memeorandum: McCain's Concession Speech (Jonathan Cohn/The New Republic)

12:15 AM ET, November 5, 2008

Top Items:

Alex Johnson / MSNBC:

NBC: OBAMA ELECTED 44TH PRESIDENT — Illinois senator to become first African-American executive in U.S. history — Supporters of Barack Obama celebrate as they await his victory address at Grant Park in Chicago. — Slide show — America votes — Nov. 4: Americans line up early …

Discussion: The Daily Weekly, Democratic Strategist, CNN, The Heretik, TalkLeft, Buck Naked Politics, Electoral-vote.com, The Moderate Voice, The Reaction, The Democratic Daily, The Opinionator, Political Machine, Gothamist, LewRockwell.com Blog, Daily Kos and skippy the bush kangaroo

Russell Goldman / ABCNEWS:

Obama Beats McCain to Become First Black President — McCain Graciously Concedes to Obama — Barack Obama cruised to victory Tuesday night in an historic triumph that promised change, overcame centuries of prejudice and fulfilled Martin Luther King's dream that a man be judged not by the color …

Discussion: The Heretik, Michelle Malkin, Associated Press, MSNBC, Marc Ambinder, TalkLeft, Newshoggers.com, The Raw Story, Openers and Washington Post

Laura Frank / Rocky Mountain News:

Udall, DeGette, Perlmutter, Markey and Polis claim victories — Barack Obama won Colorado on his way to becoming the first African-American elected president of the United States. — Obama took key counties such as Arapahoe, Jefferson and Larimer by more than 10 percentage points.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Associated Press and Marc Ambinder

Byron York / The Corner:

Inside the Ohio Numbers — In addition to the traditional Republican constituency in Ohio, McCain was hoping for significant support among Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton. But the exit polls show that of the 16 percent of the electorate who identified themselves as Clinton Democrats, Obama is winning 82-17.

Discussion: Comedy Central

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Round one: IN, VA, OH, NC

Discussion: The Campaign Spot, The Jawa Report, Stop The ACLU and PoliGazette

Peter Slevin / Washington Post:

Bill Ayers Speaks — CHICAGO — In his first interview since he became an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader, said today that he had a distant relationship with Barack Obama and that Obama's opponents had turned him into “a cartoon character.”

Discussion: The Swamp, Ed Driscoll.com, Global Labor and Politics, Don Surber, Dirty Harry's Place and Top of the Ticket

David Remnick / New Yorker: MR. AYERS'S NEIGHBORHOOD — Early this morning, the Obama family voted …

Kathryn Jean Lopez / The Corner:

Why O Why O Why — from our David Kahane's amanuensis:

Discussion: www.redstate.com

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
OBAMA WINS PRESIDENCY, NETWORKS SAY

Discussion: The Politico and Washington Post

Satyam Khanna / Think Progress:

Lieberman: ‘I Fear’ That ‘America Will Not Survive’ If Democrats Get 60 Senate Seats — With the possibility that Democrats might soon gain a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has been openly flirting with thoughts of voting with his conservative colleagues.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Glenn Beck, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and AlterNet.org

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Don't Count on Joe — As everyone knows, Democrats …

Discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Glenn Beck

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Live-Blogging Election Night — 10.54 pm. Initiatives easing marijuana laws are outpolling Obama in Massachusetts and Michigan. People are less afraid than politicians. — 10.52 pm. You drinking yet? Stupid question. I haven't touched a drop. Honest. But I'm close.

Discussion: The Corner and Toby Harnden's blog listings

Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Live-blogging the election returns!

Discussion: Forbes and Sadly, No!

Stephen Green / Pajamas Media:
Drunkblogging Election Night

Discussion: Classical Values and The Anchoress

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:

Fox's Nina Easton: 'I think there's a real possibility' that this is now a ‘center-left’ country.» — This evening on Fox News, host Brit Hume commented, “It has been conventional wisdom for some time, and I certainly thought it was true, that this is a center right country.”

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Ali Frick / Think Progress:
Fearful Conservatives Push New Talking Point: ‘This Is A Center-Right Country’

Discussion: Democrat=Socialist, Wonk Room and Washington Monthly

Carrie Dann / MSNBC:

EMANUEL OFFERED TOP OBAMA SLOT — Three House Democratic sources confirmed Rep. Rahm Emanuel has been offered a Chief of Staff job with an Obama White House and is currently “agonizing” over whether to take the job.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and War and Piece

Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:

Waiting for a Concession — Phoenix, Arizona — A somber mood here at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, where Republicans, dressed in their best Indian summer cocktail attire, are gathering to hear John McCain concede to Barack Obama. Jim Woolsey was seated below a mounted television …

Discussion: US News and George's Bottom Line

Marc Ambinder:
McCain Aide: “We Need A Miracle”

Discussion: Hot Air, Newsweek Blogs and JammieWearingFool

TMZ.com:

Tim Robbins Couldn't Vote — Cops Called — Tim Robbins tried voting at his NYC polling place earlier today. There was some kind of ruckus and the cops were called. — Apparently Robbins has been voting at that polling place for more than a decade, but today his name wasn't on the register.

