Election highlights

Big stories of the day:

1 - Democrats sweep the House of Representatives. Many newbies are relatively conservative - we need to start retraining them. Watch out for Lieberman and what he does.

2 - Montana and Missouri races are not over yet, but look good for Dems. Virginia still has to count some regular ballots, the absentee ballots and provisional ballots tomorrow, plus an almost inevitable recount.

3 - South Dakota anti-abortion measure failed. Sigh of relief!

4 - Socialist Saunders wins. Who said moving to the right was neccessary to win?

5 - Repubs had nothing to run on, so they repeated the old slogans and platitudes, irrelevant "cultural" issues, and invested heavily in various types of campaign and voting shenannigans. The biggest suprise of the day is that millions STILL, at this day and age, voted for Republicans. How does one organize and implement re-education and group psychotherapy at such a massive scale to get those people back to Earth?

6 - Do Repubs really want the recount in Virginia? That would, after all, put a spotlight on all the electoral improprietes they performed there - something that otherwise would not be a story of this election. Do they really want people and the press to focus again on the voting machines? Voting supression? Robocalls?

7 - Here in NC, Heath Schuler won and Larry Kissell will probably have a recount and lose.

8 - Personally the most satisfying result - the defeat of Russell Capps in NC House Disctrict 041. Capps spent his legislative career pushing bills focused almost entirely on inserting religion into public schools, from Creationism to the Pledge of Allegiance. Good riddance!

9 - Bush was apparently "surprised and dismayed" with the result! What did he expect? Was nobody delivering the news to his Bubble over the past few months?

10 - The best and most important news of the day - Dems taking LOTS of governorships, thus ensuring fair elections in many more states (including Ohio) in 2008.