76 days to Inauguration - “A national catharsis”  —  Rahm Emanuel is top choice for chief of staff — Newsweek: Palin sprees worse than reported — Obama Day declared in Kenya — ABC's Jonathan Karl to Hill  —  Good Wednesday morning.  The New York Times banner is a single, capitalized word: “OBAMA.”

Coleman vs. Franken: Recount looms  —  Minnesotans likely will have to wait for a winner in the U.S. Senate contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken.  —  One of the most bitter U.S. Senate races in Minnesota history continued to grind on early this morning, with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman …

Obama Offers Rahm Emanuel Job of White House Chief of Staff  —  ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama has offered the White House chief of staff job to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.  —  Emanuel, a knowledgeable source tells ABC News, has not yet given his answer.

Voters approve Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriages  —  Passage of Prop.8 throws thousands of same-sex unions into doubt.  —  UPDATE: Voters approve Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriages.  With more than 95% of the vote counted, the measure leads 52.1% to 47.9%.

Stevens leads Begich by thin margin  —  Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was leading challenger Mark Begich with most of the election returns in hand Tuesday night, despite being found guilty of seven felonies and polls showing him in deep trouble.  —  With more than 80 percent of the precincts reporting …

CNN FORGETS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.... Remember, these folks get paid to provide expert political analysis.  —  For those of you who can't watch videos from your work computers, the clip is from CNN's election coverage last night.  Campbell Brown asks John King, “For those people …

Gird your loins, conservatives  —  There is no time to lick wounds, point fingers, and wallow in post-election mud.  —  I'm getting a lot of moan-y, sad-face “What do we do now, Michelle?” e-mails.  —  What do we do now?  We do what we've always done.  —  We stand up for our principles …

No decision, no majority in Senate race  —  Chambliss, Martin waiting for final votes to be counted to see if runoff needed  —  Georgia's U.S. Senate race remained in doubt Wednesday morning as neither major party candidate had more than 50 percent of the vote.

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.

2008 turnout shatters all records  —  More than 130 million people turned out to vote Tuesday, the most ever to vote in a presidential election.  —  With ballots still being counted in some precincts into Wednesday morning, an estimated 64 percent of the electorate turned out, making 2008 the highest percentage turnout in generations.

The Next President  —  This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:  —  An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth …

After a Night of Illusions, Television Records Reality  —  Just as one day was giving way to another, Barack Obama appeared before thousands of cheering supporters in Chicago's Grant Park and said, “Change has come to America” — which naturally made them cheer all the louder.

A Way Out of the Wilderness  —  Well, we Republicans have just made history.  Not the type of history we wanted to make, mind you, but history nonetheless.  Not only did we lose the White House but, after losing our House and Senate majorities in 2006, we followed it up last night with even steeper losses in Congress.

Russia Warns of New Missile Deployment  —  MOSCOW — In a wide-ranging attack on the United States as it elected a new president, the Russian leader Dmitri A. Medvedev warned on Wednesday that Moscow might deploy short-range missiles in the Baltic region to counter a perceived threat …

FIRST THOUGHTS: THE 44TH PRESIDENT  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann  —  *** The 44th President: In a just a little more than four years, an Illinois state senator who delivered a rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention will now become …

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job  —  WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America.  In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged …

God Save This Honorable Court  —  Duncan Black writes: … At the moment the Supreme Court consists of one very smart centrist-liberal Democrat, Ruth Bader Ginsburg; one very smart centrist-centrist Democrat, Stephen Breyer; one very old good-hearted Republican, John Paul Stevens …