Election Live Blog

12:55 AM No on 1 in Maine (good guys) say will have to wait until morning to count all the votes. Mood not very optimistic in the crowd.

11:53: "It's over" for conservative Hoffman in NY-23, says a local mayor.

11:41PM Maine is painfully close. Gen JC Christian tweets that 310,665 votes won't be counted in WA state tonight. Hoffman (R) losing in NY23. A friend writes "nice to know the DNC dumpd hundreds of thousands into two losing gov races, and nothing in Maine."

Markos tweets: Dems pick up Charlotte mayor.

MSNBC now agrees, Christie projected winner.

MSNBC is saying NJ Gov race too close to call. AP is saying that Christie, the R, is the winner.

MSNBC: Bloomberg projected winner in NYC. Or maybe not.

We're covering the three main gay election issues over on AMERICAblog gay. Including the fact that the gays just won in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

56% in Virginia say Obama wasn't a factor in their vote, only 24% said he was, per MSNBC.

In NJ and VA, independents voted for the GOP governor candidates. Can a call for Democrats to move to the middle and ignore their promises during the election be far behind? As if Democrats didn't already move to the middle and ignore their electoral promises.

9pm Eastern: NBC not ready to call race for NY mayor - whether Bloomberg gets 3rd term. NJ governor, too close to call.

Jake tapper tweets that "in VA voters 'very' worried about economy went for [Republican] McDonnell 73-26 percent. In NJ, they went for [Republican] Christie 59-36 percent."

ABC exit poll data for VA and NJ.

Gen JC Christian tweets that "Creigh Deeds proves that if a white man blatantly screws up, you can still blame it on a black guy."

Markos tweets that Deeds took the rest of the Dem candidates down with him.

ABC's Jake Tapper tweets that Obama is not watching the returns.

Media Matters reports that in 2001, during the Bush presidency, the media was convinced that off-off-year elections were insignificant and certainly not a reflection on the sitting president.



Joe says the loss in VA wasn't unexpected. He says Creigh Deeds ran a crappy campaign.

Here we go. I'm sitting in a Holiday Inn room in Portland, Maine with Joe, his sister, and their friend John, waiting for election results from various parts of the city - they have their minions all over the place, calling in momentarily.

Here is a results page for Maine. Read the rest of this post...

McDonnell (R) leads Deeds (D) for Governor in Virginia

Polls have closed in Virginia. MSNBC reports McDonnell leads in the Governor's race, but it's too early to call. Read the rest of this post...

FOX News' McCarthyite communist witch hunt against White House continues with union head Andy Stern

Andy Stern once said "workers of the world unite." That, according to FOX News' Glenn Beck, makes him a communist and a socialist. Beck is unbalanced, to be sure, but he's an increasingly powerful voice in the Republican party. The Republican party is in serious trouble. They have no real political leaders. So the void is being filled by half-wit extremists like Beck and Palin and Limbaugh. Read the rest of this post...

Arianna: The Audacity of Winning vs. The Timidity of Governing

Arianna Huffington:

I often found myself wondering what Candidate Obama would think of President Obama. Would he look at what the White House is doing and say, "that's what I and my supporters worked so hard for?"

How did the candidate who got into the race because he'd decided that "the core leadership had turned rotten" and that "the people were getting hosed" become the president who has decided that the American people can only have as much change as Olympia Snowe will allow?

How did the candidate who told a stadium of supporters in Denver that "the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result" become the president who has surrounded himself with the same old players trying the same old politics, expecting a different result?

Read the rest of this post...

OFA urging Obama's supporters to call Congress and ask for real health insurance reform with a public option

Organizing for America (OFA) is asking its supporters to call their members of Congress and ask them to support the health insurance reform bill. Via Greg Sargent:

The move is interesting because Organizing for America — and Obama himself — have been criticized for not throwing enough weight behind the provision.

The new email, to go out from OFA chief Mitch Stewart, calls on Obama’s supporters to flood their members of Congress with calls in support of the House health care bill:

The House’s first full vote on health reform legislation may come as early as this week. It’ll be the first time in more than 60 years that the full body votes on comprehensive reform, and we expect it to be very close…

Can you call your representative right now and tell them to vote in favor of real health insurance reform?…

The House bill incorporates the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans to guarantee security and stability for those with insurance, provide affordable options for those without — including the choice of a public insurance option — and reduce costs for families and small businesses, all while decreasing the deficit.

