Election Day play-by-play I: The Senator has no clothes

6:37 a.m.: Wake up. Stupid daylight savings; Ben Franklin wasn’t having his best day when he came up with that. He really should have stayed home and worked on that lightning-powered stove, or polished an aphorism or something polymathematical.

8: 56 a.m.: What a gaudily sunny day; I am tempted to say there are no clouds, but the sun is shining too brightly for me to look up high enough to tell. I find myself sweating in the zip-sweater I wore over a Sweeny’s t-shirt. It’s almost too warm for long pants, but I remain stubborn; it is, after all, Nov. 4th. Holy crap! It’s November 4th! That’s when they do the voting! I should make blogs about that.

8:58 a.m.-Chalk etchings in front of the bus stop on 17th and Wisconsin: “Yes We Can!”

8:59 a.m.-Nod at someone I recognize engrossed in a cell phone coversation, recieve a hasty wave in reply. I overhear a fraction of her half of the exchange: “I’m glad I’m not voting-” 

Boo!

9:00 a.m.-Those useless flat-screen TV’s they keep around the union flashing “Leadership” and “Faith” and the times of events no one ever goes to are beling put to use today–or at least one of them is, playing CNN. (”Excellence,” it’s neighbor says.)

What, I wonder, would CNN be covering on this most historic election, where nothing less than the rule of law and our geopolitical fate is at stake? If they cannot recognize the scope of this occassion, surely they can report on unprecedented voter turnout? No? Then what could be so grand as to–

Why, look! The Naked Cowboy has endorsed McCain!

Pro amor dei intellectualis, I do hate journalism.

9:01 a.m.-The Brew Bayou isn’t giving out free coffee for votes, like Starbucks. Boo! I’m a Democrat, I want handouts!

9:05 a.m.-Checking emarq. Suprisingly, nothing from Barak Obama or David Plouffe.

9:06 a.m. Just to get an early, reasonably nonpartisan take on what’s happening, I d0 something I usually don’t and check Google news. I am mildly amused by thier occassison-marker:

9:09 a.m.-The Googles also had valuable information about early exist polls:

Obama, who leads in every national opinion poll, also led McCain in five of eight key battleground states on the day of the election, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released on Tuesday.

In two of the most closely watched contests, the Democrat held a 1-point lead in Florida and 2-point edge in Ohio, both within the poll’s margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.

Obama had bigger leads in Virginia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, while McCain was ahead in Indiana and North Carolina, the Reuters/Zogby poll showed. Missouri, a classic bellwether state, was dead even.

More to come.