A Very Special Election

Folks, it's election night here in southwest Ohio. Time to fire up some weenies, crack open a can of our native Hudepohl, and sit around pressing 'Reload' on the trusty Firefox Browser. (Give the kids some leftover fireworks from July 4th and make 'em play in the back yard.)

Those of you geographically removed may ask: Ohio - cripes - why should I care? The answer can be found in Paul Hackett, Democrat and Iraqi war veteran. If he loses by a thin enough margin in the the political spinmeisters will claim that the blue/red balance has shifted in favor of sense and sensibility. The days of the neo-con nutjobs and their religious allies will give way to Hillaryesque moderation ... and Jupiter aligns with Mars.

Note that Hackett doesn't need to win - few people expect that. He only needs to be less-than-resoundingly thrashed by Jean Schmidt.

Where to get coverage? Well, the Cincinnati Enquirer, midmarket newspaper outlet for Gannett Uber Alles put up a webpage with election results by precinct. They've also got a "best of the blogs" page with quotes and links to blogger posts around the Interweb. Few of them appear to be local bloggers, unfortunately, but give them credit for making the intern work late.

UPDATE: NixGuy is liveblogging the returns. It's a squeaker.