The Dish

In Amsterdam, throngs protest the Islamist murder of a film-maker. The Jihad stops for no one, and no election.

“I was standing in line to vote here in Chicago early this morning. I stood behind a man who, after over an hour of standing in line, was told he had come to the wrong polling place. There was no visible anger or frustration on his part – he just got directions to the right place and left. When it was my turn, I was told by the election officer that my John Kerry pin was the first partisan paraphanalia she’d seen all day. I took it off – proud to just be able to participate in this process, and proud to be surrounded by people who felt the same. People everywhere in this city seem to be in a particularly good mood today; at the end of such a bitter race, it’s beautiful to be part of truly united States.”

From Slate:

In the national exit poll, Kerry leads Bush 51-48. In Wisconsin he’s up by three and in Ohio and Florida he leads by one.

That’s more convincing. Please spare us from endless litigation in Ohio and Florida. Please.

From NRO’s source inside the Bush apparatus:

Catholic vote looks good for the President, particularly in Wisconsin.
Bush is getting 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, compared to 35 percent in 2000.
And no, exit polls don’t include early and absentee voting. Bush leads these nationwide.
There is total confidence that at the end of the night, Bush will win.

Hmmm. Total confidence?

This from Oxblog, and from the great poet, Philip Larkin:

Party Politics

I never remember holding a full drink.
My first look shows the level half-way down.
What next? Ration the rest, and try to think
Of higher things, until mine host comes round?
Some people say, best show an empty glass:
Someone will fill it. Well, I’ve tried that too.
You may get drunk, or dry half-hours may pass.
It seems to turn on where you are. Or who.

As Ohio seems to tighten … Pour yourself another one. I’ll be your designated blogger tonight (with over 200,000 visits already today).

“What’s struck me is the absolute joy our small company has taken in voting. There have been jokes and jeers for the last few months, but now everyone is just having a great time, encouraging each other to get the hell out there and pull the lever. In the cast of characters: our designer, a Bulgarian immigrant, voted for the first time. A fellow writer, a Canadian by birth, married to a Navy aviator, became a citizen specifically to vote in this election. Our receptionist, an African-American working her way through college, is throwing a post-election bash. A .NET developer, a man with musical talent, is lending his craft to a different party.
It’s like the post-rugby match party already. We’ve been beating the hell out of each other around the water cooler, but now we’re all pals around the keg. Hope it lasts.
I love my country.” Me too.

His projected electoral vote tally? 311 – 213. A wipe-out. But these are not real numbers, real votes, or anything else like it. And he’s vague about Ohio and Pennsylvania. So beware.

From Daily Kos looking at exit polls from Florida:

– – – – 2000 -2004

Bush – – 65 – -53
Gore – – 35 – –
Kerry – – – – -46

Cuban-Americans

– – – – 2000 -2004

Bush – – 82 – -68
Gore – – 17 – –
Kerry – – – – -32

Ruy Teixeira’s having a good day, it seems.

A huge swing in the Tradesports market.

FROM MANHATTAN: “I’m sitting here looking uptown at the Empire State Building. Red, white, and blue shining in a rapidly darkening sky. Somewhere between the Whittier poem and the light I found my own tears in a world full of hope.”

A tidbit of an amazing day:

At the Earle Brown Elementary School in Brooklyn Center, where about 130 people voted per hour through the morning, one woman got to skip to the front because she was in labor, election judge Nancy Carlson said. “Two minutes labor and she’s still in line to vote,” Carlson said. Once the woman cast her ballot, she was put into a wheelchair and wheeled away, Carlson said.

God bless America.

FROM FLORIDA: “You want anecdotal evidence? Greetings from ground zero here in Broward County, Florida. All you see at the polls are long lines of black, brown, tan, jewish, gay, female and young people. The lines look like a Bette Midler concert audience, circa 1980. On every corner, there’s a college kid waving a “Honk for Kerry” sign. The kids don’t want to be drafted. The parents and grandparents don’t want the kids to be drafted. The gays want privacy in their bedrooms. Republican voter suppression tactics have energized the supposedly suppressed. Everyone’s getting even for the perceived injustice of 2000.”