* Hope you pardon me for a pause after the Big Moment. As I said, it’s been a long cycle, and I called my parents to make sure they were awake and watching (they were, and were very happy).
* I gather Fox “personalities” are arguing over whether Ohio has actually been won by Obama. Now I’m hearing on NBC that the Romney campaign won’t concede Ohio because some Hamilton County boxes are still out. Good God. Chuck Todd calmly suggests there are a lot more Obama votes out in Cuyahoga County, not to mention Romney’s problems in the remaining battleground states.
* Getting back to the Senate for a moment: Shelly Berkley seems to have won the early vote comfortably, so the question is whether she can hold on as today’s votes come in. Jon Tester has a surprisingly large early lead, though I know nothing about voting patterns in Montana and nobody’s called it yet. Heitkamp has a tiny lead over Berg with 86% counted in ND. It looks like Jeff Flake’s winning in AZ. So the best the GOP can do tonight is to break even, and Democrats could wind up with as many as 56 seats.
* The more vulnerable members of the House GOP Krazy Kaucus are having an interesting evening. Allen West is up by 1400 votes with 96% in. Michele Bachmann’s ahead by 2300 votes with 45% in. And Steve King survived by a relatively large margin. I’ll have more about House races tomorrow; there are too many districts still out (including a bunch in California) to have a clear look beyond understanding Republicans will maintain control while Democrats make very modest gains.
I plan to do one more Nite Owl post for West Coasters a bit later. But the action has slowed down enough to bring the live-blog to an end. Lots of analysis tomorrow.
