Fell asleep on the couch after making my sad prediction last night.  Due to the lateness of the hour and my tiredness I had Oregon in Bush's column.  CNN still hasn't called Ohio for Bush, and their prediction that Maine would split it's vote still hasn't come to pass.  According to CNN the states still in play are...

Ohio 20 EV's 100% of precincts reporting Bush has a lead of 136,221 votes.
Iowa 7 EV's 99% of precincts reporting Bush has a lead of 15,625 votes.
New Mexico 5 EV's 99% of precincts reporting Bush has a lead of 10,974 votes.

Looks like a decisive Bush victory to me.  Apparently the Kerry campaign is still holding out hope for the provisional ballots in Ohio.  How many provisional ballots are there in Ohio?  I don't know.  Somebody on CNN said 75,000 and somebody else said 250,000.  Clearly if there are less than Bush's lead, it isn't going to matter.

EDIT: Ohio elections chief is saying there may be about 175,000 provisional ballots.

Now, the provisional ballots will be vetted and any that are ineligible will be discarded.  The state has 10 days to vet and count them all.  It ain't looking too good for Kerry.

  • Provisional Ballots Are Election Wild Card (AP via Yahoo)
     

    • If Iowa and New Mexico are both called for Bush, which it seems they will be, and Kerry somehow takes Ohio, then it will be 272 Kerry 266 Bush.  In all likelihood though Kerry has lost Ohio and it is 252 Kerry 286 Bush.

    In this election Bush holds the popular vote 51% to 48%.  At the very least, if he does indeed win Ohio, he won't face the same challenges to legitimacy that he faced the last time around.  So in a small way, this is a good thing.

    Of course everybody knows where I stand, and I maintain that it is an act of sheer idiocy to vote for Bush.  However it's not surprising to find that most Americans are idiots.  The recent study by PIPA made that clear.