The Daily's Live Election Blog

usatoday: Nice shot.

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:48:11 -0500

Nice shot.

Markets react

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:17:16 -0500

LONDON - Financial markets dropped today on concerns that newly re-elected President Barack Obama will struggle to thrash out a budget deal with a divided Congress, and as the EU cut its economic growth forecasts. The ease with which Obama secured four more years in the White House — avoiding the uncertainty of ballot recounts, as in 2000 — had been welcomed in the markets early in the day. However, as the day wore on, investors grew concerned over the implications of a still divided Congress. U.S. stocks opened sharply lower, with the Dow Jones industrial average down 1.3 percent at 13,069 and the broader S&P 500 index off 1.4 percent at 1,408.

- Associated Press

As Michelle Obama stepped on stage with her husband in Chicago...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:15:08 -0500

As Michelle Obama stepped on stage with her husband in Chicago early this morning, she accepted her role not only as first lady but fashion tastemaker for four more years — this time, wearing a Michael Kors magenta silk chine pin-tucked dress. As Mrs. Obama joined President Barack Obama, she sported a dress pulled in at the waist, and she topped it with a black shrug that showed a peek of a vintage pink brooch from House of Lavande. She was surrounded by her trend-right daughters: Malia wore an electric-blue, A-line skirt with a pink studded belt that looks like the teen version of the first lady’s signature Azzedine Alaia belt, and Sasha had on an abstract-print green skirt, gray bow-front top and mimicked her mom’s shrunken cardigan look. Mrs. Obama has been a reinvigorating force for the fashion industry, from her late-night online J. Crew purchases to her savvy courtship with up-and-coming designers, including Prabal Gurung and Jason Wu. Kors has been a consistent label in her wardrobe.

- Associated Press

Maine’s independent former Gov. Angus King says he still...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 09:47:00 -0500

Maine’s independent former Gov. Angus King says he still hasn’t decided whether he will align with Democrats or Republicans when he enters the Senate in January. The former governor, elected to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe, tells MSNBC he will probably make a decision next week after talking to the leaders of the two parties. He says he wants to remain as independent as possible but also realizes that aligning with one of the parties is important to getting good committee assignments. King says he talked to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Tuesday night, but had yet to speak with Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

- Associated Press

Ratings (hiccup) boost?

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 09:08:08 -0500

NEW YORK — Diane Sawyer’s Election Night performance left some viewers asking if she had begun celebrating Tuesday’s election a bit early. Co-anchoring ABC News’ coverage, the veteran journalist struck a different manner from her practiced, straight-news-delivering style. Sawyer spoke more slowly than usual while seeming to prop herself on outstretched arms at the anchor desk she shared with George Stephanopoulos. ”OK,” she said at one point around 10 p.m. EST, “I wanna — can we have our music, because this is another big one here? Minnesota, we’re ready to project Minnesota, rrright now. … Well, tonight we know that President Barack has won Minnesota,” she rambled on, stumbling over the president’s name.

In any case, the Twitterverse took quick notice and began cracking wise. Her name was soon trending with unflattering posts, while a new Twitter handle, Drunk Diane Sawyer, collected hundreds of followers. An ABC spokesman did not comment..

Some tweeters joked that a more fun-loving Sawyer was a ploy by ABC to boost viewership. Several Twitter followers said they were drawn to the network by word that Sawyer was behaving, by one description, “a bit wacky.”

“Bad night for Romney,” one tweeter summed up. “Worse night for Diane Sawyer?”

- Associated Press

Giffords' seat still open

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:11:00 -0500

The contest for former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ seat between her onetime aide and successor, Ron Barber, and GOP challenger Martha McSally is still too close to call. McSally is leading with 105,484 to Barber’s 105,099 votes with 100 percent of the precincts reporting, but the Associated Press has not declared a winner. Earlier this year, Barber replaced Giffords so she could focus on recovering from the 2011 Tucson shooting. Barber also was injured during the shooting.

- POLITICO

“Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:05:17 -0500

“Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.”

That was Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s reaction to Coloradoans voting to legalize recreational pot use. Hickenlooper, a Democrat, opposed the measure.

Obama thanks Clinton

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:34:46 -0500

Fox has learned there were just four people in the room when the President received the call from Mitt Romney conceded, POTUS along with campaign manager Jim Messina and senior advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe. I’m told the President expressed satisfaction that it was a “very classy” gesture in terms of how Romney handled the call. The President then hung up the phone and immediately dialed former President Bill Clinton to thank him. Just four years after calling the first Obama campaign the “biggest fairy tale” he’d ever seen, Clinton and Obama in a warm embrace, the last two Democrats to win two terms.

- Ed Henry, Fox News Channel

"We are an American family, we rise and fall together as one nation, as one people"

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 01:41:24 -0500

“We are an American family, we rise and fall together as one nation, as one people”

- President Obama’s acceptance speech

Matt Dowd: GOP May Become Minority Party

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:59:26 -0500

“This election wasn’t about Romney, it was about the Republican party…The Republican party must think, ‘What are we going to do to adapt to the 21st century?’ Otherwise, they’re going to become a minority party.”

