This is what happens when your blog’s author is a non-resident Indian.  Drawing from the U.S. elections, here are India’s battleground states whose outcomes will decide who will form a government.

Jonathan Martin at Politico reminds us of one of the signature lines from the primary contest, where in response to a question (and a guffaw from Senator Clinton) about why there were so many Clinton advisers on Obama’s team, President-elect Obama lets loose with possibly the zinger of the election season:

I heard Chuck Todd on MSNBC today saying that Obama will likely not campaign for Jim Martin in his Senate runoff campaign. I can understand that he’s focused on the transition right now, and also that Martin faces an uphill climb. Still, I think it’s a mistake. For one thing, with the Alaska race moving our way and Minnesota still a good possibility, Georgia could end up being the Dems’ shot at 60 seats. Now, given the fluidity of cloture votes, I don’t believe that 60 is the magic number some have made it out to be, but it does represent a psychological hurdle, and besides, a Sen. Martin is a heck of a lot less likely to join a filibuster than Sen. Chambliss.

I also don’t really see what Obama has to lose by getting involved. If Martin loses, that will be what was expected, so Obama will hardly be associated with that loss. On the other hand, if he helps Martin pull off the upset, it will have Republicans shaking in their boots and will serve to validate not only his coattails but also his 50-state strategy. Besides, it’s not like this race is in Mississippi; Obama came within a few points of McCain in Georgia. Nor is Martin running away from Obama; in fact, he seems eager to have him visit.

The Republicans are going all out to crank up their base. Obama is the one guy who can truly help the Democrats turn out theirs. He should go to Georgia.

Big news out of Alaska:

The elections division still has over 10,000 ballots left to count today and thousands more through next week, but the latest numbers show Mark Begich leading Sen. Ted Stevens 125,019 to 125,016.

The new numbers, reflecting nearly 43,000 absentee ballots counted today, are from all over the state. Election night, Ted Stevens led the Democratic Begich by about 3,000 votes.

The state today is counting a total of about 60,000 absentee and questioned ballots.

I’ve frankly been very confident about the Dems picking up this seat, given the number of outstanding ballots, and the fact that I found it confounding that Alaska voters would vote to send a convicted felon back to Washington. It appears that many outstanding votes are from Dem friendly districts. So we’re getting closer to getting to the magical 60 senate number.

With the election results in,  Politics 24/7 presents to you the Winners & Losers, a weekly wrap up of the week’s luckiest and most down trodden, the best and the worst, the top and the bottom.

In this, the innaugural edition of Politics 24/7’s Winners & Losers, we feature the lucky recipeints in the election week  results.

LOSERS

1. HILLARY CLINTON -The concept of President-elect Barack Obama dashes Hillary’s hopes for  possibly 8 years by which time a presidential run for her will probably not be in the cards.
2. RICK DAVIS -The man in charge of John McCain’s presidential campaign failed to pull any rabbits out of his hat and looks for others to put the blame on. He sucked and there is no need to look any further to find blame.
3. THE MEDIA -Since they turned against Hillary during the primaries, they spent the rest of this election proving that they were in the tank for Barack Obama.  They used this election to prove that they are more biased commentators than unbiased newsbreakers.
4. ELIZABETH DOLE -Despite the anti-republican atmosphere, the North Carolina Senator was one of those few, rare republicans who could have kept her seat.  Complacency and overconfidence while in office, a poorly run campaign and a desperate last minute attempt to win that tried to exploit religion in a harsh tv ad, ended her career on a low note.
5. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -No matter what,  he gets the blame for Republicans losing and for the poor economy that helped put the nail in the coffin of Republicans running throughout the nation. Whether it’s his fault or not, he presided over the events we experienced and the buck ( or in this economy, the 25 cents which is the the equivalent of a buck), stops with him.

