Sources: McCain aide fired for ‘trashing’ staff  —  (CNN) — Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to John McCain, was fired from the Arizona senator's campaign last week for what one aide called “trashing” the campaign staff, three senior McCain advisers tell CNN.

Obama considers stars for Cabinet  —  President-elect Barack Obama is strongly considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet post, Democratic officials told Politico.  —  Obama's transition planners are weighing several other celebrity-level political stars …

Losing California: Last night I stood in the heart of San Francisco's Castro district, the epicenter of the gay-rights movement.  Around me were thousands of people cheering and dancing for Barack Obama's victory and for the promise it brings gay America.  Meanwhile, on a large screen …

McCain's verdict on Palin: more trouble than a pitbull  —  The British ambassador reveals what the defeated presidential candidate really thinks of his running mate  —  So now we know what John McCain really thinks of his running mate Sarah Palin - and that's not just because of the awkward …

Hackers and Spending Sprees … The computer systems of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims of a sophisticated cyberattack by an unknown “foreign entity,” prompting a federal investigation, NEWSWEEK reports today.  —  At the Obama headquarters in midsummer …

The McCain Belt  —  Interesting map available on the NYT home page shows the places where McCain did better than Bush did in 2004:  —  You can see why John McCain's principled stand against higher taxes on the wealthy would have a special resonance in this region.

Oregonian projection: Merkley defeats Smith to take U.S. Senate seat  —  Democrat Jeff Merkley has ousted Republican Gordon Smith from his U.S. Senate seat, The Oregonian projects.  —  Merkley, a five-term state lawmaker and former Habitat for Humanity director, took advantage of a surge …

EMANUEL ACCEPTS TOP SLOT IN OBAMA WH  —  From NBC's Andrea Mitchell  —  A senior Obama advisor confirms to NBC News that Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel has accepted the job of Chief of Staff for the Obama White House.  —  *** UPDATE *** In an email to NBC News, Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg denies …

Notes from the collapse  —  This morning, after having absorbed the substantial victory of Barack Obama, I noticed a couple of interesting items in the data.  Barack Obama certainly won this race, but he won it with just a little more votes than George Bush won in his re-election bid, and the turnout models came up short.

Reid, Lieberman to meet  —  (CNN) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will likely meet later this week with Joe Lieberman to discuss whether the Democrat-turned-Independent will be stripped of his Senate committee chairmanship, a senior Democratic leadership aide tells CNN.

David Frum: Republicans face fraught choice between two roads to revival  —  In the wake of yesterday's bruising result, the Republican party faces an excruciating and divisive choice between two very different futures.  —  The first choice is the choice on display at the excited rallies that cheered Sarah Palin all through the fall.

Obama unoffical winner in North Carolina  —  Democrat Barack Obama is the unofficial winner in North Carolina, but the victory over Sen. John McCain won't be sealed until provisional ballots are counted and certified next month.  —  Unofficial returns show Obama ahead by 13,746 votes.

Suddenly, it may be cool to be an American again  —  VIENNA, Austria - She was a stranger, and she kissed me.  Just for being an American.  —  It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning, a few hours after compatriots clamoring for change swept Barack Obama to his historic victory.

The Man in the Arena  —  McCain concedes.  —  John McCain seemed oddly self-assured as he walked to the podium to deliver the final address of his 2008 presidential campaign—a concession speech.  He wore a blue suit, a light blue shirt and a gold tie that matched his wife's dress.

Election 2008: what really happened  —  After a quick look at the election results and exit polls (from www.cnn.com), some thoughts:  —  1. The election was pretty close.  Obama won by about 5% of the vote, consistent with the latest polls and consistent with his forecast vote based on forecasts based on the economy.

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace  —  What must our enemies be thinking?  —  Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush.

Palin: ‘Cannot even imagine’ 2012 bid  —  (CNN) — Hours after John McCain and Sarah Palin conceded defeat to Barack Obama, the Alaska governor told CNN she can't imagine running for the top job herself in 2012.  —  “Right now I cannot even imagine running for national office in 2012,” she told CNN's Dana Bash.

No mandate for Obama, no lopsided Congress  —  WASHINGTON — The national election Tuesday was not only historic for the election of the first African-American president in the nation's history but also for how little the avalanche of Democratic votes changed the political alignment in Congress.

Obama Administration Survival Guide  —  Welcome To The Loyal Opposition  —  The nation awakens today to a grim day (although less grim than it might have been, as the late Senate races come in and the prognosis for a decent-sized GOP resistance looks much better).  But America has endured worse.