Today’s episode of the McLaughlin group was the second half of their 2008 Year-End Awards. For the “sorry to see you go” award John McLaughlin nominated capitalism as the biggest farewell of the past year:

“Capitalism… will be the ultimate casualty of the global economic crisis of 2008. Governments everywhere are implementing socialist measures. The golden age of capitalism is kaput. Managed capitalism is what rules.”

I think he’s jumping the gun a bit there. We may have nationalized banks and a promise of universal health care, but our public education system is still a joke and it remains to be seen if Obama’s going to come through with those health plans he promised.

Polls are closing up around the country and the first results have started to trickle in. Predictably, Kentucky went to John McCain and Obama won in Vermont. Virginia and Indiana are actually going to be interesting. Democrat Mark Warner won Virginia’s Senatorial race, which may bode well for a big Obama win there. For the moment, John McCain is in the lead. Scary stuff.

Unless someone dramatically sweeps the East, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada will be in play so it’s going to be a late night. I’m off to cast my vote. Polls in New York close in less than two hours, so it’s probably going to be a madhouse out there.

Barack Obama is going to win this election. Obama might not get the landslide that some are predicting, but he’s going to pull off a victory tonight. Here’s why…

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• Obama after spending several minutes casting his vote: “I hope this works, it would be really embarrassing if it doesn’t.” [BBC]
• More voting trouble in Fairfax County, VA: someone sent an e-mail blast to students at George Mason University telling them that the election had been rescheduled. [WaPo]
• Crazy Venezuelan Presidente Hugo Chavez is “ready to sit down and talk” with “the black man who is about to be the U.S. president.” [Reuters]
• Evil little toad Karl Rove predicts a landslide victory for Obama. [CNN]
• Oh yeah, there are some other races going on today too. [AP]

Election day is upon us and we’re already hearing from people who are having trouble getting their votes counted. My friend Mahdis Keshavarz lives in the Brooklyn’s 42nd Assembly District where she reports being turned away from the polls. Keshavarz says she showed up to P.S. 230 near her home in Kensington at about six this morning and was unable cast her vote because poll workers told her “they didn’t have the voter lists, the machine was broken, and there was no one there to man the table.” It gets worse.

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