I'm heading up to the Rogers Park neighborhood to watch the returns come in with some friends. Rogers Park has an old-leftie vibe to it (in parts). I expect the place I'm heading, the Morse Theater, will have a friendly crowd. (I hope they have food, too, because I'll be starving.)

Polls already closed in Indiana and Kentucky; several more states hit in half an hour. I'm always excited on election day, but never quite like this.

I mentioned our weather today? Here's my polling place a little while ago:

Polls close in Indiana and Kentucky in a little more than three hours. Big news starts to come at 6pm CT with Florida, Georgia, and Virginia; and at 7pm CT with Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. I'll also be watching the Minnesota and New York results closely when they come in at 8pm CT: New York because it's kind of big (lots of blue Electoral Collegians) and Minnesota because I'm supporting Al Franken against Hofstra alumnus Norm Coleman.[1]

TPM Media has a cool interactive map showing the rest of the poll-closing times. (The Daily Parker just has that silly countdown in the upper-right corner.)

The Chicago Breaking News consortium reports that people really, really want to see the Obama rally tonight:

Twelve hours before the gates were to open, about 30 people, mostly college students, were forming a line about 8:30 a.m. on Congress Parkway for the Barack Obama Election Night rally.

chicagobreakingnews.com will have updates all day, so I don't have to.

It took me a few minutes to get through my 12-page sample ballot (Cook County has a bizarre judicial election scheme), but I've just finished voting in my sixth Presidential election. I'm 2-for-5 (or 3-for-5 depending on your interpretation of the late unpleasantness in 2000) so far; I'm thinking this will even the score.

I actually voted against two Democratic candidates, too. We have some real winners in local offices, and while they're sure to get re-elected despite my votes, perhaps a few votes against them might get them to reform.

OK, back to work. I need to get something done today before 7pm.

I should add, the weather in Chicago today couldn't be better for election day. It's 17°C and sunny; it may even hit the record (24°C) before Obama's rally tonight.

Via Prof. Krugman, a map showing the relative electoral importance of each state in the U.S. Krugman's headline was "The decadent left, in its enclaves on the coasts," and wryly observes it depends on your definition of "enclave:"

Well, this is it. Just the 64 million of us (my guess for today's election turnout). I haven't voted yet—one of the benefits of a home office in a big city is that I can vote after the morning rush—but I've got my sample ballot all ready to go.

Polls actually opened almost 8 hours ago in Dixville Notch, N.H., where, for the first time in my life, the Democratic candidate won 15-6.

More updates throughout the day. Bottom line: the next 15 hours, until polls close in California, will not be the most professionally productive of my life.

Go Bama!

Great comic this morning from Garry Trudeau:

Now if I can only get "One More Day" out of my head, I'll have better luck concentrating on my first day of a new project.

Atlantic reporter James Fallows blogged this morning that McCain appearing on Saturday Night Live means, unmistakably, that he's given up:

[I]f McCain really thought he had a chance of catching up, he wouldn't have wasted time on an audience that might repair his reputation among liberals and journalists but does him no good with the crucial swing votes. And if he thought he were secretly ahead, he wouldn't comport himself this way. He would be more like the stiff character we saw in the debates.

Polls open in 35 hours.

I just read a fascinating story in The Economist that would have probably gotten more attention in the U.S. but for our recent distractions. It seems Porsche made possibly €12 billion on the Deutsche Bourse by cornering the market in Volkswagen shares:

Porsche’s gambit was as old as finance itself. For about three years it had been steadily increasing its stake in VW, a much larger yet less profitable carmaker with which it shares a little production. Its buying had driven up the price of VW’s shares to above the level at which it would make any economic sense for Porsche to buy VW. Seeing this, hedge funds sold shares in VW that they did not own. One strategy was a bet that VW’s share price would fall. Some also bought shares in Porsche, in a wager that shares of both would converge.

...

[O]n October 26th it executed a handbrake turn, saying that it owned nearly 43% of VW’s shares outright and had derivative contracts on nearly 32% more. That meant it had tied up almost all of the freely available shares (the rest are held by the state government and index funds). Hedge funds quickly did the maths, concluding that they could be caught in an “infinite squeeze” in which they were forced to buy shares at any price.

Huh. Sucks to own a hedge fund right now.

Beautiful weather yesterday, with some moderate haze over the city from an inversion around 2300 ft. I flew Chicago Executive to Whiteside County with a stop at Aurora on the way back. Then, just because I wanted to and because it's kind of the point of having a private pilot certificate, I flew up the Chicago lakefront on my way back to Chicago Executive. (Here's the Google Earth track.)

First, if you know anything about Chicago, you'll understand why I nearly passed out to see this week's Economist in my mailbox this week. Since I moved into this neighborhood I think I've gotten it once on Saturday, and the rest of the time on Monday or Tuesday. So, wow.

Second, even more stunning if you know anything about the the Economist: they've endorsed Obama for President:

The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence. But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama’s inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk. Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead.

Third, not a stunner at all, I had a good flight this morning, from which I'll post a Google Earth track tomorrow morning.

Finally, friend-of-a-friend Jerry Fields has a new website as "a truth oasis in these truth-thirsty political times."

Polls open in 3 days, 8 hours, and 12 minutes...

Via Evanston Now:

Evanston real estate broker Alan May says he's put a new twist on an old family tradition this year.

With help from an online site called YesWeCarve.com, he's turned the annual carving of the family jack-o-lantern into the creation of a Barack O'Lantern -- suitable for display on many a liberal-leaning Evanston front porch this year.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported late yesterday that New Mexico authorities have arrested William Bahena, chief suspect in Tuesday's murder of Elva Diaz, and will extradite him back to Illinois next week:

Almost a year after he was arrested for violating an order of protection involving his girlfriend, a 31-year-old Near West Side man is accused of killing her, authorities said Friday.

On Sept. 10, 2007, Diaz obtained an emergency order of protection against Bahena.

On Christmas Day, he was arrested for allegedly violating the order of protection, but she declined to bring charges against him, court records show.

Elva's funeral is tomorrow; there is a visitation today at St. Gall's on the Southwest Side.

I need to mention another thing about this. A couple of Elva's friends have told me she died intestate, meaning she did not have a will. They specifically asked me to blog about the difficulty this is causing her kids, and I'm happy to do.

After the Chicago Tribune's endorsement of a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in history, the New York Times following suit surprises no one, but it's still welcome:

As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.

...

Mr. Obama has withstood some of the toughest campaign attacks ever mounted against a candidate. He’s been called un-American and accused of hiding a secret Islamic faith. The Republicans have linked him to domestic terrorists and questioned his wife’s love of her country. Ms. Palin has also questioned millions of Americans’ patriotism, calling Republican-leaning states “pro-America.”

This politics of fear, division and character assassination helped Mr. Bush drive Mr. McCain from the 2000 Republican primaries and defeat Senator John Kerry in 2004. It has been the dominant theme of his failed presidency.

The nation’s problems are simply too grave to be reduced to slashing “robo-calls” and negative ads. This country needs sensible leadership, compassionate leadership, honest leadership and strong leadership. Barack Obama has shown that he has all of those qualities.

Polls open in a little more than 8 days and 15 hours.