WINNERS

1. PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA -You may disagree with him but he won and he is now our president.  Should he be?  Maybe. Maybe not, that has yet be seen, but he established a campaign that did all the right things, established an exceptional ground game that didn’t just get him elected but won him a special place in history and allowed the United States to thankfully prove that although racism may exist, we can overcome it.
2. NANCY PELOSI & HARRY REID -As the leaders of the house and senate, they accomplished nothing during the past two years that they were in power.  In fact their lackluster, liberal, leadership only helped hinder the Obama campaign.  But despite it all they are rewarded with increased majorities and now they have one of their own in the White House.  For Reid and Pelosi everyday will be Christmas for at least two years.
3. THE TWO DAVIDS -David Plouffe & David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s campaign manager and media strategists, respectively, orchestrated an effort that avoided landmines, sidelined the Clintons and made history. Their efforts may not have created the greatest and most creative presidential campaign we ever saw but it worked and achieved a first in American politics.  There’s lots of power and money in their futures right now. 
4. JOE THE BIDEN -He wasn’t going anywhere in  his own right and as he approaches the end of his long political career, second banana isn’t the worst way to do it.
5. JOHN McCAIN & SARAH PALIN -Like him or not, he ran hard for what he believes in, served the nation in many different ways and did so above and beyond the call of duty.  His campaign wasn’t very well run but that’s to be expected from a person who is less interested in politics than he is in getting good things done for the people.  As for Sarah Palin, she can either build upon her fifteen minutes of national fame and re-enter national politics in as few as 4 years or she can just continue holding statewide elected office in Alaska for as long she wants  Can you say Senator Palin?  Either way, her future is bright. 

It’s worth it to take a look at the state-by-state margins of this year’s election to see where the battlegrounds might lie in 2012: (Above the **** are Obama’s victories, below are McCain’s)

Together, we must offer sincere congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama.

When, in a few short months, he becomes our 44^th President, we must also accord to him the respect and support that an American President deserves from the American people.

Unlike many liberal elitists who have stated their desire to move to another country because a liberal did not win the White House, I do not entertain thoughts of fleeing the land that I love because Senator Obama won this election. I do not lose faith in my nation because of the conclusion that our democratic process reaches. Contrarily, I take pride in my nation’s ability to once again, participate in a peaceful change of power.

On top of that, in this particular case, there is an even greater sense of pride that I feel because of my nation’s ability to overcome long standing, wrongly held, racial biases. Unfortunately Barack Obama’s victory does not mark an end to racism but it does signal our true ability to overcome it.

In that sense, this election was a remarkable confirmation of America’s promise and for this, I am proud.

Admittedly, I may not be pleased with President-Elect Obama’s meteoric rise to power but that is not now, nor has it ever been, based on his color. Although leftists have tried to describe opposition to the Obama candidacy as something rooted in racism, the truth is that my displeasure has been based upon the diverging directions of policies that we have. Those differences will continue to actively fuel my civic duty as a responsible citizen and oppose President-Elect Obama on those initiatives that I feel are mistakes and support him on those that I believe are right and beneficial.

Despite philosophical and policy differences, his actual initiatives are to be judged, individually, and on their individual merits. Yet, regardless of those differences, I proudly embrace President-elect Obama and his future presidency.

On the foreign front, as my President, Barack Obama might be tested, as Vice President-Elect Biden mentioned. If that is so, any nation that might try to test him should know this……

Baracak Obama will be President of my nation and as such any threat against him is a threat against me. Neither President-Elect Obama or I take kindly to threats and neither do the rest of the Americans behind our soon to be President. So think carefully, very carefully, because although the face of the US presidency may have changed, the people haven’t. The American people are still the most generous, resourceful, feisty, vibrant, innovative people that you will come across and the materialization of any threat will encounter harsh and lasting consequences, sooner or later, by the American people on the ones responsible for those threats.

Domestically, despite differences on the issues , we must understand that President-Elect Obama is not the enemy and that his best interests are our best interests. The debate on taxes, energy education, immigration, and how best to defend and protect our nation may get rough but we need to recognize that the election is over and that we are one. As such we need to work as one. We should not need a 9/11 crisis to bring us together only in times of crisis. We should tackle all issues with the same unified vigilance that we have always employed during times of crisis. This does not mean we cannot disagree, it just means that we should allow the democratic process to resolve our differences the very same way that this election did, through vigorous debate of the issues and by arguing our approaches to the issues in the most convincing ways possible.

The election is over and no matter what, President-Elect Obama has won. He will be the President not of republicans or democrats, liberals or conservatives but of all of us who proudly call ourselves Americans.

