Chuck Todd, at the white electronic board on MSNBC's campaign set, recalled NBC's beloved and much-missed colleague Tim Russert, the host of "Meet the Press" who died earlier this year.
Todd said he had been musing about Russert's prescient calls on election nights past — Tim's prediction in 2000 that the election would come down to "Florida, Florida, Florida" and his call in 2004 that the presidential race would be decided in "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio."
Russert's whiteboard has long been replaced by fancy high-tech gear. But Todd, saying he had tried to think of what the respected NBC newsman would do at the board in 2008, said he didn't think Russert would write down a state's name.
Instead, said Todd, he would write ...
"Bush, Bush, Bush."
His explanation: The size of the Republican losses — Liddy Dole loses her race decisively in North Carolina, Jeanne Shaheen defeats Republican moderate John Sununu handily, Barack Obama bests John McCain in a landslide — just doesn't happen if President Bush had been more popular.
There is likely to be much second-guessing in the morning, a whole TV cast of pundits to weigh the factors that led to the 2008 dramatic victory for Democrats. Some will say that Obama, with his massive get-out-the-vote effort and his prowess at harnessing a youth-powered social network, won the election. Others will say that it was more that McCain lost the election with his lurching from issue to issue, and with his pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
But Todd is not likely to be alone in judging that Bush, whose popularity rating according to CBS News is at an all-time presidential low of 20%, hurt the Republican brand.
When the sun comes up on the White House Wednesday morning, tourists will gawk through the gate and a new administration will be planning its transition to power.
But Tuesday night, President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush spent their last election night in the White House. It was billed as a quiet evening, with some friends and staffers invited to dinner to watch the election returns and celebrate Mrs. Bush's birthday.
At the start of the dinner, said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, the president gave a toast. He thanked those present for all they had done during his eight years in office, and for their friendship. Then he said, "And may God bless whoever wins tonight."
Bush appreciates today's vivid demonstration of "the strength of our country and democracy," Perino said, and he is committed to a transition "that is as smooth as possible."
Later, after it was clear that Barack Obama was going to be the 44th president of the United States, Bush called the Illinois senator. offered his congratulations and invited the Obama family to the White House.
For her birthday I'd like to send her something new, fresh, youthful and energetic: A president named Barack Obama. Laura Bush has a lot of class, and I'm sure she will appreciate it.
No word yet on what President Bush is getting the first lady for her last birthday in the White House. (Actually we got word late at night that he gave her a pair of what press secretary Dana Perino described as "a pair of beautiful earrings.") But Mrs. Bush herself hinted that she was looking forward to a new president, or at least to the end of the presidential campaign. In a speech the other day, she made reference to all the times during the campaign that Obama tried to tie John McCain to the Bush White House. At a Kentucky campaign stop, she said:
I'm really looking forward to election day, partly because it seems like George has been on the ticket this entire year.
Press secretary Sally McDonough says that the president and Mrs. Bush have invited friends and senior staff to join them for dinner on election night. And, in celebration of her birthday, they'll have coconut birthday cake for dessert.
George W. Bush likes to say that you can't read too much into public opinion polls. And who can blame him. He was elected president not once but twice.
Still, today's new numbers -- in a poll conducted from Friday through Sunday -- must come as a blow. His numbers are at the low end of the graph above, which is pollster.com's average of all the major polls.
As Americans are turning out to the polls in record numbers, Bush's approval rating, according to the latest CBS News tracking poll, has dipped to 20%, the lowest ever recorded for a president. His disapproval rating of 72% matches his all-time high, reached last month.
The same poll, taken on the eve of a historic election, found that Republican John McCain had gained some ground on Democrat Barack Obama but that Obama maintains a comfortable, 51%-42% spread over McCain among likely voters, with 5% undecided and a plus-or-minus error rate of 3%.
In his triumphant, hour-long acceptance speech from Denver in late August (the one with the fake Greek columns), Democrat Barack Obama mentioned his opponent John McCain 22 times. George W. Bush only got eight mentions.
But ever since the economic meltdown that sent Wall Street cratering and Main Street shivering, Bush has become the target of Obama's oratory, his economic policies the bogeyman for what polls suggest could be a historic landslide.
As the clock ticks down on the longest-running, most expensive and potentially most groundbreaking election in U.S. history, the senator from Illinois is wowing crowds with a stump speech that ties McCain ever tighter to the unpopular incumbent in the White House.
At his first rally in Jacksonville, Fla., this morning, Obama said:
The last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, old theory that says we should give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. The last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is watching anyone on Wall Street because politicians and lobbyists killed common-sense regulations. Those are the theories that got us into this mess.
Obama said McCain "has stood with this president every step of the way. Voting for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that he once opposed. Voting for the Bush budgets that spent us into debate. Calling for less regulation 21 times just this year." After 21 months of campaigning and three debates, Obama said, "Sen. McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he'd do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy."
