Election Night Live-Blog Edition

Good evening and welcome to the Political Rant Live-Blog of Election Night 2012!

I’ve never done this before, can you tell?  But here’s the plan:  As the mood strikes me, minute by minute, I’ll be adding to this single post, so go ahead and bookmark it for tonight.  If you’re not seeing my updates, please hit refresh on your browser (usually a little circular arrow icon) in order to see the latest.  Newest comments will be added at the top of the post with the time.

11:02 pm PST: It’s done.  Obama is the President for four more years. We can go to sleep feeling so much more secure and relieved without even worrying what will happen in Florida, Virginia or Nevada.  Thanks everyone for tuning in and thanks for all your kind words this election season.  Yes, we did.

10:40 pm PST: Obama: “Whether you voted for the very first time or waited in a very long line –By the way we have to fix that.” No kidding. Let’s not do THAT again. I think maybe some people in Florida are still in line…

10:38 pm PST: Andrew Sullivan at Daily Beast says, “This election, to my mind, is immensely more important than the breakthrough of 2008, after the catastrophe of Bush-Cheney. What it has done is rip open the complete epistemic closure on the Republican right about what America now is. It has revealed that Fox News, Drudge, and the rest have been engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to create an alternative reality and get the rest of us to go along.”

10:36 pm PST: Obama and his family take the stage to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.”

10:14 pm PST: Waiting for Obama’s speech. In the mean time:

9:57 pm PST:Romney, “Our leaders have to reach across the aisle…” I think he needs to reiterate that to the Republicans in the House.

9:55 pm PST: Romney is onstage.

9:49 pm PST: CNN calls Virginia for Obama. With Nevada in Obama’s column, he has 303 electoral votes, rendering Romney’s Ohio challenge moot.

9:37 pm PST: Tammy Duckworth wins over Joe Walsh!!  And we pick up a couple of Florida seats.

9:31 pm PST: Here are the results I have for right now:

9:25 pm PST:So Romney only wrote an acceptance speech, not a concession speech. And that about sums up the arrogance of this creep.

9:19 pm PST: And Washington also voted to legalize marijuana and Maryland voted to legalize gay marriage!  It’s a good night!!

9:10 pm PST: Colorado goes to OBAMA!!!  yes!!  (Oh and Karl Rove, you’re an idiot.)

9:06 pm PST: And the ballot initiative to legalize gay marriage in Maine passed!!

9:01 pm PST: Is it possible this is true? Colorado legalized marijuana? Also via HuffPo: “Fox News had what can only be described as an insane argument with itself over whether or not President Obama had won Ohio, and the presidency.The network seemed quite confident in its projections at first, but suddenly, pundit Karl Rove — who, as leader of a huge conservative Super PAC has something of an interest in the outcome of the race — began to pour cold water on the call.”

8:52 pm PST: President leading in Virginia, Florida and yet Romney will not concede Ohio. In fact Rove is trying to get Fox news to rescind the Ohio call.  Unbelievable.

Grousy Cat and the Magic Shirt celebrate

8:29 pm PST: Is it unseemly if I whip my Magic Shirt off and wave it wildly in the air???

8:21 pm PST: And it’s called by CNN, MSNBC, NPR and FOX. OBAMA WINS!!!!!!

8:17 pm PST: CNN is far behind MSNBC in making the call, but Fox News apparently projects Ohio for Obama and when you do that, it’s all over.

8:14 pm PST: Oh Great Magic Shirt… Thank you for mitigating the ulcer in my stomach with a win in Ohio!  I now no longer care about Virginia or Florida or anything else!!!

8:12 pm PST: Oregon also goes to Obama.  AND OBAMA TAKES OHIO!!!  with remarkably little fanfare!

8:10 pm PST: Iowa called for Obama!  That brings our man to 250!!

8:02 pm PST: With the polls closing in the West, magically, instantaneously those states can be called — for Obama of course. Here’s how things look right now:

7:56 pm PST: Tim Kaine beats George “Macaca Blast from the Past” Allen in Virginia!

7:48 pm PST: How did I miss that Tammy Baldwin won in Wisconsin?? First openly gay woman to serve in the US Senate.  Missouri goes to Romney.

7:44 pm PST: Lots of blather before the polls close in the west… Come on, California.  Minnesota, BTW goes to Obama according to MSNBC.  Romney campaign still quiet…

7:37 pm PST:“Romney campaign has gone radio silent…”  according to Howard Fineman on MSNBC.

