After BP CEO Tony Hayward’s beating on Capital Hill yesterday, the UK’s Guardian put it best: “Tony Hayward: Like a nervous statue under a whole flock of pigeons.”  They even made reference to a famous David Brent quote, “You just have to accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue.”

I bet Tony feels a lot like David Brent lately.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/17/tony-hayward-congressional-committee

This is my final post tonight.  I’m going to bed.  In my local & state elections, Democratic incumbent Jeffrey Schoenberg has beaten his Republican challenger Brendan Appel handily, 79 to 21% for our State Senate position, and CLTV (AKA Tribune Company) has “called” that race.  In my State House district, Republican incumbent Elizabeth Coulson has once again held back yet another “Elect me, I’m a Democrat!” challenger, Daniel Biss – currently 61 to 39%.  CLTV has not called that race, but I’m going to go to bed assuming she’ll win.  Both good news, as far as I’m concerned.

Two state referendums are going the way I voted: The call for an expensive and unneccessary constitutional convention is failing, 67 to 33 percent; and the proposed constitutional amendment (without a convention) allowing the recall of Illinois governors (*cough* Blagojevich *cough*) is winning, 63 to 37 percent.  Again, none of these called by CLTV, but I’m going with them.

Plucky Republican Tony Peraica, having nearly beaten Todd Stroger for the nepotism-filled Cook County Board President a few years ago, tried this time to grab the States Attorney’s title, and has apparently lost.

As of now, Barack Obama is solidly ahead of John McCain, the only debatable point being by how much.  I’ll leave the MSNBC election results post below, rather than calling that race – but I think we have a new party in the White House by the time I wake up.

[UPDATE 1: Yeah, I know I said I’m going to bed.  But before I could log out, NBC officially called Barack Obama the winner of the US Presidential race, with 284 electoral votes.]

[UPDATE 2: CNN just called it for Obama too.  It’s over.]

Oh yeah, about that Chicago cab driver – John Joseph Polachek, running for President, but only in Cook County.  Seems the guy has pulled together 829 votes, including himself.  Hey, don’t get me wrong – I didn’t vote for the guy, I read his Board of Elections filing, and he seems like a kook.  But, kook or not, he did something that not many others would try – he didn’t like the way things are going in America, so he ran for president.  And he got 828 votes more than you and I will ever get.  If nothing else, he’ll have a great story to tell his grandkids

The nifty MSNBC widget will remain in the post below, while I make notes about my own State & Local races here.

CNN has called Illinois for Obama, overwhelmingly – 71 to 28 percent.  Oh yeah, that cab driver I posted about before?  Apparently, he did at least vote for himself.  His current vote count: 1.  CNN is calling Democrat incumbent Dick Durbin for the US Senate race, 74 to 23 percent; and Democrat incumbent Jan Schakowsky will win the the US House 9th District, 81% to Republican challenger Michael Younan’s 14%.  No big surprises there.

No word yet on the Schoenberg and Coulson race, I’ll post here later.

This is my last post before elections.  By the time I sit down at the computer tomorrow, returns will be coming in.  So I will take this opportunity to admonish, cajole, and otherwise pester everyone who reads my blog to go out and vote, if you have not already.

I don’t care if you vote for McCain, Obama, or even this Chicago cab driver who wants to be elected President.  The point is, if you feel strongly about what direction that America should take in the next four years, you have never had a better chance to help steer it in that direction.  At no time in recent history have the candidates for office been more advocative of change in Washington and of America’s leadership place in the world.

So go forth, friends and family, and make history.  I’ll post here tomorrow as the returns start coming in, and compare the results to my vote.

John McCain tonight won Republican primaries in Vermont, Ohio, Texas, Venezuela, and Iran, clinching the Republican nomination for President.

As of now, Obama has locked Vermont.  Clinton has a commanding lead in Ohio, although none of the networks are calling Ohio for her yet because they’re all a bunch of wussies (the networks, not Ohioans).  For the Dems, Texas is too close to call.   It looks like it might be a split across the two big remaining states (Ohio and Texas) – my prediction is that Obama will take Texas and Clinton will take Ohio.  Doing the delegate math in my head, that’ll leave Obama with around 1300 and Clinton with around 1200, a difference of less than 5% between them with 65% of the delegates assigned.

It’s going to be a photo finish for the Dems, that’s for sure.

First, if you’re in a Super Tuesday primary state, I hope you voted.  I did!

Here’s how it’s shaking out.  I’m going to bed soon, so I’m quoting projections from MSNBC.

Illinois: McCain, Obama

McCain: 314 delegates, Romney: 127, Huckabee: 58.  That’s as of 9:00 PM CST, so subject to change.  But it appears that McCain has surged ahead in the Republican positioning.  Take that, Rush Limbaugh – maybe people don’t care what you think anymore.

Clinton: 160 delegates, Obama: 129, Edwards: 26 (didn’t he drop out???).  It’s a close race  here, just 30 minutes ago Obama was ahead in delegate count, until Clinton took NJ. 

States still waiting to report: Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Alaska for the Democrats, and Alaska, California, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota, Arizona, and Utah for the Republicans. 

Have a fun night watching returns, if you’re so inclined.  And if, like me, you feel you’ve already done your civic duty by voting and are going to bed early, have a good night.  🙂 

OK quick round-up:

• Guliani: Out.  He sez, vote for McCain
• Edwards: Out.  He’s not saying who to vote for.

The latter leaves an interesting milestone in American history today:  One major party has virtually guaranteed that a white male will not be nominated to run for President.

This could get interesting.  A McCain / Obama or a McCain / Clinton fight after the primaries.  I look forward to it.

I’ll sum it up quick.

• Hope you didn’t back Guliani.  He lost big in Florida, and will apparently drop out Wednesday and throw his support behind the winner, John McCain.
• Speaking of McCain, who would have thunk it?  The Republicans now have a clear front-runner, and he’s older than Ronald Reagan was when he ran for President.  Is it too late to change my support?  Just kidding!
• On the Dem side, Clinton won but nobody got any delegates because of their little political tiff.  Now I remember why I wasn’t a Democrat.  So Obama still leads, good for him, I guess it’s up to Super Tuesday.

Man, I hate being right.

Fred Thompson has officially dropped out of the nominating race for the Republican party today.

Guess we’ll just have to be happy with Law and Order re-runs :).

The impact of the John McCain win in New Hampshire and now South Carolina makes the race for the Republican nomination even more interesting.  Offset by Romney’s win in Nevada, it still leaves the current leaderboard effectively a three-way tie.  Granted, Romney has nearly 30% more delegates than his nearest competitor, all still have far less than 100 each and need 1191 delegates in order to lock.  Thus when you see Romney has 59 to Huckabee’s 39 or McCain’s paltry 36, even that 59 pales in comparison to the 1191 that Romney needs in order to win it.  So, as they say, the race is wide open and it looks like Super Tuesday (and maybe Illinois???) have a chance to decide it.

Here’s the leaderboard as of now:

Mitt Romney 59

Mike Huckabee 39

John McCain 36

Fred Thompson 5

Ron Paul 4

Duncan Hunter 2

Rudy Guliani 1

The remaining candidates have zero delegates.