Many representatives are standing with the President and fighting hard for reform. They need to know that they have our thanks and our support.

To be sure, the final tell will be whether Obama puts his prestige on the line to persuade centrist Dems to get behind the public option if the Dem Senate leadership can’t put together 60 votes for a bill with a public option in it, and subsequently, when the House and Senate merge their bills in conference.

The OFA email doesn't get too specific. But, at least they're engaging. They're going to have to get much, much more engaged if we're going to succeed. Because, the GOP and its allies in the insurance industry are desperately trying to kill Obama's health insurance reform agenda. Which makes me wonder why Obama's political arm felt compelled to tell us that "the House incorporates the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans." Republicans? Really? The only idea that's come from Republicans is to block and undermine real reform -- and they will continue to do so. Why does OFA give them credit? I find it hard to believe that the RNC or any GOP operation would ever credit Democrats for anything.

Someone at OFA should include Obama, Rahm and Messina on this email. Be great if they actually started calling members of Congress "and tell them to vote in favor of real health insurance reform..." Read the rest of this post...

Following GOP Rep. Foxx's lead, media conservatives compare health care reform to terrorism

From Media Matters:

On November 2, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said on the House floor regarding health care legislation before the House: "I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country." Following Foxx's statement, Fox News' Glenn Beck compared health care reform to 9-11, and talk radio host Neal Boortz and the Fox Nation promoted Foxx's attack.

Read the rest of this post...

Wall Street déjà vu

The situation may not be as grave as it was a year ago though it's hard to believe Geithner. Is Wall Street showing strong numbers? Sure, but so what? As all of us witnessed in the last few years, Wall Street shot up by thousands of points and then lost it all during the Bush years. They gambled with your money and then it was Wall Street who was bailed out, not you. Geithner somehow also tries to suggest that we won't be paying for ridiculous bonuses but it's a complete lie. It's happening and again, Goldman Sachs who has received $14 billion via AIG should also be a part of any talks on limiting compensation.

As a reader wrote in, how do you not bubble these actions up to Obama? He is the president and Geithner (and Summers) work for him? Is he too trusting? Is he naive? Even worse, does he actually believe this is the correct model for long term recovery? None of these possibilities are very attractive though maybe there is some other plan that is less obvious. Hopefully there is some other plan behind the scenes because the non-stop bailout of Wall Street and support for another round of gambling is unacceptable. Read the rest of this post...

CNBC writer issues convoluted sort-of apology for racist column

The apology doesn't refute some of the specific charges the writer leveled in his earlier outrageous column.

Here's what he says now:

I said that Keflezighi's win, the first by an American since 1982, wasn't as big as it was being made out to be because there was a difference between being an American-born product and being an American citizen. Frankly I didn't account for the fact that virtually all of Keflezighi's running experience came as a US citizen. I never said he didn't deserve to be called American.

All I was saying was that we should celebrate an American marathon champion who has completely been brought up through the American system.

Here's what he actually wrote - note the repeated references to being "American-born":

It's a stunning headline: American Wins Men's NYC Marathon For First Time Since '82.

Unfortunately, it's not as good as it sounds.

Meb Keflezighi, who won yesterday in New York, is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he's not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies...

Given our disappointing results, embracing Keflezighi is understandable. But Keflezighi's country of origin is Eritrea, a small country in Africa. He is an American citizen thanks to taking a test and living in our country.

Nothing against Keflezighi, but he's like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league.

The positive sign was that some American-born runners did extremely well in yesterday's men's race.

If any of them stand on the top step of the podium in Central Park one day, that's when I'll break out my red, white and blue.

Read the rest of this post...

CNBC readers respond to racist article

The comments from CNBC's readers about the article I mentioned this morning (CNBC's Darren Rovell: NYC marathon winner not a real American since he's originally from Africa) have been uniformly outraged (they're at the bottom of the story, they're quite good). This one was far and away the best.

My best friend was from Eritrea and he became American citizen about 9 years ago. I remember how proud he was. He was so proud He became US Air Force and he got killed in Iraq two years later. I know my friend die as am American. And I know he was so proud to be an American, so Darren you are a sh*t head. NBC please get this idiot out here.

Read the rest of this post...

