On the ground in Virginia

[mmcirvin]

Lindsay Beyerstein has been reporting on the scene and thinks George Allen knows he's lost. I feel less confident from this distance, but it'll be interesting to see. Kevin Drum thinks control of the Senate is 2000 all over again. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Comments

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Friends of mine in VA are very cynical and feel that Allen will somehow "fix" the election during the recount. Ugh.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I have also heard the opposite argued, that the delay will give time for all the horrible crap his campaign and the NRCC already pulled to come to light.

It's looking increasingly like Montana will be a drawn-out, multi-recount battle too (and then there's Joe Lieberman to worry about). Even if Webb wins, Dem control of the Senate is hardly in the bag. But it's so much closer than I dared to hope even late yesterday while I was celebrating the Democratic rout in Massachusetts; this is really extraordinary. The Republican lock on US power is well and truly broken.

Another shock: I knew New Hampshire was trending Democratic, but DAMN.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...the people over on The American Prospect's blog noted that Webb was extremely shrewd to actually declare victory rather than just urging wait-and-see caution (taking a cue from George W. Bush's behavior in 2000). That completely took the wind out of the Allen campaign and established a kind of default position for Webb. Allen will surely fight back with everything he's got, but Webb scored the first point in the battle of expectations.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Good point. This will be interesting to watch.