Election Eve Predictions

Great piece in The Hill today.  Simon explains an important part of the "21st Century Coalition" Barack Obama has formed to win this race - Hispanics - and the GOP's most important miscalculation:

Democrats may not get to 60 in the Senate, but they will have a huge night on Tuesday, according to Simon Rosenberg.  Rosenberg heads the NDN, which is a progressive think tank and advocacy organization.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will beat Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) 53 to 46 percent nationally and win 353 electoral votes, Rosenberg said. Democrats will pick up 20 seats in the House and eight in the upper chamber, he predicted.

The big story coming out of the election, according to Rosenberg, will be that "Democrats have figured out how to win a presidential race."

The 2008 election will be the first in which a Democrat wins a majority vote without winning the South, he added.

"This is a new electoral map. This is a game-changer," Rosenberg stated, explaining that the Hispanic vote and Southwest voters going for Democrats will put the GOP in an electoral bind in the future.

"The way Republicans handled immigration is one of the greatest political mistakes in the last 50 years," he said.