CNBC's Darren Rovell: NYC marathon winner not a real American since he's originally from Africa

What an amazingly ignorant thing to say. The CNBC editor rips Meb Keflezighi for not being American-enough and as a ringer for winning marathons. Forget that his family left Eritrea as refugees, and he attended high school here and then became a naturalized US citizen over ten years ago. Yes, that is the clear sign of a ringer. Who out there doesn't flee war just to win a race?

It wouldn't surprise me if Meb knew a lot more about being an American than this clown from CNBC. I guess if we now only count "real Americans" as those who have always lived there, we might have a very different looking Olympic team.

Here is CNBC's Darren Rovell:

It's a stunning headline: American Wins Men's NYC Marathon For First Time Since '82.

Unfortunately, it's not as good as it sounds.

Meb Keflezighi, who won yesterday in New York, is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he's not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies...

Given our disappointing results, embracing Keflezighi is understandable. But Keflezighi's country of origin is Eritrea, a small country in Africa. He is an American citizen thanks to taking a test and living in our country.

Nothing against Keflezighi, but he's like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league.

The positive sign was that some American-born runners did extremely well in yesterday's men's race.

If any of them stand on the top step of the podium in Central Park one day, that's when I'll break out my red, white and blue.

NOTE FROM JOHN: I can't even believe that CNBC would publish this kind of racist crap. This "reporter" should be fired, as should whatever editor saw this story and let it be printed. Technically an American? Simply passed a test? And what did you do, Darren, to become an American? You were born here to American parents - that must have been real hard work fighting your way through your mother's birth canal. I'm sure childbirth taught you a lot more about liberty and freedom than a guy who escaped a civil war to come to a land where he could be free. Read the rest of this post...

Send us your election day updates

Joe and I are at one of the election headquarters in Portland, Maine today. We'll be doing election updates all day long on our gay site, AMERICAblog Gay. We're definitely interested in any election-related reports from your neck of the woods - what's the weather like, were there long lines for voting, any problems/irregularities? We're particularly interested in reports from Maine, Washington state, New Jersey, Michigan, and Virginia.



That's Joe on the ride in to the campaign this morning at some un-Godly hour. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Election Day 2009

Good morning.

It's election day.

Polls in Maine close at 8 PM Eastern. In Virginia, the polls close at 7 PM. In New Jersey, polls close at 8 PM and in New York, the polls close at 9 PM. In Washington State, they vote by mail, so we'll get a sense of how things are going tonight, but might not know the results for a couple days.

Today will be an intense day here in Maine. As we've been saying for weeks, months even, this election is all about turnout. I was here in 2005 working on the campaign to defeat a right-wing led referendum on gay rights. If anyone told me then that I'd be back in four years working on a referendum to save the state's marriage law, I wouldn't have believed it. Our country is moving forward, fast. Maggie Gallagher and Bishop Malone can't stop our progress.

Let's get threading... Read the rest of this post...

Kilimanjaro's ice melting at fastest rate in 100 years

But as the teabaggers keep saying, climate change doesn't exist. It's not real in their bizarre fantasy land and yes, they are like schoolchildren in the GOP. Their latest plan is to hold their breath until they turn blue and block any discussions on the subject. The party of "no" continues.

A team led by Professor Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University said that the latest assessment of Kilimanjaro's famous ice cap has confirmed that 85 per cent of the ice that covered the mountain in 1912 has been lost, and 26 per cent of the ice that was there in 2000 is now gone.

A series of cores drilled through the ice fields at different points on Kilimanjaro has revealed that the melting observed over the past few decades is unprecedented in nearly 12,000 years. The research also shows that that the current thinning of the ice cap is faster than when a devastating 300-year drought occurred 4,200 years ago, a period when very little snow fell on the mountain.

Read the rest of this post...

Al Gore's new book

It's the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. It's hard to imagine how far this issue has dropped in recent years thanks to the flat earth teabaggers in the US. It's going to take a lot of work to get this issue back on track in the US. The rest of the world is already there and waiting for the US to catch up.

The book aims to reach those Americans by familiarising readers with emerging alternative energy sources, such as geothermal, biomass and wind power, as well as the possibilities of making cleaner coal power plants, and developing a more efficient and responsive "smart" electrical grid.

Gore also explores how deforestation, soil erosion, and the rising world population are multiplying the effects of rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Much of the material was developed through the series of brainstorming sessions organised by Gore. Since 2007, the former vice-president has been calling experts together to discuss possible solutions to climate change. He has also held countless telephone conversations with scientists at America's best institutions.

Read the rest of this post...