Big Night: Live Blog

I've been home from the office for about 90 minutes, and the talking heads are busily nattering away about the election.

A friend has already texted me "we are winning" in response to the various indicators of an Obama victory. This is at 7:20 p.m. PST. I reply, "god help us all", and we go about our evening on friendly terms.

USAToday and their lovely county by county map shows only a few counties have come in, nationwide, and of those that have come in, an awful lot of them are Republican Red. Oddly, the Google map are showing entire states of these mostly GOP Red counties tumbling to Obama - what gives?

Still, there remains hope. At 8 p.m. election results will be released by the 38 counties in Washington - we'll see what that brings.

Next posting a little after 8 p.m.

At 7:34 Oprah is bubbling away giddily, if somewhat prematurely. The night is far from over yet, though it may be a bit much to hope that we see McCain triumphantly waving an "Obama Triumphs!!" headline over his head while giving his victory speech.

In passing, Sen. Charles Schumer is already burbling away about the joys of re-imposing the Fairness Doctrine on at least the broadcast media (and knowing him, in his heart of hearts, he's plotting to saddle the blogosphere with some variant of it).

The Senate is looking more and more precarious, with the potential of a larger-looming filibuster-proof Democratic Majority looking more and more likely.

Meanwhile, we hear of Pennsylvania with both direct voter intimidation by individuals dressed as Black Panthers; and in other Pennsylvania news, Philadelphia is experiencing campaign fraud and chaos instigated by their own poll workers.

And we creep ever closer to 8:00 p.m....

8:00 P.M. ABC claims Electoral votes at 207-141 Obama-McCain. ABC is now officially projecting that Obama will be our next President, god help us. Western and Midwest states actual results not in yet, and could (with more than a fair amount of luck) provide a helluva surprise to ABC yet. Polls *just* closed in Washington, and folks still waiting in line in many states are still entitled to vote if they were in line at local "closing time" - aren't projections great?

Celebrations have begun, but the night is not over...hold on tight and stay at home, folks.

ABC is now projecting Obama with 297 electoral votes and projecting McCain with 145. Fox hasn't called it yet, and no electoral data from much of the West Coast. As excited as crowds seem, if the electoral trend reverses, things may become a bit exciting.

Joe Huffman, over on his blog, posts some salient words on the matter. Socialism is a bloody-handed sociopath, regardless of how mellifluous and seductive its prophets may be - hold on tight, this is going to get ugly and take a long time to fix.

8:15 P.M. ABC is already working to bury McCain in flowers and irrelevancy. Dear God. At 8:18 p.m. McCain concedes. God help us all.

He could have at least waited for the votes to come in (for real, rather than in fanciful projections). I was not a fan, but this disappointments me yet further. With such an early concession, the man betrays our nation. That he should at least wait till dawn (or even midnight, in the West) seems only reasonable and a basic responsibility of any presidential candidate.

May God have mercy on this nation, for Obama and his ilk will not.

McCain basically advises us, in the spirit of appeasement, to bend over and not worry about reaching for the lube. He urges us to come together and bury differences to work with Obama.

The hell with that.

Let the fun begin. Let us support Obama with every bit of enthusiasm and encouragement that George Bush received. More to come. A few moments of mourning will ensue before blogging resumes on state issues and candidates.

At 8:34 p.m., the King County website is rather predictable. Tim Eymans Initiative 985 is going down to defeat (and is doing poorly at the state website as well, presently). Initiative 1000, Death with Dignity, is doing well in King County and at the state level. Initiative 1029, god help us, is also passing...quite possibly requiring Washingtonians to either employ certify aides or spend time and treasure to become themselves certified to help their aging parents.

9:01 p.m. - it is much too early to call the local races, in my opinion. Thus, the live blog concludes for the evening.