The euphoria of victory for President-Elect Obama, will be short lived. Once the reality of the awesome responsibilities overtake the moment, euphoria will be replaced by burden. As with most Americans who have become President, I am sure that Barck Obama will rise to the occasion and to do so, he could use our good wishes and genuine support. It is the same type of support that one time President-Elect Bush could have used and it should not be denied to this President-Elect.

With that said, let the campaigning to determine who should lead us in the work that lies ahead come to a close and let the democratic process of governance begin.

Excelsior!

What Is Politics?

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, “What is politics?”

Dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I’m the breadwinner of the family, so let’s call me capitalism. Your Mom, she’s the administrator of the money, so we’ll call her the Government. We’re here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the people. The nanny, we’ll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we’ll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense,”

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, “Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.”

The father says, “Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.”

The little boy replies, “Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep poo.”

Spearfish, South Dakota

Live blogging through Election Day (and night):

9:40 P.M. (MST): We can’t remember anything like it.

My political involvement began with black voter registration in Nashville, Tennessee, and fighting the electrical violence of lunch counter sit-ins.

Yes, we did!

And now this.

We’ve been laughing through our tears since he went over the top.

Not because he is black. But because he is a magnificent political talent who happens to be black.

(Note to John McCain: You were way off base in your concession, speaking about what Obama’s election means to blacks. The point is how he has liberated whites.)

Now we’re waiting for The Speech. And we’ll bawl like children. And go to sleep. And wake up in the morning to find the world covered with dew again.

7:38 P.M. (MST): YEESSS! Ohio goes blue!

6:15 P.M. (MST): CNN just released the first trickle of returns from Ohio. Obama had 67 percent of those returns. Sue and I did a quick calculation. Those votes came from every county we stumped in. Right.

4:01 P.M. (MST): CNN just broke a report that the McCain Campaign is robocalling bile in Cuban precincts in Florida, telling voters that Fidel Castro has just endorsed Obama. The calls were not made by an independent “swift boat” campaign, or the Republican National Committee, but the McCain-Palin campaign!

“Country First,” John? “Straight Talk Express?” Sit down.

3:48 P.M. (MST): I’m so fidgety, waiting for the first returns from Indiana, I went to the Obama website and started calling voters in Missouri and North Carolina to remind them to vote and give them their polling place.

Amazing political use of the Internet. I get the email “Action Alert” with a map of key state. I click on one and a list of names and phone numbers and ages comes up with the address of the voter’s polling place. Once done, I indicate if the voter has voted, if the line is busy, if the number is wrong, and so forth.

A woman in North Carolina gasped when I introduced myself as a former congressman from Oregon.

1:40 P.M. (MST): One smart aleck-my former congressional chief of staff, Bob Crane–wanted to know why we are heading West before the returns come in, suggesting that the post Baby Boom Obamaiacs had no need for a gray beard in the clutch.

In fact, that’s about the size of it. After Saturday, there were no speaking further opportunities to fire up these Obama volunteers. They were “pre-fired” and too busy working on get-of-the-vote to listen to a speech (except that of their candidate, who wowed a crowd of 90,000 last night in Manassas, Virginia.

Um, Sarah Palin, that would be in your “pro-America” part of Virginia.

So, we are back here again in Spearfish. (Careful readers of this journal will remember Spearfish, South Dakota, as the location of our first overnight stop en route to Ohio. I still can find no spears here, or fish.)

Over at FiveThirtyEight.Com, Nate Silver, has aggregated the last of the national and state polls and, on the strength of them, projects a 349-189 electoral vote landslide for Obama.

More later.

ACORN offers cigarettes to register the homeless to vote multiple times. Identification is not needed to prove you are who you say you are when voting. New Yorkers register false addresses in Ohio to change that states results. Mickey Mouse is even registered to vote for Obama in Florida. Members of the National Football league are erroneously registered to vote in Nevada ……

These are just some examples of the fraud being used to put Barack Obama over the top in the 2008 and election. Examples like this are widespread. They have sparked countless federal and state investigations but now, during the final hours of our historic quadrennial election, intimidation kicks into high gear.

