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My personal schedule allows me to catch the opening segment on Today. Matt Lauer was talking with Chuck Todd about the election, and it seemed to me that they were finally letting the mask slip. The fact that Democrats are on their way to a crushing victory of historic proportions was a given to their conversation. Todd said that if Chris Shays loses his race, then all of New England would have Democrats in Congress, and the Republican party was in danger of becoming merely a regional party based in the South.
Lauer and Todd went back and forth about key states to watch, but Todd was basically saying that McCain had to roll snake eyes six or seven times in a row to win (or to get within stealable range of winning). Lauer tried to pin Todd down, and Todd finally allowed that it was inside the universe of possible outcomes that Obama could win the popular vote by 5 or 6 million and McCain could still take the Electoral College votes, but he didn't think that was very likely judged on his tone and body language.
Will it be the end of the Republican party? Probably not. I think there are still some intelligent Republicans around, but they are going to have to overcome decades of courting the haters, bigots, racists, misogynists, homophobes and various other nutjobs. Because when the results come in, about all the GOP is going to have remaining are the True Believer Know Nothings.
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