Discussion: Comedy Central, The Raw Story and JammieWearingFool

City Room:
Tim Robbins Faces Mix-Up at Polling Place

Discussion: Gawker, The Daily Politics, A Blog For All, New York Magazine and Gothamist

Michelle Malkin:

Obama's civilian security force: Billy club-wielding security guards at Philly polls — Here's the vid of billy club-wielding “security” guards at the 1221 Fairmount Ave. polling place in Philly from Election Journal. Just as I suspected, these guys look like NBPP from the emblem on one of the “guard's” jackets.

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Obama Volunteer On Scene Disputes Fox News' Suggestions That Black …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Talking Points Memo, Comedy Central, Making Light, The RBC, Democrat=Socialist, Atlas Shrugs, News Hounds, The Washington Independent, The Corner, Brian Beutler and Wizbang

Market Wire:

Republican National Committee Prepares for Computerized Voting Fraud Legal Battle — Forensicon, Inc., a Chicago-based computer forensics company, was contacted last Thursday by a security firm lining up vendors to assist the Republican National Committee with consulting related to potential allegations of computerized voter fraud.

Discussion: Townhall.com and Ben Smith's Blogs

Skip / GraniteGrok:
BREAKING - POSSIBLE VOTER FRAUD IN NH!

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Wire, The Caucus, NBC Philadelphia, Weekly Standard, protein wisdom, Power Line and Townhall.com

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:

Ten Reasons Why You Should Ignore Exit Polls — Oh, let me count the ways. Almost all of this, by the way, is lifted from Mark Bluemthnal's outstanding Exit Poll FAQ. For the long version, see over there. — 1. Exit polls have a much larger intrinsic margin for error than regular polls.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, MyDD, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Gawker, Marc Ambinder, Pollster.com, The Campaign Spot, AlterNet.org, Guardian, The Reaction, Harry's Place, AfterDowningStreet.org, Salon, The Corner, Outside The Beltway, Liberal Values and Taylor Marsh

CNN:
Age a bigger concern than race, exit polls show

Discussion: Outside The Beltway and Wizbang

Michaelscherer / Swampland:

Steve Schmidt Talks On The Final McCain Flight — John McCain came back to bid farewell to his traveling press corps on his final campaign flight from New Mexico to Arizona. A few minutes later, his chief political strategist Steve Schmidt stood in the aisle surrounded by reporters' digital audio recorders.

Discussion: Firedoglake

Ana Marie Cox:
McCain Says Good-Bye — to the Press

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The New Republic and Comedy Central

Jim Manzi / The Corner:

Overcome — I have argued in this space that I believe that neither of this year's nominees was likely to be a successful President. I continue to believe that Barack Obama is likely to be a poor President who will attempt to implement policies that will be detrimental to the national interest.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

MSNBC:

Democrats unseat GOP House incumbents — Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., to keep seat after tight race, NBC projects — Democratic challenger Jim Himes defeated U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., on Tuesday to give Democrats every House seat from New England. — DeLay: Dems will cause damage

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Guardian

Roxana Tiron / The Hill:

Murtha wins reelection despite controversial remarks — Veteran Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) defeated his GOP challenger William Russell after his toughest reelection race in his 34-year House career. — NBC News projected Murtha the winner with 56 percent of the precincts in his district reporting …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and A Blog For All

Kathryn Jean Lopez / The Corner:

What Freaks Me Out About This Election — is how oblivious to facts people have been. Everything about Obama's judgment and radicalism — whether Sean Hannity or Stanley Kurtz or Andy McCarthy etc. is telling you about it — was essentially deemed irrelevant (including largely by the McCain campaign …

Discussion: Macsmind and The Heretik

David Owens / Hartford Courant:

Shays Concedes — New England's last remaining Republivan in the U.S. House of Representatives was swept out of office today, largely by Democratic surge in his hometown of Bridgeport and an Obama wave throughout the 4th Congressional District. — U.S. Rep. Chris Shays conceded defeat …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo and TPM Election Central

The Corner:

Vote Early, Vote Often — An Obama voter in Pennsylvania admits to CNN that he voted multiple times:

Discussion: Commentary

John Derbyshire / The Corner:

Waneth the Trembling Moon — From my occasional glances at the TV, waneth is what it doeth. — I'm thinking of another election 29½ years ago, when Margaret Thatcher swept into power in the U.K. As I recall, there was no great fuss one way or the other about her being the first female Prime Minister.

Mark R. Levin / The Corner:

Obama's Night — On FOX, they're giddy about the Barack Obama election. On MSNBC, they're crying. This country faces serious challenges with an Obama election and such a large Democrat majority. I can't get caught up in Obamamania — I couldn't before and I can't now.

Marc Ambinder:

Watching Florida: Real Vote Confirms Obama Lead — Bush won the huge swing county of Pinellas — [Sarasota ]— the St. Petersburg-Clearwater are — by a narrow margin in 2004. Obama won it by 8 pts in 2008 — 35,000 votes. Bush won Seminole County in central Florida with ease; Obama's leading McCain with half of the vote in.

Dawson Bell / Detroit Free Press:

Nader out, predicts Obama landslide — Ralph Nader, the self-styled consumer crusader and perennial third-party presidential candidate, has conceded, telling the Free Press about 7 tonight that there was going to be “a landslide” for Barack Obama. — “The streets are going to be filled with revelry …

Discussion: MoJoBlog

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

McCain's Concession Speech — McCain just gave incredibly gracious concession speech. He spent the first few minutes reflecting on America's history of racism—and the moral significance of electing an African-American. He saluted Obama for inspiring so many young people and first-time voters …