I don't want to spoil anything, just go here.

Says it all.

You won't be disappointed.

Seriously.

You know the feeling victims of violent crimes experience, when they have reason to believe it was inflicted by someone in their community? They look around in fear and suspicion, like, What's the matter with some of you people?

I can't help feeling that way today.

Good God. A mess of the economy. Dedicated to handing as much of the wealth over to the wealthy as possible. Bogged down in an insane war which he is prosecuting absolutely incompetently. Has taken our country from the pride and envy of the world, to despised and isolated. And perhaps worst of all, his administration lies about everything! If they want to foul the skies to help out their rich friends, they name it the clear skies act. They're shameless, completely lacking in morals and decency.

What exactly does it take to vote them out of office?

What is causing America to embrace these horrible people?

Scares the shit out of me.

OK, it's over.

Time to continue reflecting on why we lost.

And/or just take a deep breath.

Myself, I think I need to just mope for a little while. Call it grieving, if you like. I just want to rest.

And write, though not necessarily about this. I'm sure I'll have lots more to get off my chest about it, but I've been looking forward to plunging back into deep concentration on writing my book. Which is going well, by the way. What a wonderful joy that is.

Ugh.

Once again, I'm not giving up till all the votes are counted, but I'm also not sticking my head in the sand to ignore the heavy probabilities.

Regardless of whether we capitalize on the slim hope for electoral victory, it's time to begin analyzing what what wrong--a loss in both houses, as well as the popular vote by 3.5 million.

Slate has a very insightful piece to get us started. It's called Simple but Effective. I urge everyone to read it.

I would put it even more simply: Can we please stop nominating people nobody likes? Including us? I was baffled by the Gore nomination, nearly as much by Kerry.

Who ever liked the guy? Those primary voters kept saying they were voting for the guy they thought would be the strongest candidate, even though they personally said they liked other candidates better, particularly Edwards after while, Dean earlier on.

What's with this second-guessing who someone else will like. NOBODY really liked him. Ever. So why did we think our neighbors would?

Running against a guy mired in a horrible war, with a crappy economy, where most of the country has been saying for six months they don't want him re-elected . . . Well, I'm sorry, but any decent candidate should have been able to whoop that. But in the end, we just couldn't get enough people enthused about him.

Can you blame them? I'm a political addict, a proud liberal and I'm revolted by Bush I still shuddered a bit picturing four years of Kerry. He was infinitely better than four more years of Bush, but I still shuddered. But imagine how those closer to the fence responded to him.

I waited nearly 2.5 hours in line, outside, on a nasty, windy day to vote for him. But how many people who never really liked him were prepared to do that?

John Kerry is a good guy, I have no doubt about that. He proved his courage in Vietnam. But I was never convinced he would be a great leader. Even as I was licking my chops at the exit polls yesterday, I as preparing to hang my head in shame at some of his blunders. I really was. That kept crossing my mind all day: "God, I hope we don't regret having this guy as our president."

Not a good sign, from a hardcore supporter.

In 2008, can we PLEASE nominate someone we can be proud of? Someone we can get our people--and lots of the undecided people--excited about? Let's start with someone we actually like.

(Now I've got to get back to work.)

God, I was wrong about a lot of things.

And it's not looking good.

But I'm not giving up till every stone is turned.

Kos has posted this email inside an entry from himself, which gives me hope:

Bush is currently leading in Ohio by 136,221

If there are 250,000 provisional ballots outstanding.  The highest number I've seen.

And 90% of those ballots are good, as they were in 2000.  That leaves 225,000 votes.

If 85% of those ballots prove to be for Kerry, about the number that Gore got in 2000.  That leaves us with 191,250, giving us a lead of 55,029.

If there are only 200,000 provisionals, following the same calculation would leave us with a lead of 16,779.

If the provisional ballots are only 175,000 that leaves us with a deficit of -2,346 that will leaves us in a position to get an automatic statewide recount.

Or, to put it another way, an automatic recount is triggered by a margin of 0.25% or between 13,000 and 16,000 votes.

I don't know if those figures are correct or not. I sure hope so.

At this point, I say count the votes. We'll probably lose, and I'll accept that. I just want the votes counted so we really know who's president this time.

For the second time tonight.

Never expected to "watch" a presidential election without a TV, but that's what finally happened tonight. By choice, more or less. (See below.)

Didn't expect to sit through this alone, either, but that's what it took to stay connected to all the info--though I had all of you guys and lots of phone calls. Thanks. I enjoyed it, even if I'm going to be aprehensive and a bit dismayed.

I haven't given up. But I am ready for bed. It's 1:22 a.m. here. Signing off and headed home. Sweet dreams.

God. I was wrong. 2000 all over again. Hopefully.

Hopefully our guy won't limp in there like Gore did in FL last time.

Not looking like it. Kerry campaign statement from about an hour ago:

“The vote count in Ohio has not been completed. There are more than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted. We believe when they are, John Kerry will win Ohio.”

Here we go.

CNN is not giving in either. Just because Fox called early--just like 2000!--and NBC followed, the others have not.

And I'm just too damn tired to summarize the rest, and TalkLeft did such a great job, that I'm just going to quote her and call it a night:

For the first time, CNN has called a state "Green." Green means it's too close to call. And we won't know for 11 days.

CNN says there are 387,000 actual votes not counted plus up to 250,000 provisional ballots out. So it's too close to call. Bush is only 100,000 votes ahead.

Ohio has a recount law. It's automatic if the parties are within .25%

Send your support to John Kerry....let him know you don't want him to give up until every last vote in Ohio is counted.

The campaign saved $45 million for post-election challenges. Smart thinking.

Interesting post on IA, too, though it probably it will only prove crucial if we can pick up NV or one of the other few left, other than WI. (WI, along with OH would be enough, so if we get that, IA becomes meaningless. Sorry Iowa.) But here's the info:

Iowa Won't Report Until Tomorrow

Update: Voting machines have broken down. New machines have been ordered. Absentee ballots are still coming in. Election worker fatigue dominates. They say they won't do any more until tomorrow.

And Kos has some great parting thoughts, too:

The networks have essentially called this one for Bush. There are still votes to be counted, and Kerry better not get it in his head to concede before all of them are counted.

The networks won't decide this election as they did in 2000.

Once the votes are counted, and the final result is determined, then we can talk about what we need to do.

I've always said today was merely a battle in a long war. The GOP built its electoral dominance over 40 years by building a massive, well-funded message, training, and media machine.

We started putting ours together last year.

You all have much to be proud of. But please don't think your job is done, or that your hard work was all for naught. It's not, and it wasn't.

This is just the beginning, not the end . . .

Note: It's only two networks. And only one of them is a news network. But I agree wholeheartedly with all the rest. And thanks, Kos, for all you've done to build the movement. We're just getting started.

Well, the exit polls sure were crap, weren't they?

When are they going to get those things right?

For complete details on the bad information, turn to MSNBC. (Not sure when they posted it, but they've got state by state and national results now.)