Events

Polls close in Indiana and Kentucky in a little more than three hours. Big news starts to come at 6pm CT with Florida, Georgia, and Virginia; and at 7pm CT with Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. I'll also be watching the Minnesota and New York results closely when they come in at 8pm CT: New York because it's kind of big (lots of blue Electoral Collegians) and Minnesota because I'm supporting Al Franken against Hofstra alumnus Norm Coleman.[1] TPM Media has a cool interactive map showing the rest of...

The Chicago Breaking News consortium reports that people really, really want to see the Obama rally tonight: Twelve hours before the gates were to open, about 30 people, mostly college students, were forming a line about 8:30 a.m. on Congress Parkway for the Barack Obama Election Night rally. chicagobreakingnews.com will have updates all day, so I don't have to.

It took me a few minutes to get through my 12-page sample ballot (Cook County has a bizarre judicial election scheme), but I've just finished voting in my sixth Presidential election. I'm 2-for-5 (or 3-for-5 depending on your interpretation of the late unpleasantness in 2000) so far; I'm thinking this will even the score. I actually voted against two Democratic candidates, too. We have some real winners in local offices, and while they're sure to get re-elected despite my votes, perhaps a few votes...

Via Prof. Krugman, a map showing the relative electoral importance of each state in the U.S. Krugman's headline was "The decadent left, in its enclaves on the coasts," and wryly observes it depends on your definition of "enclave:"

Well, this is it. Just the 64 million of us (my guess for today's election turnout). I haven't voted yet—one of the benefits of a home office in a big city is that I can vote after the morning rush—but I've got my sample ballot all ready to go. Polls actually opened almost 8 hours ago in Dixville Notch, N.H., where, for the first time in my life, the Democratic candidate won 15-6. More updates throughout the day. Bottom line: the next 15 hours, until polls close in California, will not be the most...

Great comic this morning from Garry Trudeau: Now if I can only get "One More Day" out of my head, I'll have better luck concentrating on my first day of a new project.

Atlantic reporter James Fallows blogged this morning that McCain appearing on Saturday Night Live means, unmistakably, that he's given up: [I]f McCain really thought he had a chance of catching up, he wouldn't have wasted time on an audience that might repair his reputation among liberals and journalists but does him no good with the crucial swing votes. And if he thought he were secretly ahead, he wouldn't comport himself this way. He would be more like the stiff character we saw in the debates. Polls...

I just read a fascinating story in The Economist that would have probably gotten more attention in the U.S. but for our recent distractions. It seems Porsche made possibly €12 billion on the Deutsche Bourse by cornering the market in Volkswagen shares: Porsche’s gambit was as old as finance itself. For about three years it had been steadily increasing its stake in VW, a much larger yet less profitable carmaker with which it shares a little production. Its buying had driven up the price of VW’s shares to...

Beautiful weather yesterday, with some moderate haze over the city from an inversion around 2300 ft. I flew Chicago Executive to Whiteside County with a stop at Aurora on the way back. Then, just because I wanted to and because it's kind of the point of having a private pilot certificate, I flew up the Chicago lakefront on my way back to Chicago Executive. (Here's the Google Earth track.)

First, if you know anything about Chicago, you'll understand why I nearly passed out to see this week's Economist in my mailbox this week. Since I moved into this neighborhood I think I've gotten it once on Saturday, and the rest of the time on Monday or Tuesday. So, wow. Second, even more stunning if you know anything about the the Economist: they've endorsed Obama for President: The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic...