Hard to believe it’s actually over. My electoral vote prediction was 353, but it appears I was selling the guy short. After they finally call North Carolina, he should have banked 364. Indiana? New Mexico? Nevada? Virginia? Ohio? Florida? That’s a real ass-whuppin’, considering they all went Bush in 2004.

Two things impressed me tonight.

First, I’m amazed at how well Obama did in the states that democrats usually get destroyed in. Having Montana and North Dakota in play was truly surreal. When you look at the results state by state and compare them to 2000 and 2004, it’s pretty clear that he reached into the GOP base some and really scored with independents.

Second, it’s hard not to view the results as a total and final repudiation of the modern Republican Party, the party that had been usurped by post Reagan puppeteers like Karl Rove, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh. The unholy alliance they slapped together from evangelicals, racists, xenophobes, and wedge issue fanatics has not been rent asunder, but man, is it ever wounded. If I were an American conservative, I’d be doing a lot of soul searching in the morning, wondering what’s next now that the politics of fear and division have been revealed to only work on a minority. It’s not very often that I feel proud of our neighbour to the south. But tonight I am. It feels kind of dirty.

I’m still trying to stay up as they tabulate the final results of some leftover Senate nail biters (hard to believe Stevens in Alaska – a convicted felon – and Coleman in Minnesota look to have won, ever so narrowly), but man am I ever beat. My shoulders feel like melted anvils, and my eyes like burned tortellinis.

Thanks for the memories, Palin. You betcha!

Watch his victory speech above and read the full transcript of his victory speech here.

UPDATE: My family signed up and donated to his campaign after the Iowa primary, so my inbox (like a gabillion others) gets daily, sometime hourly, spin-counter-spin emails that always end with an appeal for more money. This one just arrived shortly before the speech began:

Andrew —

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

That’s right. I did it, folks. Me and my $20 investment will likely earn me an ambassadorship to Togo. I can feel it. Know hope!

How did you spend election day?