stivers (R)
MD-1: Andy Harris (R) v. Frank Kratovil (D)
MI-7: Tim Walberg (R) v. Mark Schauer (D)
CA-4: Charlie Brown (D) v. Tom McClintock (R)
ID-1: Bill Sali (R) v. Walt Minnick (D)
WA-8: Darcy Burner (D) v. Dave Reichert (R)
AK-AL: Don Young (R) v. Ethan Berkowitz (D)

Because she may have been my favorite part of this campaign, and because she's good for cheering you up on a disappointing night. Yes, the Obama girls are adorable, but no one's been more of a natural on the trail than Piper.

I do not know who he is. I do not know which Obama will show up in Washington, D.C. to govern. My good feelings for him have diminished considerably throughout the campaign, as I've become increasingly convinced that his post-partisan, post-racial pitch was naught but a political pose.

But Obama has lived a colorful life, a patchwork American life of obstacles overcome and unlikely victories and self-made dreams. It is hard not to admire his accomplishments even as I criticize his policies and ideology. He ran an incredible campaign, humbling the Clinton machine with a candidacy fueled more by remarkable charisma than experience. He spoke words people wanted to hear and created one of the greatest brands in modern political history in startlingly short order.

His race and his middle name, long touted as obstacles to Obama's ascendence, were not obstacles to the American people. Racism and xenophobia were background buzz in a clean campaign, existing largely in liberals' nightmares rather than in real life. It is a testament to both candidates and the American electorate that, even if the wrong man was elected, he was elected for right reasons.

I will never be a conservative who writes paeans to Obama's uplifting message and transcendent candidacy. I don't find him either uplifting or transcendent, and would argue that his opportunism precludes both. But I will try my best to hope for good judgment, pray for pragmatism, and never wish ill for the country just because it would mean ill for Obama and his party.

That has been one of the more execrable tendencies of parts of the far left (and even some elected Democrats) while out of power, and it's one to which Republicans should not succumb.

This is America. We all live to regroup and fight another day. Soon, we'll be back to talking about Obama's self-involved speeches and their inefficacy against rogue regimes going nuclear. And, we may be delving into the small matter of his campaign contributions. But for tonight, congrats to Obama. It was a race well run.

Next, let's get started on 2010. We've got plenty of work to do.

John McCain opened with a stirring account of Obama's win as an indicator of just how far we've come when it comes to bestowing the full blessings of our country on all of our citizens, as he appeared on stage with his wife, mother, running mate, and her husband.

"Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth."

It was an emotional address, as he urged "all who supported me to join me in offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to come together."

He noted that the campaign was perhaps one of the "most challenged" in history, and asked supporters not to be discouraged or indulge in despair.

"Tonight, it is natural to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow, we must move beyond it. We fought as hard as we could," he said, adding that there were likely some mistakes made along the way, but that he would not dwell on them as he moved forward in working to solve America's problems.

He took responsibility for the campaign's loss dramatically, saying "the failure was entirely mine, not yours," which elicited emotional chants of "John McCain" from the Arizona crowd.

McCain intimated that Obama's win was the fruition of an American dream, and promised to reach across the aisle to help "his president" when he got back to Washington, D.C. You got the feeling he really meant it.

Whatever happens next, it was truly a beautiful speech and exit for McCain.

You'll be glad to know, that in his celebratory speech, Sen. Harry Reid said that the mandate Democrats got tonight is not a mandate for a "political party or for an ideology," but for coming together.

I imagine they'll flip-flop on that in about two weeks. The ideological mandate is what they're after, but let's remember what Reid said tonight and remind him of it frequently.

The guy who replaced Mark Foley running on honesty and family values has lost his seat to a Republican challenger.

Republican challenger Tom Rooney, a lawyer and former Army officer, had trailed early in the campaign until news broke last month about Mahoney's affairs.

Rooney quickly gained ground and handily won Tuesday night to replace Mahoney representing District 16, covering parts of eight counties from Palm Beach County across the state to the Gulf. The district traditionally leans slightly Republican.

Mahoney acknowledged two affairs. He also says he paid one woman to keep quiet about their tryst.

His two affairs and bribery of at least one woman inexplicably were not treated to wall-to-wall treatment on all networks as Foley's inappropriate e-mails to pages in '06, but Mahoney did have to pay a price. Good to see that. It's one of just a few pick-ups Republicans can look forward to tonight.

Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha, who got into trouble after calling his constituents "racists" and "rednecks," just called his race for himself, but no network has called it yet.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is still in some trouble, up against Republican John Kennedy. The two are only separated by several thousand, and one of them has to get 50 percent in a three-way race or they go to a run-off. Perhaps Jindal's popularity in the state and Landrieu's ineptitude will be enough to counteract the prevailing political winds.

CNN calls CT-4 for Democrat James Himes. Republican Christopher Shays represented the Connecticut suburbs of New York City as New England's lone Republican congressman.

MO: State Attorney General Jay Nixon (D) wins governor race over Republican congressman Kenny Hulshof.

IN: Incumbent Mitch Daniels (R) wins governor Race over Jill Long Thompson.

WV: Joe Manchin (D) wins governor race over former legislator Russ Weeks.

NH: John Lynch (D) wins governor race over state senator Joe Kenney.

DE: State Treasurer Jack Markell (D) wins governor race over retired judge Bill Lee.

ND: Incumbent John Hoeven (R) wins governor race over state senator Tim Mathern.

That's seriously the new pitch for the cable network/arm of the Obama campaign.

Dole's failure in the Tarheel State doesn't bode well for the McCain campaign in that state, showing that the anti-Republican tide is strong enough to knock over even a very famous incumbent.

Things are looking bad for McCain in bellwether counties in North Carolina, but Virginia which had polled better for Obama than N.C., is looking decent for McCain.

Is it possible that N.C. could go blue and Virginia could stay red? Of course, with Pennsylvania called for Obama, it might not matter at all.

The fairly moderate former governor was up against another former governor, Jim Gilmore, who although solidly conservative may have been the only candidate who significantly hurt his image by making a primary presidential run.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner has breezed to victory in his bid for the Senate, capturing for Democrats a southern seat long held by Republicans and fueling expectations that Democrats would solidify their now-thin leadership grip over the chamber.

Warner beat another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore, in the race to replace retiring five-term Sen. John Warner.

One of Warner's greatest sins as governor was that he hid a significant budget surplus while pitching the General Assembly on the highest tax hike in Virginia history, which went into effect the very year I moved to Virginia. It was a pretty shady move.

Since then, however, aside from a bit of canoodling with the Kos crowd when he was flirting with the idea of running for president, Warner has disappointed liberal Dems and activists at every turn. First, by deciding not to run for president, despite his proven ability to win white, Southern voters. Then by delivering a deliberately moderate anti-stemwinder at the Democratic National Convention, which was mostly positive about the American dream and tepid in its criticism of George Bush.

Let's hope this moderate Dem with a talent for talking to rural voters continues to stymie his liberal colleagues in the Senate when it comes to things like the Fairness Doctrine and card check.

NOTE: If you haven't voted, go vote. These numbers should not discourage anyone, as they have a history of being totally wrong. Please see the handy-dandy, "10 Reasons You Should Ignore Exit Polls" while I begin to obsess over them.

Gawker had the first exit poll numbers, reporting rather small margins for Obama— up 4 in PA, up 2 in VA, up 1 in FL and OH. McCain showed a lead in NC of 2. If true, sounds like decent news, considering Obama supporters are much more likely to respond to exit pollers.

MyDD reports exit poll numbers, allegedly from inside sources, that show devastating data for McCain, pretty much everywhere. But, Obama takes VA by 10? Color me even more skeptical of that than other exit polls.

More from Gawker, with data on issues (economy leads nationally), and broken down by state.

Jim Geraghty reports from McCain camp sources:

The McCain camp and state GOP sources that I talk to are far from "stoic" as a CNN report just claimed. They think they have astonishing, record turnout in red parts of all of the important swing states - you name it - Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, even New Hampshire. I cannot tell you that what they say they see is enough to give McCain a win. But it should be enough to refute the Obama's set-to-win-huge argument.

In good news, networks have called KY for McCain and VT for Obama. That makes the current electoral vote count 8-3, McCain. Oh, yeah!

IN reelected Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, which bodes well for the GOP mood in the state.

This morning in Miami-Dade County, Naylette Soublette went to vote at the same precinct where she's been voting since she was 18. The marketing professional and daughter of Cuban immigrants didn't expect her choice of candidates to be inspected by a poll worker.

But as she was inserting her ballot into the reader, a poll worker asked her who she voted for. Surprised by the question, she didn't answer,. The poll worker then looked down at the ballot she was holding, and said in Spanish something that translated to, "I could kill you for voting that way. How could you do that? You shouldn't do that."

The comment was not a threat, Soublette said, but she was concerned that it was out-of-line for a poll worker, and might be happening to other people.

