Election Liveblogging

Ok, ok. I’m watching, might as well blog.

Voting this morning was easy. We waited until about 10 a.m., no lines, but there had apparently been some earlier in the day and I gather there were some long lines late in the day. A lot of interest and excitement in public spaces today, though. I did some shopping and everywhere I went I talked with other shoppers and clerks: everyone asked, “Did you vote yet?” Lots of very affable discussion, including from declared McCain voters. I don’t remember this kind of energy and engagement for any other election in my own life as a voter.

8:32 pm. Pennsylvania’s been called for Obama by several sources. That’s good, but not really definitive at all.

MSNBC just called the North Carolina Senate race for Kay Hagen over Elizabeth Dole. That’s an important event if that call holds true.

The races to watch in the next two hours: VA, NC, OH, IN, FL. If even one breaks definitively for Obama, it’s probably all over. If they all tip McCain, it’s not over necessarily, but it’s going to be a squeaker.

8:54 Lots of reports of exit poll data showing ticket-splitting in favor of Obama in Indiana. That’s a good sign.

9 pm. More projections, but all very much as expected, except a couple of projections calling North Dakota for McCain. I suppose the very fact that there was even any question about ND was telling.

MSNBC says Arizona is too close to call. That’s pretty amazing.

9:10 pm. I’m thinking that even if Obama ends up winning a significant electoral majority, it’s going to be really close when you look at the key swing states.

9:15 pm. Hard to keep track of all the county-by-county information coming in from a lot of sources about Florida, Virginia, Indiana. Some contradictory information or trends?

9:23 pm. NBC projecting Obama will win Ohio. I think that’s the ballgame unless the projection turns out wrong (we certainly know that can happen) or there are surprises later tonight.

9:34. One thing that pundits have been talking about in the last couple of weeks has to do with McCain’s handling of the financial crisis with his “suspension of his campaign”. I do think that was a key moment. When McCain says that he’s been “tested’ in a crisis and Obama hasn’t, I think that whatever truth there might have been in that statement evaporated in that week. McCain failed the test of that moment: he was anything but reassuring. I really agree with a lot of the people who’ve commented that had McCain run screaming towards the center from the day he had the Republican nomination sewn up and then had managed to keep the lid on his own temperment, he’d have looked a lot stronger at this point.

9:38. More sites and sources projecting Ohio for Obama.

9:48. If Obama wins, the only thing I’m really scared of is that it means an alien attack is probably imminent, as per the standing joke that if you see the U.S.A. with a black president, it means you’re watching a science-fiction film. But seriously, I’ve been anticipating and hoping and yet, wow, it is hard to bend your head around it being reality.

10:11. Interesting report that Christopher Shays has lost his House seat in CT. That’s the last of the “liberal Republicans” on the East Coast, I think. I know some older folks whose families were long-standing Republicans of that kind. I have to say that I think this is a loss of some kind for more than just the Republican Party. It’s hard for me to capture it exactly. They were often an important source of skeptical questions in governments dominated by Democrats. They had a lot of respect for process, and no truck at all with a lot of “Nixonland” politics as Rick Perlstein describes them. Maybe that’s why they’re now an extinct political species, I suppose.

10:24. Well, we’re going to be seeing lots of shots of Grant Park all night, obviously. Since we had to live with the goddamn Weather Underground being mentioned every five minutes, this is a nice counterpoint about the distance between 1968 and 2008.

10:29. My graduate advisor is one of the major experts on the history of the Luo people in Kenya. If I had said to him in 1988 that within 20 years, his expertise would have direct, specific relevance to the personal history of a U.S. President, we both would have laughed and then he would have asked me if maybe I had a substance abuse problem.

10:38. I’m thinking that some of the news sites are sitting on further projections about close states until after the polls close in the West.

10:38. Consistent spin from a lot of Democratic politicians is that this is a rejection of dirty, divisive politics. That would be nice. I doubt that the nastiness will go away, though.

10:56. Chris Matthews is being so bombastic (and American exceptionalist) that the other MSNBC commentators are looking at him with a kind of “yeah, yeah” expression. “No other country on Earth has done this!!!” Done what? I mean, ok, come on. Other democratic countries have elected people who come from an outsider or minority population. I grant that the history of the U.S. gives this particular election of this particular person an unprecedented, amazing nature, but democracy in general has permitted other kinds of reversals of fortune.

11. As I suspected, a lot of news sites are calling it for Obama at 11pm as the polls close in the West. But I’m really interested in the margin.

11:11. The historic character of the election is really important, but I also really do hope that we don’t forget that this is about wanting a politics that is about looking for substantive solutions, building meaningful discussions about real choices, about an end to the bullshit–that this is both about history and about the future.

11:18. McCain’s concession. Classy in its direct address to the historical importance of the election. I wish the classy McCain had been out on the campaign trail from the beginning, but I’m very glad he showed up at the end.

11:28. Though there’s a handful of real assholes in the back at McCain’s speech.

11:29. Wow, the crowd outside the White House has a different feel to it than the Grant Park crowd. If this was 1789, I think it might be time to try and get out of Paris.

11:41. I almost typed a snarky comment about Hillary Clinton. No! We are all happy now.

11:46. There are a lot of differences between Obama and Gore & Kerry, and a lot of circumstances different in 2008 than 2004 and 2000. But surely one of the other differences is really just that Obama ran a fantastically good campaign and Gore & Kerry did not.

11:52. Fun to see the video feed from Kisumu. I think an interesting side effect of this election might be to call positive attention to communities of recent immigrants from Africa to the United States.

11:52. Olbermann is making a nice point, that familiarity and personal connection make it very difficult to retain a strong sense of prejudice, and that who is more familiar in an everyday sense than a President?

11:58. Obama’s going to speak. Am I a bad man for thinking that Michelle Obama’s dress is kind of ugly?

Midnight. “Here is your answer”. Yes.

12:05. “I was never the likeliest candidate for this office”. I think this is the thing that keeps coming back to me, and it’s really not about race at all: it’s about everything. His age. His profile. His name. His history as a person. This is a guy who wrote a (quite good) memoir where he was frank about his drug usage, something that never became an issue at all. Just amazing. And great.

12:08. I really wish that if he’s going to invoke King, he doesn’t invoke the “Promised Land” speech…

12:11. “Our stories are singular but our destinies are shared.” Nice.

12:12. Great historical framing of the election.

12:15. Obama has a great smile.

12:19. Any suggestions for the Obama puppy? I would give Boston terriers high marks, but based on recent experience, I might avoid basset hounds, much as I like ours the way you have to like your dog.

12:28. Obama sent a very clear message about “soft power” abroad. The only thing I worry about is that this is one of those things that’s very hard to get back once you’ve lost it.

Ok, that’s it for now. Good night and good will to all. Very happy night, tears blinked out a few times.