Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Notes on tonight's election returns 

7:08:26 PM: When the dust settles I think we'll look back to Bill Clinton as the leader of the Democratic Party, passing the baton to his wife. The primary election started a few weeks ago, it turns out, and now I see how Hilary is putting it together, in ways I hadn't seen before. They are two really smart cookies.

7:06:50 PM: We're in a lull, the mood has really changed among the talking heads. Republicans are saying they lost their way. The Democrats are either jubiliant (in speeches) and sober (interviews). The dynamic of American politics is changing visibly, minute by minute.

6:33:26 PM: MSNBC calls Rhode Island for the Democrats. There goes Lincoln Chafee. So far the Dems have won everything they need to win, they've now won three of the six they need to take the Senate.

6:25:34 PM: It really feels like a Democratic sweep tonight. The early exit polls told the story, most voters were influence by national issues. There's tremendous dissatisfaction with the Republicans.

6:18:13 PM: MSNBC calls Maryland for the Democrats. The third seat of six they needed to win.

6:10:22 PM: MSNBC says Lieberman wins in Connecticut. No doubt the Republicans are going to court him.

6:00:34 PM: CNN calls Pennsylvania for the Democrats -- the second unseated Republican.

5:55:32 PM: CNN calls Ohio for the Democrats -- the first of six Republican incumbents they need to unseat to take control of the Senate.

5:37:44 PM: CNN calls New Jersey for the Democrats.

5:06:17 PM: Katherine Harris lost in Florida. Mixed feelings. I love her dearly. But she is a Republican. Net-net: Coooool.

5:02:23 PM: Nothing surprising projected on MSNBC.

4:59:47 PM: If you're blogging the election returns, send me a link.

Pennsylvania closes at 5PM, 13 minutes from now. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I'm watching the returns on MSNBC. It's almost 4PM, when they'll have results for a bunch of states, including Virginia. Exciting! None of the tight races have been decided. They have been reporting exit polls on what issues voters thought were important. 60 percent thought Iraq was the most important issue in this election. That's got to be good news for the Dems

Doc in Berkeley 

Doc Searls is coming up from Santa Barbara, he'll be the first guest in the new house, now that the guest bedroom is minimally furnished. Tonight we're going to watch election returns in HD. Maybe we can do a podcast. Tomorrow morning we're going to have a two-person conference to discuss a project for open metadata we want to do together. Then we're having lunch with George Lakoff. In the afternoon we're going to see a demo of a hot new web app that I'm investing in. I think of this as my own personal Web 2.0™ conference, on a scale that I can enjoy.

Web 2.0 in the news 

Om Malik: "Thanks but no thanks for Web 2.0 spin."

Dan Fost: The Top 10 Lies of Web 2.0.

I've heard it said many times that the march of progress means that business people take over from the pioneers, but I've observed the opposite. When the boom is finished, the technology will still be here, and while progress may have suffered during the euphoria (the money is rarely used to fund new ideas), the ball never really stops rolling while everyone is focused on the money-obsessed. When the boom is over, we'll still be here, pushing new ideas forward.

Why Studio 60 sucks when it sucks 

Is it just me or did Studio 60 totally suck last night?

Rex Hammock always asks questions with deep philosophy.

I think I finally figured out the point of Studio 60. It's the methadone for West Wing addicts, which is the real smack. Even when the WW sucked, it was still about the Presidency, so you could kind of forgive the characters for their arrogance. But when the Chairman of NBC acted offended when John Goodman didn't sway and faint at being in the presence of such greatness, all I could think was "What a fcuking putz!" (And I wasn't thinking of Goodman.)

The only thing worth watching in this show is the sex between the writer and the star. It's really a love story. When they push that to the side, the show has no punch at all.

Yeah I'll watch again, but I really hope Harriet and Matt have sex. This is not like Donna and Josh. They really have to do it for the show to make any sense at all.

Other links 

NY Times: "Dean Baquet, the editor of The Los Angeles Times, who refused to go along with staff cutbacks ordered by its owner, the Tribune Company, was forced out of his job today."

iPodObserver: "58% of current iPod owners who are planning to buy a new digital media device in the next 12 months are 'likely' to choose Microsoft's Zune."

Lance Knobel voted against impeaching the President.

I got a link from the BBC Videolog on 9-11. Delivering some serious flow. It's nice that they're showing how bloggers covered the event. It was a turning point for both blogging and RSS.