The only good thing about him running would be that it would finally deprive him of his daily hour long harangue on MSNBC.

Given Specter's age and health, I think it has to be seriously questioned if he will end up running again. If he runs and stays a Republican, there would be a risk of a primary from the right (he barely survived one last time). If he switched and ran as a Democrat, I suspect the field would be cleared for him.

My choice to draft for US Senate in PA is Richard Trumka. Running a progressive Democrat like Trumka from western Pennsylvania would offer the opportunity to keep the old coal/steel areas from slipping away from the Dems permanently, appeal to the Casey Dems, but still offer appeal to African-Americans, progressive whites, and suburban Philly voters. He's the kind of candidate who could appeal to all parts of the Democratic electorate in PA.

We sometimes forget that AP or the networks have no legal standing when they "declare" a winner -- what they do as news organizations is very different from certificates of election issues by Secretaries of State or state election administrators. The returns we see on election night (and now) are unofficial results, nothing more.

Until the official canvass is complete, all the results we see are unofficial and uncertified.

Here in Vermont, where Obama won 2-1, the results won't be official until the Secretary of State releases her official canvass.

In many states, there are different rules and timetables for counting absentee ballots, determining provisional ballots, reviewing reported returns for clerical errors, etc. It is usually a couple of weeks to allow this to happen.

If we didn't learn anything else from Florida in 2000, part of respecting the sanctity of the vote is making sure every vote is counted accurately - and we should be patient enough to wait a couple weeks to allow a fair and accurate count in close races like these.

I suspect that MO will ultimately award their votes to McCain, but I'm glad they are following procedures and waiting to declare anything. (And wouldn't it be sweet if it turns out that there are enough uncounted Obama votes out there to add another state to the total?)

Of course that is a ridiculous justification, but that's what some folks offer as their objection to voting at home, by mail, etc.

But the Vermont photo is highly misleading. That polling place does have booths where people can vote in private -- the folks you see on the church pews are folks who choose to vote there rather than wait in line a bit longer (and in Vermont that is never very long) for a booth to free up. The big turnout produced lines even in tiny Vermont towns. They were voting in full view because they wanted to!

Of course the "Black Panther" b.s. is the heart of their ugly racist fear-mongering, their one last try to scare white people and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election. I guess we shouldn't expect anything different from Fox.