Update: So how did we do in this election?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have been busy with post-election debriefings from candidates and consulting with colleagues in the election integrity community about the close elections still undecided and that appear headed for a recount.

Before the election I predicted that Democrats would net 20-25 House seats in Congress. In fact, Democrats won 24 seats but lost only 3, for a net gain of 21 seats to date. There are still two House races being counted and possibly headed for a recount. There is also a run-off election in Louisiana in December for a final House seat.

Congratulations to Ann Kirkpatrick who picked up a House seat in AZ-1. The Arizona congressional delegation is now 5-3 Democratic.

In the Senate I predicted that Democrats would win six seats and the only question was whether they could win nine seats to get to the "mythical" filibuster-proof 60 seat majority. (I say mythical because Democrats rarely vote as a unified party, and at the moment we are still counting Joe Lieberman in our caucus). Democrats have won six Senate seats so far.

In Georgia, Saxby Chambliss (R-I) and Jim Martin (D) are headed for a December run-off election. Run-off elections come down to base turnout and I would have to give Chambliss the edge here, even though he is one of the biggest pricks ever to run for political office. The 2002 campaign that this chickenhawk coward (five student deferments and one medical deferment) ran against Max Cleland, a true American hero who left three limbs on the battlefield in Vietnam, earned him my personal enmity for a lifetime. Even John McCain said at the time "Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to a picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield — it's worse than disgraceful, it's reprehensible." Now McCain is campaigning for Chambliss – worse than disgraceful, it is reprehensible. McCain has no honor left. John McCain is not a man of honor

Chambliss has "voted repeatedly against the new GI Bill as well as funding for necessary armor and equipment for our troops and other measures meant to help out our men and women fighting overseas. In fact, Chambliss voted against our troops at least 23 times in his short tenure in the Senate. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America rated Chambliss as a D- in 2006." If anyone deserves to be defeated, it is Saxby Chambliss.

In Alaska, Mark Begich (D) appears headed for a narrow victory over convicted felon Ted Stevens (R-I). The last of the ballots are to be counted on Tuesday. The remaining ballots come from precincts in Alaska that mostly went for Begich. The margin of victory is likely to be within the one-half of one percent margin that will trigger an automatic recount under state law. Both sides are lawyering up for a recount.

The problem in Alaska is that if Ted Stevens wins, the Republican Caucus will have no choice but to open an ethics investigation and to kick him out of their Caucus, if not remove him from the Senate (convicted felons are disqualified from public office). Some strategists have suggested that Stevens should be allowed to stay until he exhausts the appeals process, but this would appear to be coddling a criminal at a time when the GOP badly needs to shed its well-deserved image of being a culture of corruption, for which the Alaskan Republican Party is its poster child.

The "Alaska Disasta" Fan Club on the other hand has been fantasizing that should Ted Stevens be declared the winner and is then thrown under the bus by his Republican colleagues, that Governor Sarah Palin would win the Special Election that would have to be held to fill the vacant Senate seat. This suppostion is pretty presumptuous in light of the fact that Mark Begich is very popular in Alaska and is certain to run again in any Special Election. There is also the little problem of an ongoing ethics investigation hanging over the head of Governor Palin. Republicans in Alaska whom the "reformer" ran against to get elected governor may see this as their opportunity for political payback.

Hopefully Begich will be declared the winner on Tuesday and after the recount. This would be God's message to Sarah Palin that he is slamming the door shut on this political opportunist who wanted to charge through that door of political opportunism. Better satisfy yourself with just being governor.

In Minnesota, Norm Coleman (R-I) and Al Franken (DFL) are separated by 206 votes, less than one-half of one percent, triggering the automatic recount under state law. Minnesota law has long provided for a hand count of the ballots to determine "voter intent" (this process has been done in past elections). It would not be unusual to pick up a couple hundred votes out of over 3 million votes cast. Both candidates, however, are likely to pick up votes. But provisional ballots tend to favor Democratic candidates. Whatever the final outcome in this race, it is likely to be a razor-thin margin of victory.

What I find most disturbing is the attempt by Norm Coleman's campaign, the RNC and the right-wing media to suggest improprieties in the election in Minnesota to cast doubt on the results should Al Franken eventually be declared the winner. The "car ballot" anecdote has become the tent pole for Republicans and allies raising doubts about the recount’s fairness. The "car ballot" story emerged Saturday from the mouth of Coleman lawyer Fritz Knaak. It was a falsehood for which he later had to back off. MinnPost – David Brauer: Minneapolis election director speaks: 'Ballots in my car' story false

Still, the lie that won’t die is being repeated by the purveyors of propaganda at Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and even the New York Times published a Coleman press release without checking out the facts. The personal attacks on Minnesota's Secretary of State are most unfair. By law the Secretary of State has appointed a bipartisan panel of "judges" for the recount who are acceptable to all political parties in Minnesota. These judges will determine the fate of any questionable ballots, not the Secretary of State. The recount process is eminently fair.

Finally, I predicted that Barack Obama would win an electoral landslide in the mid-300s range. That he did. Obama won 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173, with 52.3% of the popular vote (to date). This is the best performance by any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. (For you Clintonistas, Bill won in a three-way contest in which Ross Perot captured a significant portion of the popular vote, and Bill only received a plurality of the popular vote despite his larger electoral vote margin). Barack Obama has a mandate backed by Democratic gains in the House and Senate over the last two election cycles. When a Democrat wins perennial GOP strongholds Indiana, Ohio, Virgina and North Carolina, that spells M-A-N-D-A-T-E.

I will examine Arizona election results in a later post.