—Matt Dowd, political analyst, via ABC News

"I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory… I pray that the..."

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:56:53 -0500

“I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory… I pray that the President will be successful.”

- Mitt Romney’s concession speech

Andrew Sullivan: Obama Created a New & Durable Coalition

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:45:00 -0500

“This president has never been a radical; he has always been a moderate; he has been immensely skilled at foreign policy, ended one war and won another, killed Osama bin Laden and saved the American auto industry, deflected a Second Great Depression and initated universal access to healthcare. He has presided over a civil rights revolution and the beginning of the end of prohibition of marijuana. He has created the new and durable coalition that was once Karl Rove’s dream.

Americans saw this. They were not fooled. And they made the right call, as they usually do.”

—Andrew Sullivan, political commentator, The Daily Beast

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Eli Lehrer: Romney Never Said How He Would Govern

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:36:00 -0500

“Romney lost because he never gave a clear answer as to how he would govern. And this — governance itself — can explain a lot about what the Republican party needs to do if it wants to reclaim the White House in 2016.

For all of his virtues and vices, I, as a Romney supporter, ended the campaign with very little idea as to how a President Romney would actually govern.”

—Eli Lehrer, President of the think tank R Street, via The Huffington Post

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Juan Williams: We've Entered the Era of Latinos

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:21:00 -0500

“This marks a new kind of politics. Before, it was about winning the blue-collar, white vote. Now, we’ve entered the era of Latinos. And the Republicans have done themselves no favors when it comes to their immigration policies.”

— Juan Williams, political analyst, via Fox News

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David Gergen: Republicans Not Lost Forever

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:05:00 -0500

“Republicans are not lost forever. But the fundamental issue is that it’s extremely dangerous for the country to have one of its major parties needing 90 percent of its votes from whites.”

—David Gergen, political pundit, via CNN News

(MS)

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COLUMBUS — Democrats in Ohio delivered big. The happy...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:02:12 -0500

COLUMBUS — Democrats in Ohio delivered big.

The happy crowd broke out into high fives, fist bumps, group hugs and chants of “four more years!” As they learned, on a screen showing an MSNBC feed, that their home state pushed President Barack Obama over the top to 270 electoral votes, and a second term.

The crowd here, an unusual mix of union groups, gay and black supporters and out-of-state Obama volunteers who had come from as far away as California and New York to knock on doors for the president this week, celebrated the win together without awkwardness, helped on by a bar stocked with Budweiser and Blue Moon.

As the state was called for the president, a group of gay men, who rode out on an LGBT For Obama bus to canvas for the president last week, hugged and kissed one another, some of them getting to their knees in thanks. “We’re not going back!” one of them cried, happily.

The mood here, festive from the start, began to turn downright joyful earlier in the evening as Sen. Sherrod Brown, a union favorite, was reelected, and Democratic victories began to pile up across the country.

Fierce, growing union support for Democrats and President Obama, buoyed not only by the auto bailout but also by a Republican-lead attack on the state on organized labor, may have made the difference for Obama in Ohio.

“A few, very, very rich people wanted to rig the election for themselves,” Sen. Brown told the Ohio room, promising the crowd, filled with “Sherrod Brown” placards, that he would not stop fighting for working people.

One aide to Sen. Brown told The Daily that the Obama victory in Ohio was thanks to an old-school, hard-won, grind-out-the-vote effort by Democrats, and nothing more. “We worked very, very, very hard,” the aide said. “That’s all it is.”

The win in Massachusetts by Elizabeth Warren, who recaptured Ted Kennedy’s long-held senate seat after a brutal face-off with Republican Sen. Scott Brown, seemed particularly satisfying to the Ohio Democrats, who turned the volume up on the megatron earlier in the evening to listen to Elizabeth Warren victory speech, and cheered when she told a Boston crowd, “YOU built that.”

—Mara Gay

(image via) (KW)

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Charles Krauthammer: Romney was a Transitional Figure

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:59:00 -0500

“I’m not in despair. Romney was a transitional figure. He ran as good a campaign as he could. But he’s a northeasterner. That’s now where the country is going. There’s a strong Republican bench that still hasn’t entered the game. He ran in a weak field,”

—Charles Krauthammer, political commenter, via Fox News

(MS)

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Mega donor Sheldon Adelson has left the building. Refused to...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:57:41 -0500

Mega donor Sheldon Adelson has left the building. Refused to concede as he went.

— Kyle Stock at Romney HQ

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Taegan Goddard: Big winner, Obamacare

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:57:00 -0500

“Another big winner tonight: Obamacare…Another winner: The Obama ground game…The GOP beg big on the Supreme court and then Mitt Romney ending Obamacre. They lost both badly…Republicans no longer have a leader. It will be interesting to see how they react.”

—Taegan Goddard, publisher of political wire, via twitter.

(MS)

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The Empire State Building in New York, lit blue in honor of...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:47:21 -0500

The Empire State Building in New York, lit blue in honor of President Barack Obama’s re-election to the presidency.

(image via @michaelsurtees) (KW)

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