Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Wednesday, November 5, 2008
(UNDATED) - What a day Election Day was. Some precedents were broken, some were confirmed, and, for a change, few races really came down to the wire.
Democratic Illinois Senator Barack Obama is now Democratic President-Elect Barack Obama.
Obama won in an electoral landslide, and a near-landslide in the popular vote. As of this morning, Obama took 349 electoral votes to Arizona Senator John McCain's 148, and, with only two states still out and counting, Obama has taken 52% of the popular vote to McCain's 47%.
Furthermore, Obama took Indiana's 11 electoral votes, winning 50% to 49%. Only three counties are still not confirmed in Indiana's electoral vote this morning, those being Allen, Madison, and Vigo counties.
With 98% reporting in Allen County, McCain is leading Obama by 4%, with 99% reporting, Obama is shaving by in Madison County by 0.6%, and in 99% of the vote counted in the bellwether county of Vigo, Obama is leading by 16%.
The two states still counting are Missouri and North Carolina. Right now, Obama is leading by a hair in the Tarheel State, and McCain is up by a hair in the Show-Me State.
The presidential race last night confirmed a few old precedents and is calling a couple into question and, in a few cases, seemed like déjà vu all over again.
With both Indiana and Virginia going for the Democratic candidate last night, that broke a 44 year long tradition of both the Hoosier State and the Old Dominion going for Republicans.
And, with past being prologue, the last time both states went Democratic was against another Republican Arizona Senator: Barry Goldwater, who lost in an epic landslide against then-President Lyndon Johnson.
Another precedent that re-confirmed its status after a one-election hiatus was the story of the Washington Redskins. Going back to the earliest years of the team, if the Redskins won their last home game before the election, the incumbent White House party would stay, but if they lost, the "bums" got thrown out, so to speak.
The only exception was in 2004 when the Redskins lost to the Green Bay Packers, and Bush still kept the White House.
Finally is the question of consistent bellwether Missouri. And I say the "question" because Missouri is still too close to call as of this writing.
Missouri has only picked the loser in the presidential race once since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the last time Missouri was wrong was in 1956, when Eisenhower beat Adlai Stevenson who, oddly enough, was also an Illinoisan, serving as both Governor of the Land of Lincoln and as US Ambassador to the United Nations.
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