The Good, the Bad,and the Ugly from yesterday: The BAD

-- Ed Emmett and Pat Lykos.

-- Good people who should have won (it's bad that they lost): Rick Noriega. Diane Trautman. Judicials Leslie Taylor (an early and strong supporter of David Van Os for Texas Attorney General in 2006), Martin Siegel, Mary Markantonis, Bert Moser, Susan Strawn, and Goodwille Pierre.

Statehouse Democratic candidates Sherrie Matula, Joe Montemayor, Sandra VuLe, and John McClelland. All had campaigns run by blogging/online associates and dear friends of mine; McClelland indeed is a prominent TPA blogger in his own right. Joe Jaworski. Ginny McDavid. Joel Redmond (49-51, a particular heartbreaker). Incumbents Juan Garcia and Dan Barrett, who won hard-fought victories just two years ago. Larry Hunter's somewhat overwhelming loss to Tuffy Hamilton was another one that stung.

And Glenn Melancon, one of the best progressive candidates on the ballot yesterday, overrun by that fossil Ralph Hall for TX-04.

-- Michael Skelly, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and lost convincingly. He ran as fast as he could away from the Democratic Party, airing a teevee ad in the closing days denouncing all things "liberal". Dude, if you can't be proud to be a Democrat, then maybe you're in the wrong political party.

Being ashamed of being a liberal is sooooo 2004.

We all thought this contest was going to be close because of Skelly's dough. Like John Kerry, Borris Miles, Tony Sanchez and a raft of wealthy yet unprincipled Democrats before him, if you're not the right kind of guy, then your money is only going to matter to the consultants sniffing around for a payday.

Well, they got paid, and you lost big. I'm tired of hearing the same shit excuses; "Texas is a red state", "we can't overcome redistricting", yadda yadda yadda. Stand up and fight for Democratic values or just keep your money invested elsewhere ( I understand there are lots of great bargains in the stock market these days).

If you need to see an example of someone who fought hard even when when the odds were impossibly long, who put his own considerable bankroll to work for all Democrats and not just his own selfish ego, see Fred Baron.

-- Oh, and then there was Nick Lampson, who did the same thing and got the same result.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from yesterday: The UGLY

These are all fugly, actually:

-- John Cornyn, John Culberson, Paul Bettencourt, and Ted Olson.

-- Still no statewide Democrat. Mark Thompson and the Supremes -- Jordan, Houston, Yanez -- all came up just short.

-- Ugliest of all: Dominionist David Bradley is re-elected to the Texas State Board of Education.

Today.

6 a.m. -12 p.m.: Opening and working my polling place
3 p.m.- God only knows how long: Observing the county's returns at the Harris County admin bldg. downtown

Light posting until Wednesday, some time, with some opinions then about the results. Enjoy this video, courtesy Vince at Capitol Annex, for a recap of our primary and general election season here in Texas ...

EV 11/3: 353

This is how the map will look tomorrow (I'm predicting):

<p><strong>><a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/'>Electoral College Prediction Map</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.</p>

The race is close in traditionally red states like Montana, North Dakota, Georgia, and even McLame's Arizona, but it would be a rout if Obama captured any one of them. It could happen that way, I suppose; I just can't allow myself to dream that big.

Missouri and Indiana could still go Democratic, but I think it's incredible enough if North Carolina, pushed a little here at the end by the acrimoniousness of the Senate duel between Dole and Hagan, tips to azure (or Tar Heel powder blue, as the case may be). One out of those three certainly ain't bad.

But if you're still feeling a little nervous, click on Ohio and Florida above -- both still have numerous instances of voter suppression and machine irregularities being reported -- and then go on and click NC, too, to make all three of them red.

See? Obama still has 291. Turn out the lights; the party's just getting started.