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The ballot counters took a day off in Minnesota. The current count is that Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) leads Democrat Al Franken by 180 votes, but see the note about challenges yesterday. Counting will resume today. Minnesota Public Radio is continuing to show some of the challenged ballots.
The Virginia secretary of the commonwealth will certify the results in House district VA-05 today. Currently, Democrat Tom Perriello is leading Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) by 745 votes. After certification, Goode will ask for a recount. However, with such a large gap, it is unlikely to save him. Perriello had some bad news and some good news last week. The bad news is that since he hasn't won yet, he wasn't allowed to take part in the office sweepstakes that the other freshmen entered. He had visions of being stuck in a broom closet somewhere in the House basement. The good news is that if he does win, an occupied office will become free--Goode's--and Perriello will get that one. Goode is a six-term congressman and has a much nicer office than any of the freshmen will get.
In CA-04, Tom McClintock (R) has declared victory over Charlie Brown (D) on the basis of his current lead of 1566 votes. This number gives McClintock a lead of 0.6%, which if it holds, will mean there is no recount and McClintock will win.
In OH-15, Mary Jo Kilroy (D) got some good news. Federal judge Algernon Marbley has ruled that 27,000 uncounted ballots in Franklin County must be counted. Since this county is Kilroy's home base (she is a county commissioner there), she may well pick up the 479 votes she needs to catch up to Steve Stivers (R), who is currently ahead. If Perriello and Kilroy win, the Democrats will have at least 257 seats in the House.
The other two undecided House races are in Louisiana and will be decided by runoffs in December.
The Washington Post has a story on the pollsters' take on the election. Was this a permanent realignment or just a fluke due to a an unpopular President and a bad economy? The consensus seems to be it depends on Obama. If in four years he is perceived as having done a good job under difficult circumstances, he will probably be reelected and the realignment is likely to be stable for a while. While Indiana is not about to become a Democrat bastion, states like Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico, with their large Latino populations, could become permanently Democratic, especially if Obama achieves some satisfactory immigration reform later in his first term.
President-elect Barack Obama will hold a news conference at noon EST today to announce his economic team. It is expected that he will name Timothy Geithner as secretary of the treasury and Larry Summers as a top White House economic advisor. Geithner is president of the New York federal reserve bank and has a long history of working as a government economist. He is greatly respected by Wall St., which will help him immensely. Summers, a graduate of M.I.T. and Harvard, is by all accounts brilliant, but he made some stupid remarks when he was president of Harvard, which led to his resignation there. Still, having a top advisor who was formerly secretary of the treasury (under Bill Clinton) and who speaks his mind and lets the chips fall where they may is probably a good thing for Obama to have in house.
Many people are worried that the economy may completely collapse before Jan. 20. While President-elect Obama repeatedly says we have one President at a time, the current one seems completely absent and is doing little to deal with the economic crisis. Secretary Paulson appears to have given up on his original plan to buy up all the toxic securities and doesn't seem to have any new one to replace it. So in a time of great crisis, the ship of state is drifting aimlessly with the captain asleep at the wheel. Tom Friedman suggested yesterday that Bush fire Paulson immediately and appoint Geithner as secretary of the treasury so he can get to work immediately. Another NY Times columnist, Gail Collins, went further and suggested that Dick Cheney resign as Vice President and then George Bush resign as President to let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi become President until Jan. 20 since she would take her marching orders from Obama. Neither is likely to happen.
