Late Night Election Watch

Only races that still seem interesting are the Minnesota Senate race between Coleman and Franken, which is still a squeaker, and the Alaska Senate race between convicted felon Ted Stevens and Mark Begich, which Stevens is currently leading. I'm hoping that if Stevens is re-elected he'll be forced to resign, which will give Sarah Palin a chance to appoint a successor who will have a full term to prove his/her worth. (it may be a bit more complicated than that, but hopefully common sense will prevail).

Best analogy I can come up with for the election is that the American people, fed up with a lemon car, traded it in on a shiny new model from a different company without really knowing how reliable it is, or how well it will run once the new car smell wears off. I guess we'll find out.

update (0530): Coleman has a slim lead over Franken with 99% of the precincts reporting. Looks like it might be close enough for a mandatory recount to kick in, whichever man ends up winning. Independent candidate Dean Barkley appears to have played something of a spoiler role in the contest.

Also, with 96% of the Alaska vote counted, the race between Stevens and Begich has tightened a bit, but I don't think that the Alaska population is large enough for Begich to catch up.