"It's not his place to ask me who I voted for and it's definitely not his place to look at my ballot," Soublette said. "Had it been someone who agreed with me, I would still have taken offense."

After casting her ballot, she followed a fellow voter to the same poll worker, who was handing out "I Voted" stickers.

He told her she didn't "deserve to wear a sticker," she said. "I felt intimidated. Basically, it was more of a shock than anything."

She called her local elections board to complain about the incident, at which point they said they'd "take care of it," but she wasn't told of any action taken. Soublette also called the McCain campaign's election hotline to report the incident.

"It's not about me. This is about what's going on at the polls. I just am concerned that if there are people doing this out there, what else are they doing and who else are they affecting," she said.

Miami-Dade County was the epicenter of chad counting and butterfly ballot sorting during the 2000 presidential election, and has since moved from butterfly ballots to no-touch electronic voting, and then to paper ballots with an optical scanner.

Past problems with poll workers and close election results, including issues in its Aug. 26 primary, have meant beefed up training for Florida's 8,000 poll workers.

According to press reports, there's been at least one other complaint of a poll worker looking at a voter's completed ballot, which spurred one elections supervisor to instruct poll workers to avert their eyes:

"Keep the ballot in the sleeve," he (Joe Campbell) instructed 400 workers last week at their final training seminar before Tuesday's presidential election. "Put it out partially, and then slide it in.

"And I want you to say something to them. Say, 'I don't want to see your ballot.'"

The poll worker should keep his eyes on the person casting the ballot, not on the ballot itself, Campbell instructed.

A call to Miami-Dade's elections board spokesperson was not returned, and no one who answered calls was able to tell me if there was a procedure in place for dealing with such poll worker violations. Soublette was not convinced Miami-Dade was dealing with the problem.

"I am just a citizen trying to do my civic duty. I just want things to be done correctly," she said.

He fears the "intimidation" is a "systemic thing," and that his name being dropped from rolls was not a "random elimination."

He ended up being able to vote, and Susan Sarandon was unimpeded.

The McCain campaign is hoping a lawsuit will be heard within the next hour, so that the secretary of state will have to allow Republican poll-watchers back within earshot of the new voter registration tables. Right now, they're being kept up to 40 feet away, which doesn't do a lot of good for poll-watching.

Whew, good thing we've got these guys around to prevent intimidation. And, what better tools for preventing intimidation than all-black paramilitary uniforms and billy clubs? Thank you, New Black Panther Party!

Hey, they're probably just "guys in the neighborhood" to folks voting, right? Michelle Malkin notes that the NBPP made clear its objectives to protect the black vote from "enemy sabotage." Video of Fox News coverage of the incident at the link.

Update: Police respond to Black Panthers.

Intimidation, of course, takes many forms. And, in their ever magnificent projection performance, Democrats will whine that it's Republicans doing all the intimidating by, err, having people stand in line to vote, or something.

While radical liberals in Philly use billy clubs for intimidation purposes, the more refined liberal intellectuals of Yale University just print the names and departments of the five (that's right, there are a whole five of them!) professors on campus who donated to McCain. Though professors gave to Obama at a 20-to-1 ratio, none of the 79 Obama supporters names are listed. Classy.

The seas will recede when he becomes president, and the nation will find a renewed purpose, but the press? He thanks them for merely being "gracious."

The report calls Obama's trip to the back of the plane to thank the press a "rare foray," during which he took no questions. Meanwhile, Huffington Post continues to kvetch about the fact Sarah Palin hasn't held a press conference.

As anyone who's been paying attention knows, Palin has become in the past several weeks the most accessible candidate on the trail for press. But way to prop up the myth through the homestretch, HuffPo!

Update: And, also on Huffington Post today, here's video of Sarah Palin taking questions from the press in Wasilla, Alaska after she voted today. Included are questions about Troopergate and American/Japanese relations. What a hidden candidate this one is, huh?

Obama's media avail post-voting for comparison's sake, under the fold:

Someone in Starbucks's legal department made a big oops. The company put together a promotion for today where they would give out a free drip coffee to people who had voted. Only this might run afoul of some election laws, so at the last minute they amended the giveaway to everybody.

So head to your local Starbucks and ask for a tall coffee today--it's free!

And here you thought you'd have to wait until the Obama presidency actually began before the seas began to recede and the coffee started to flow freely.

Not only did Barack Obama leave his Internet donation process open to money from foreign nationals, he's now deploying insipid liberal, foreign actors to phone bank for him.

Please, Barack, send Orlando Bloom to Western Pennsylvania. I'm sure that'd help you connect.