Dem Campaign Chatter 11-4-2008

George Wenschhof

Today, marks an historic election day in the history of the United States - This first time opportunity for Americans to vote for an African-American for President has been a long time coming. However, one of the great qualities of American democracy is although it moves very slowly at times to do what is right, it does move and it does get it right.

Barack Obama is in Indianapolis, Indiana today. This is a state no one would have believed would be competitive today as it has voted Republican every election since 1964. If he does not win Indiana today, he will have still done what many Democrats have been asking our candidates to do. That is to clearly spell out the differences in policies to everyone, regardless if they happen to reside in a "red" state. If Obama wins Indiana today, where the polls close at 7:00 PM ET, he will win the election by a landslide. McCain has to be hoping for an early call of Indiana for him. If not, it will be a long night for McCain.

Obama will then head to Chicago, Illinois. This is his home and also where campaign headquarters are located. Biden is in Richmond, Virginia before heading to Chicago, Illinois to join Obama at the election party at Grant Park.

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Final RealClearPolitics.com national Poll - Obama 52%, McCain 44.2% - this is an average of 14 polls taken from 10-29 to 11-3-2008. A 7.8 point national lead will be tough for McCain to overcome today, but stay tuned. Read more details here.

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Last Night's Redskins loss good news for Obama - this is tough for me to say as I am a huge Washington Redskins fan. Last night the Steelers whooped us 23-6 and it was not a pretty game to watch. Our punter had his first blocked punt and our quarterback threw his first two interceptions of the year. Anyway, back to Obama - seems since 1940 (one exception in 2004), when the Redskins win their last home game prior to the election, the incumbent party wins the election. When the Redskins lose, the party in power loses. Read more here.

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Chris Berman (ESPN) interviewed Obama and McCain at half-time of last night's game between Redskins and Steelers - a good place for the candidates to appear before the election as the ratings continue to be huge for Monday Night football. You can read the interviews here.

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Ok, enough of the football - early reports indicate long lines and some machine failures - this is to be expected with the heavy turnout of voters - no indication of foul play.

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Expect large gains by Democrats today in Congress - Senate pick ups will fall in the 6 to 11 range and the House gains should number at least 20. Reuters.com has more here.

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We will be live-blogging 2008 election results and will publish a separate post tracking the gains in the senate. So check back often tonight as the polls close - Indiana is the first state to close their polls at 7:00 PM ET. Stay tuned.

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