Good morning, Communist America!

No need to wait for the morning news papes, getcher election news right here!

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It appears Obama is going to win a major haul of electoral votes while slightly under-performing expectations in the overall popular vote. He's done this by eeking out some razor-thin margins, especially in Indiana and North Carolina, where he's currently leading by a combined 35,000 votes. Neither state has been confirmed final yet; same with Missouri where McCain leads by less than 6,000 votes. Thank whatever celestial authority you like that this was not a close election overall.

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To repeat, Indiana's gone for Obama. I expect the sun to rise this morning, but if it doesn't I'd understand. The kids did it; under-30s were the only age group Obama won outright here.

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As expected, no drama in the Eighth. Ellsworth did carry Daviess County; we weren't even his lowest supporters (that'd be Fountain County). I'll have to check decimal places to see if we were the heaviest McCain county. Dropped to 67%, slackers.

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If there's a grey lining for the Democrats' night, it's that they haven't done as well in Congress as they might have expected. Yesterday I said it would be a major surprise if the D's fall short of 57 Senate seats, but, with three seats still outstanding and a current total of 56, there's a decent chance they may just get one. The Minnesota race between Franken and Coleman has been bitterly fought and may not be over yet. The current tally has Coleman leading by approximately 2,500 votes with precincts reporting stuck at 99%.

This has not been a good two months for the reputation of Alasks in the lower 48, and it's not been improved by their eagerness to defy expectations and common decency to send a convicted felon back to the Senate. There may be some strategic voting at play here; Stevens could win and retire, forcing a special election the Republicans would certainly win, maybe with Bible Spice herself.

The Senate race in Oregon is also a dead heat at this point (538.com scored it a 92% Merkeley likelyhood), but there's still a decent number of precincts yet to report.

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It also appears the Democrats will fall a bit short of the optimistic pre-election projections. The Times currently scores 18 Dem pickups, a nice gain but less than the 25+ hoped for. I wonder if there was late movement in some GOP districts toward keeping the overall Democratic gains in check. Luckily, Michelle Bachmann will be returning to Washington to snuff out all the traitorous un-Americans among the new representatives.

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Ballot initiatives were a mixed bag. Most distressingly, it looks like Prop Hate is going to pass in California. This will give the social conservatives a boost coming out of the election. They never liked McCain anyway, and now have some ammunition to claim he lost because of not being conservative enough. Anti-gay measures also passed in Florida, Arkansas and Arizona (didn't we just beat one there two years ago?).

Speaking of reruns from 2006, South Dakota swatted away a slightly-modified version of its abortion ban by an almost-identical margin. Voters also defeated a parental notification clause in California, and wholly scorned an attempt in Colorado to declare personhood for fertilized eggs in the state constitution. I suspect the years are numbered for abortion as a major political football in this country.

Michigan had a good day, voting to legalize medical marijuana as well as stem cell research.