1) So are you still sticking with those crazy predictions you made on Saturday, that the Republicans will run the table on the close races in the Senate and hold on to the House?

You bet. This is no cut-and-run blogger you’re reading. Not only that, I’ve doubled down by making a couple of wagers with readers on the matter. I’m enormously optimistic this morning.

2) But what if you lose? Then you face the triple horror of embarrassment, humiliation and a Democrat controlled congress. Surely that concerns you.

I’ve lived with embarrassment and humiliation before. Anyone who’s ever seen me with a Driver in my hands and a tight fairway in front of me knows that to be the truth. And you know what else? The Republic has survived more dire threats than Speaker Pelosi. Hell, this country survived four years of one-party rule presided over by Jimmy Carter with 10,000 Soviet nukes aimed at us. We’ve been in tougher spots before.

3) But surely you feel bad about that crass appeal to voters’ sentiments where you linked to Frank J’s post threatening his cat?

That did offend some people. I should point out that Frank J. was only joking. I think.

4) Do other members of the blogosphere share your enthusiasm?

Some do, some don’t. Regardless, it doesn’t make anyone less of a fan of the Republican Party or conservative principles if they’ve read the tea-leaves and see a bad moon rising.

5) I love the smell of mixed metaphors in the morning. What do you think it will say about America and Americans if they elevate the Democrats to power today?

One thing I earnestly pray for is that Republicans don’t respond to defeat the same way Democrats historically have – by upbraiding their countrymen as a bunch of ignorami and weeping over the state of the American character. If the Republican Party had given the country more to believe in over the past six years, we wouldn’t be praying for a tie today. That’s just a simple fact. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. That essay is for tomorrow.

6) How big do you think the John Kerry “botched joke” was?

The “botched joke” itself was significant, but the whole incident including Senator Nuance’s furious presser was seismic. For this entire election season, the Republican Party had been trying to put a face on the Democratic Party. The effort to make that face Nancy Pelosi was hopeless; no one knew who she was.

And then just a week before the election, John Kerry came along and put his Botox-dripping face forward as the image of the Democratic Party. For Democrats, there could not have been a less favorable development. America does not like losers. Objectively speaking, Kerry is a loser. Every other recent presidential loser, going back to the 1950’s, has had the common sense and common decency to disappear for a solid period of time until the loser label wore off. John Kerry never did. He remains fixed in the American mind as the patrician dork who voted for it before he voted against it.

Until Kerry came forward, all Republican efforts to make the election about the Democrats had fallen short. Kerry’s week of speaking stupidly changed all that.

7) Did you see Howard Dean on the tube last night? Didn’t look like a confident man to me.

That’s reading tea-leaves. And really who wants to delve into the psyche of Howard Dean? It’s dark and scary in there.

The real problem with what Dean was saying is that either the Democrats will win today, or they’ll cry foul. At some point, this sore loser routine will exhaust the country’s patience. If the Democrats fall well short of expectations today, we could be looking at a major meltdown.

8) Speaking of sore losers, looks like Lieberman’s going to win pretty easily in the mediocre state of Connecticut.

Yes, it does. And as I’ve written here many times, Ned Lamont is the Democrats' canary in a coalmine. If they had the enthusiasm and ground game of which they so frequently boast, he wouldn’t be underperforming expectations.

9) Underperforming expectations – seems like that’s been a pattern for Democratic candidates the last couple of years.

Yes, and that’s been the single most underreported aspect of this entire election season. Paul Hackett looked like he was poised to win. Didn’t happen. Francine Busby looked like she was going to win – didn’t happen. Ned Lamont was supposed to win by double digits – he won by four.

Now everyone seems to think that all the close races will wind up in the Democratic column. I just don’t see it. I guess I’m seeing patterns that not too many other people are.

10) Will you be with us and blog constantly throughout the day?

Eh. Should be business as usual. The problem with Election Day for political junkies is that it’s like Super Sunday for football fans, but you don’t get to watch the game. Because we have to assume the exit polls are useless, we won’t know anything of consequence until 10:00 p.m. tonight. So I’ll be blogging into the night but the day should be normal. I may even offer my review of “Borat” to keep things interesting.

Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com