¡Bueno...basta!

Thus ends our US election coverage for this year. Thank you for allowing me this somewhat off-topic rant. I still have visitors from Yanquilandia for about another week...after that, it's back to Buenos Aires both body and soul.

Just to close this topic off...we've been watching the senate races in the estados de Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Assuming that all other races were safe for the Dems (they were.), we needed 4 of the above 6 to take control.

In Arizona, the GOP kept the seat with 52% of the vote.

In Missouri (my pet worry for this season), Dems picked off a Bush supporting incumbent and gained a seat.

In Rhode Island, the voters decided that the fairly liberal Chafee dynasty was not liberal enough...Dems pick up another seat.

In Tennessee, Democrat Harold Ford's tremendous momentum toward becoming the state's first Black senator in more than 100 years was squashed by what was possibly the most racist political ad of season in which a fictitious blonde white woman made multiple sexual innuendos regarding Ford. The race came down to 50.7% to 48%.

Now for Montana. Democrat Jon Tester has won but is insisting that every vote be tallied before making his victory speech. From Daily Kos, here is the situation and process for this tight race (49.1% to 48.4%):

Montana Vote Situation: Jon Tester leads Conrad Burns by approximately 1,700 votes (as of 11am EDT) and counting. In Silver Bow County (Butte), a Democratic stronghold, votes are still being counted but Tester is winning there with 66% of the vote. We expect to gain the majority of these uncounted votes and to add to Tester's margin.

Montana Process: When the counting phase is completed, a canvass will verify the vote tallies. That process could take as long as 48 hours, and must begin within three days and end within seven. Unless the canvass shows the margin to be within ¼ of 1%, there is no recount. As the loser, Burns would have to request the recount. When the votes are all counted, we expect to be outside that recount margin.

Then there's Virginia. The jury is still out, so to speak, on this apparent victory for the Democratic candidate: 49.6% to 49.3%. Kos, once again, gives us the lowdown on how this will be resolved:

Virginia Vote Situation: Jim Webb is up by approximately 8,000 votes and once the provisional ballots are counted, we expect Webb's margin to increase. (Please note that VA absentees were included in the tallies from last night.)

Virginia Process: A canvass is underway to verify the results and we expect that process to finish within a day or so. To be in recount, the margin needs to be less than 1% and Allen (as the loser) would have to request it. Because of Virginia voting laws, the margin would have to be much tighter than it currently is to see any change in the outcome. Given the current margins, that is highly, highly unlikely.

The NYT has another take on the possible recount in Virginia.

With Virginia, we have the necessary 4 of my original six and control of the Senate.

Already, Donald Rumsfeld has resigned as Secretary of War.

Maybe the "Old Country" will even regain habeus corpus.

If that happens, anything is possible. Chau from YanquiMike election central.