11/3 Roundup: Home Stretch Special

- Here on the home stretch, horserace analogies have never seemed so apt. With barely a day before the polls close, Barack Obama appears to have an insurmountable lead over John McCain. To be sure, this lead has prevented no hand-wringing, and forestalled no manic mood swings among angsty Democrats.

- As much as anybody else, Barack Obama is ready for this election to be over, though you wouldn't know it from his notoriously inscrutable manner.

- The Wall Street Journal has Obama with an eight point, but narrowing lead over John McCain.  USA Today has Obama with an eleven point, and widening lead. John Halperin at Time says the numbers aren't adding up for McCain, and likely voters (according to Gallup) prefer a generic Democratic candidate 53% to 41%.

- Nerve-wrackingly enough, Ohio could be a crucial swing state again this year. The LA Times reports that Obama's formidable ground game there could tip the balance in his favor, as it did for Bush in 2004.

- Jose Antonio Vargas writes in the WaPo about the power of social networking as a political tool. This is a subject on which NDN affiliate the New Politics Institute has opined previously.

- On Capitol Hill, Republicans are scrambling to avoid a total wipeout tomorrow.

- In TNR, E.J. Dionne describes Obama as the first 21st century figure in politics, and that his run for president has changed the very nature of campaigns.

- Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and his wife are expecting a child any moment now.  Between his candidate and his child, Plouffe says he'll pick his child.

- After you hit the polls tomorrow, be sure to don your "I Voted!" sticker and collect all the freebies you can at: Ben & Jerry's, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks and.... Babeland?

- For at least a day, I hope you'll join me and Obama's Ohio campaign manager in sporting a "Beard for Obama."

- NDN's election analysis has been gobbled up by both mainstream and new media sources. Dan rounded up our buzz yesterday, and since then, we've gotten another shout out from Daily Kos, 

- Last, a moment of insanity: Listen to Sarah Palin get prank-called by a Canadienne Comedienne pretending to be Nicolas Sarkozy. It's wonderfully cringe-inducing.