Election live blog...part 1

Here we go...will John McCain win or will America win? As usual, I am in red and Scott is in blue.

6:14 -- First results from Kentucky...with 5 of 3550 precincts reporting, Obama is getting trounced. Sadness and despair reigns.

6:35 -- By the way, nodrumlins is pioneering a new internet paradigm. Both Lance and I will be live blogging, of course, on separate computers -- while sitting about two feet apart in the same room. Soon, this will be the standard for all simulblogging, and in the distant future may remove the need for actual human interaction completely.

6:38 -- Lance is also currently setting up the Big Board. While CNN is struggling with their 3-D rendering from Industrial Light and Magic, we'll be using old reliable -- a giant dry erase board with a hand drawn map of the United States, filled in with the appropriate colored markers. In your face, Wolf Blitzer.

6:41 -- By the way, if McCain wins this, I'm going to lock myself in my room and play video games for the next four years.

6:42 -- Of course, I'm going to do the same thing if Obama wins anyway, but in that case it will be as a celebration of American freedom, rather than as a defense mechanism.

6:49 -- DirecTV has a fantastic channel set up called "2008 Election Mix", which shows eight channels simultaneously -- ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and BBC America -- and you can toggle between them to get the sound for whicever one you like. It's very soothing to listen to the Brits on BBC America chat in somnambulistic tones about voter turnout. Plus, they have Ted Koppel, so that's fantastic as well. Sweet.

6:52 -- The commentators on CNN and jammed together shoulder to shoulder as though they are traveling coach on Southwest. The benches at Foxboro Stadium offered more breathing room. On the plus side, they seem to be broadcasting from inside an American flag.

6:59 -- The commentators on CNN are giggling like schoolgirls about Obama, talking as though he's already won by 9 billion votes. Actually, I don't think schoolgirls giggle like this any more, they just text LOL to their MySpace page.

7:00 -- Here come our first projections...Vermont! Woo!

7:01 -- No call for McCain in South Carolina? I would have expected that to go for McCain right away.

7:05 -- Warner wins the senate seat in Virginia. Graham in South Carolina. Nothing surprising, but a pickup for the good guys nonetheless.

7:08 -- To prepare for the evening, I spent last evening watching a special Presidential edition of Antiques Roadshow.

7:10 -- NBC has trumped our big board by painting their map on the ice at Rockefeller Center. We're still beating CNN, though.

7:14 -- MSNBC just mentioned that Virginia is "too EARLY to call" for president as opposed to "too CLOSE to call." Which means that their exit polls suggest that someone has a significant advantage, but they are waiting for the actual returns to confirm.

7:18 -- Jessica Yellin, also known as Princess Leia, is appearing "via hologram" on the CNN set with Wolf Blitzer. If she had said, "Help us, Barack Obama, you're our only hope", I probably would have passed out from excitement. The only thing better would be having our own rink to paint.

7:23 -- We just heard our first use of the word "bicameral". Everyone drink!

7:25 -- NBC7 switches to local coverage, which means nothing, since the polls don't close for another 25 minutes.

7:30 -- Again, Ohio is too early to call. That means someone is pretty well ahead in the exits. That has to be good for Obama.

7:35 -- CBS is calling West Virginia for McCain, but most of the other networks haven't made a call. nodrumlins is still listing it as too early to call.

7:36 -- Okay, we're now ready to call West Virginia for McCain.

7:40 -- And now another 20 minutes of complete time wasting. Lance is currently looking through the exit polling online, which if correct, is pretty much giving every state to Obama. But you know how radical thouse internet sources can be.

7:42 -- McCain has a campaign advisor named Pfotenhauer, who, unless I am mistaken, was also a character on H. R. Pufnstuf.

7:42 -- Last year, the exit polls leaned strongly toward Kerry, so I'm not putting a lot of faith into them

7:48 -- Rockerfeller holds West Virginia's senate seat for the Democrats.

7:55 -- Fox News is having trouble with their online map. South Carolina isn't filled in even though the headline syas they called it; meanwhile, they have Delware filled in blue for Obama with the checkmark, but the polls haven't even closed there yet. Sound like they need a visit from holographic mapmaker Jessica Yellin. "If we don't get those maps running by sundown, there'll be hell to pay."

8:00 -- NBC is calling both PA and NH for Obama. Woohoo!

8:00 -- NBC calls Pennsylvania! Before even one vote is in? He must have trounced McCain there. Who else has an Obama win?

8:14 -- We've spent 14 minutes looking for more information on PA without much success. Ironic since, according to several license plates, we supposedly have friends there.

8:17 -- BBC (?) calls Kay Hagan to beat Liddy Dole in the NC Senate race and Jeanne Shaheen to knock off John Sununu, for what the BBC is worth...

8:19 -- Well, they are the most respected news source in the world, with apologies to Jon Stewart and The Onion.

8:20 -- Apparently Scott at the nodrumlins presidential desk has called Pennsylvania for Obama.

8:21 -- ABC has also called Shaheen in New Hampshire.

8:22 -- Well, I can make those kind of high levels calls. After all, I watched the Presidential edition of Antiques Roadshow, remember?

8:24 -- Channel 7 just called Question 1 in Massachusetts for the "No" side!

8:25 -- Multiple calls now for both Hagan and Shaheen, including the local stations for the N.H. race. I'm adding both to our big board.

8:32 -- CNN has called John Olver the winner in our district.

8:41 -- The NY Times has a cool site where they keep tallies of every major (American) network and which states each has called. The NYT, however, has chosen to call this site "The Presidential Big Board", which is copyright infringement. NYT, you'll be hearing from our lawyers.

8:43 -- Brit Hume just said "Elizabeth Dole has been beaten." Probably not the way he meant it...

8:44 -- Fox just called the GA senate race for Saxby Chambliss, which is a little disappointing if it holds. We'd have like to have a runoff there.

8:47 -- Scott at the nodrumlins presidential desk has called Georgia for McCain.

8:51 -- Saxby Chambliss? That's not a real name. That's, like, a name that Johnny Depp uses when he checks into a hotel to keep paparazzi off his trail.

8:54 -- McCain apparently won Sterling. In other news, Sterling has voted Dale Earnhart as honorary mayor, and announced the opening of a Stuckey's downtown. I'd type more Sterling jokes, but since I am currently in Sterling, I have to take a break to go secure my gun rack to my F-150.

9:05 -- Trying to find a consensus on the 9:00 closings. No one has called Colorado, but NBC says it is leaning Obama. Fox has apparently called New Mexico for Obama, but no other network has gone there yet.

9:14 -- We've called N.Y., R.I., Minn., Mich., and Wisc. for Obama and Kan., N.D., Wyo. for McCain. Right now, we're showing a 175-85 lead for Obama.

9:19 -- I'm going into graphics overload. Maybe I need to update my DirectX.

9:20 -- Fox calls Ohio for Obama! If that holds, that's it. It's over.

9:26 -- CBS and ABC have also called Ohio for Obama! Since three of the five networks have called Ohio, nodrumlins also calls Ohio for Obama.

9:27 -- That gives Obama 195 electoral votes. If we add only the safe Obama states of California, Oregon, Hawaii and Washington, Obama is guaranteed at least 77 more votes for a total of 272. Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States!