Confirmed reports have just been released detailing that two Black Panthers have been guarding entranceways into polling places in Philadelphia. One brandished a nightstick. When asked to remove himself from the property the Obama enforcer refused.

Philadelphia police had to escort the Black Panther away.

Random incident?

Nothing that occurs in the Obama campaign is random. Voter fraud is sponsored by the Obama/Biden campaign through coordinated activities with ACORN and so is their “Give Over Your Vote” effort.

Is there a racial component to all this? Well liberals will accuse the delivery of these facts to be racist propoganda. But when considering the facts in this case, critics of voter intimidation would say that a Black Panther guarding the entrance to a polling site has a racial component to it. The Obama enforcers refusing to leave while shouting “you can’t stop a black man from winning this election” just confirms it.

If Black Panthers with nightsticks are being used as poll workers, I can’t wait to see what type of people will be used to fill out the presidential cabinet of a Barack Obama administration.

The name Joe has become synonymous with the 2008 presidential election. Just turn on the TV and you hear the name Joe every other sentence. Joe Six Pack, Joe Biden and the oh so famous “Joe the Plumber”. Well today, at least you can get a free cup of Joe. Starbucks has launched an election day promotion providing voters with a free cup of coffee. Here is the commercial below: HERE’S THE LINK

I’ll be poll-watching as part of the legal Voter Protection Team here in Washington. It’s gonna be a long day for me (about to hit the bed to get a relatively decent night’s sleep), but it will be well worth it. I see that Obama won Dixville Notch, the first of the election day voting. A good start to what will hopefully be a great day.

Der Tag davor: John McCain macht innerhalb von 20 Stunden Wahlkampf in sieben Staaten. Barack Obama hält nach Stopps in Florida und North Carolina seine letzte Wahlkampfrede in Manassas, Virginia. Obamas Großmutter stirbt in Honolulu an Krebs. In Virginia kursieren E-mails, angeblich vom Landeswahl- leiter: Wegen der erwarteten hohen Wahlbeteiligung sollen nur Republikaner am 4. November an die Urnen gehen, die Demokraten erst einen Tag später.

Die Spannung steigt, auch in der Redaktion. Verstärkung aus Berlin ist da, wir testen die Technik für den Live-Marathon morgen. Ich habe 50 Staaten-Profile mit den wichtigen Eckdaten für die Wahl zusammengestellt. Ich gehe noch mal alle Zahlen der battleground states durch: Wahlmännerstimmen in Ohio: 20. Letzte Umfragewerte in North Carolina: Obama 47,8 – McCain 47,8. Prozentualer Bevölkerungsanteil der Hispanics in Nevada: 22.

Abends habe ich hier die Wahl schon einmal durchgespielt. Mein Ergebnis im electoral college: Obama 339, McCain 199. Wie weit ich daneben liege, weiß ich vielleicht schon in etwas mehr als 24 Stunden.

Pierre, South Dakota

“Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men?
“It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again;

“When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums,
“There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes …”

—Do You Hear The People? (Les Miserables)

Messaging, 'til the last dog comes home / Photo: S. AuCoin

And that there’s no way in hell he’ll lose ‘em all.

We’ve got the volume up on music from Les Miserables, The Man from La Mancha, and Anthony Newley’s, Once In A Lifetime, and we’re singing along at the top of our lungs as if the lyrics had been written for Obama and us.

Damned odd not to be campaigning, though.

Several miles back, I started doodling something called the Low-Downest Post-Campaignin’ Blues. Relax, it’s never going to be published, much less sung!

While we’re here bouncing along on I-90W, Obama’s get-out-the-vote volunteers are out in force across the country—including Stacy, our daughter in Bozeman, who seems to have made it her personal responsibility to turn Montana blue.

Well, if you can’t give a speech or phone a voter, you do the next best thing. Noting that our Blazer’s rear window was bare, we opted for some Interstate freeway advertising. We painted the glass: VOTE OBAMA!

A driver just pulled alongside to see who was behind the wheel of this rolling billboard. Spotting two gray heads, he sped on. Other than that, our impromptu promotion is bringing no responses.

I should call the Gallup people and advise them there are no undecideds left.