7:34 pm PST: Romney projected to take Arizona. Again, not a surprise…

7:24 pm PST: Okay, so MSNBC just said exactly what I did at 6:55 pm.  There’s lots of ways for Obama to take this thing, but very few scenarios in which Romney can do it without getting all the swing states… Looks like things won’t change with the House of Representatives. Republicans will hold there.

7:17 pm PST: As expected, the Demos lost the Ben Nelson seat in Nebraska.  But with two pickups in Republican seats –Love you, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Donnelly!– I’m not too upset.

7:09 pm PST: Here’s how the Senate is shaping up.  Chris Murphy in CT. in his victory speech says it’s not by the measure of your wallet…

7:07 pm PST: Claire McCaskill takes down Mr. Legitimate Rape Todd Akin in Missouri!!!

7:02 pm PST: So MSNBC is a little more loosey-goosey about calling states than CNN, but I don’t disagree with any of their projections.

7:00 pm PST: I have a knot in my stomach, but I swear it’s because of that stupid PANIC music they play whenever they’re reporting results.

6:55 pm PST: Let’s just talk about this for a second, folks. With all the states going the directions we thought they would, Obama would have 253 votes to Romney’s 189. To get over 270, Obama needs only to carry Ohio. Romney needs to carry just about everything else plus Ohio.  Hoe likely is this scenario?  Not very….

6:50 pm PST: okay, it’s falling into place folks.  keep it coming…. here’s the update:

6;42 pm PST: YES!! Elizabeth Warren takes the Massachusetts Senate seat and Richard (Rape Master) Mourdock went down in flames to Joe Donnelly in Indiana!

6:31 pm PST:Wolf Blitzer is going to pitch a fit over Florida, where they say Romney is only ahead by 636 votes…

6:25 pm  PST: Thanks Jon for posting this — I’m putting it up here so folks don’t miss it in the comments!

6:14 pm PST: Anyone else wishing that CNN would just quit reporting on Ohio and Florida until there’s SOMETHING to report?

5:56 pm PST: My Dad says everyone should watch Obama’s final campaign speech in Des Moines, Iowa. I am instructed to post it here…:)

5:52 pm PST: I hope you all have dinner ready…

5:43 pm PST: Takes soooo long to count votes… Sigh… Alabama called for Romney. I’ve got a different tally number for the candidates than CNN. Not a big surprise there either. Hah!  And my tally worksheet so far looks like this:

5:30 pm PST: They’re calling Arkansas for Romney — If I could roll my eyes I would…

5:04 pm PST: Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, Missisippi is being called by MSNBC for Romney, Mean while, we have Connecticut , Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware , DC, Illinois (CNN) for Obama–again no surprises.

In case you’d like to play along at home, below is my worksheet for following the Senate races, with handicapping based on the most recent polls. Candidates in bold are incumbents, those in blue are likely Dem, those in tan are likely GOP. The ones in yellow are the key races to watch, and I’ve highlighted the person I think will carry the day. If I’m right, the Dems may lose two seats (Nebraska and Mrs farmer of the Year North Dakota, but I’m hopeful that they’ll pick up Massachusetts, Arizona and maybe Indiana where crazy rape guy Richard Mourdock has been fading in polls.

4:48 pm PST: South Carolina has been called for Romney. nobody panic though, this is still very early and so far there are no real surprises…

4:36 pm PST: Okay, the music MSNBC is using when they announce a call is probably going to drive me batty before this night is over.

4:30 pm PST: Polls have closed in North Carolina, which is still too close, but they have called West Virginia for Romney.

4:07 pm PST: And we’re off!  Polls have closed in the East Coast and  pundits are calling Vermont for Obama, with Indiana and Kentucky called for Romney, no surprises there.  Virginia is still too close to call.  In case you’re looking for a refresher on the key battlegrounds, they are (in order of the poll closures) Virginia (4 pm PST), North Carolina and Ohio (4:30 pm PST), Florida and New Hampshire (5 pm PST), Colorado (6 pm PST), Iowa and Nevada (7 pm PST). California and the western states won’t close til 8 pm PST, and they’re unlikely to call anyone a winner before well after that, perhaps around 9 pm.

1:39 pm PST: First polls will close at 7 pm EST.  CNN.com will begin posting their results here. NYTimes here. MSNBC results here.

1:00 pm PST: Wanna know when CNN will start calling it?  Probably too early! LOL

12:30 pm PST: An early voting watch list from the NY Times as a helpful guide.