He added, "George Bush dug us into a ditch. Now he's trying to give the shovel to John McCain."
For his part, McCain tells voters at almost every stop that he both he and Obama "have differences with how President Bush has handled the economy." Then he pivots, arguing that Obama "thinks taxes are too low, and I think spending is too high." Then he reprises a line from their last debate, saying:
Sen. Obama; I'm not President Bush...if you wanted to run against President Bush you should have ran four years ago.
The White House has noticed that both campaigns seem fixated on the president. First Lady Laura Bush, campaigning today in Shepherdsville, Ky., put it this way:
After months of primary elections, campaign ads and debates, tomorrow is finally Election Day. I'm really looking forward to Election Day, partly because it seems like George has been on the ticket this entire year.
In this photo, voters at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk headquarters in Norwalk, Calif., line up for early voting Friday. The long lines were echoed across the country as millions waited in long lines to cast ballots even before the polls opened on Tuesday.
George W. Bush, who leaves office after eight years, two wars and one gigantic global economic meltdown, the president whose tumultuous tenure has helped spark vivid interest in this year's election for his successor, issued a call for everyone to vote.
In his weekly radio address, the president who was first elected with a 537-vote margin, said:
This Tuesday is election day. After months of spirited debate and vigorous campaigning, the time has come for Americans to make important decisions about our nation's future. I encourage all Americans to go to the polls and vote.
Election season brings out the spirit of competition between our political parties, and that competition is an essential part of a healthy democracy. But as the campaigns come to a close, Republicans, Democrats and independents can find common ground on at least one point: Our system of representative democracy is one of America's greatest strengths.
Recalling the sacrifices made by soldiers "from Bunker Hill to Baghdad" to assure the privileges of American citizenship, including the right to vote, Bush said no matter who wins "we will be reminded once again that we are a free nation guided by the will of the people."
In recent days, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has compared George W. Bush and Republican John McCain to the Lone Ranger and Tonto, or to Batman and Robin.
But today, Obama said that comparing McCain to Bush wasn't really fair to Bush. In a rain-drenched speech in Chester, Pa., Obama said that McCain would be worse for the economy than Bush.
John McCain has ridden shotgun as George Bush has driven our economy toward a cliff, and now he wants to take the wheel and step on the gas. When it comes to the issue of taxes, saying that John McCain is running for a third Bush term isn’t being fair to George Bush.
Obama said McCain is proposing $300 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, and $700,000 in tax cuts for the average Fortune 500 CEO, while providing no tax relief for 100 million middle-class families. “That’s not something even George Bush proposed,” he said. He added:
The fact is, there's only one candidate with a plan that could eventually raise taxes on millions of middle-class families, and it isn't me. It's my opponent, who'd make you pay taxes on your healthcare benefits for the first time ever.
The weather that halted Game 5 of the World Series Monday night continued to bear down on the region, so supporters were buffeted with pouring rain, whipping winds and near-freezing conditions. But Obama told the cheering crowd that "this is an unbelievable crowd for this kind of weather, thank you so much. I just want all of you to know, if we see this kind of dedication on election day, there is no way were not going to bring change to America.”
-- Seema Mehta (in Chester, Pa.) and Johanna Neuman (in Washington)
Election day is still one week away, but already the Bush Justice Department is looking into allegations of voter fraud. In Ohio. That's the same state where supporters of Democratic Sen. John Kerry charged foul in the 2004 election.
Responding to a request from Ohio Republican John Boehner, who happens to be the House minority leader, President Bush on Friday asked Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey to investigate the status of 200,000 Ohio voters. If those voters remain on the rolls without added checks, Boehner said, "there is a significant risk, if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted."
But critics argue that an inquiry by a Justice Department that is already tainted by allegations that it fired eight U.S. attorneys for not being Republican enough in their prosecutions looks fishy. As voters in Ohio go to the polls to cast early ballots, as seen in the photo above, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and five other lawmakers, in a letter, urged Mukasey not to intervene in Ohio.
The eyes of the nation are once again on Ohio in this critical election. We have confidence in the work that is being done by Ohio’s bipartisan group of election officials. ... We respectfully request that you refrain from taking any action absent more compelling evidence than partisan political requests. ... We are concerned that complaints ... are designed to reduce the number of legitimate votes that are cast and counted in our state.
A similar legal drama could play out in Colorado. Republicans there are charging that the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is loading up the voter rolls with unqualified people. Democrats are asking a federal court to reinstate approximately 30,000 Colorado voters purged from registration lists by Secretary of State Mike Coffman, a Republican.
James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman are reporters in The Times' Washington bureau. Between the two of them, they have covered the White House, diplomacy, military affairs, the environment, international economics, trade and Congress. They have both spent time in Crawford, Texas.
In his triumphant, hour-long acceptance speech from Denver in late August (the one with the fake Greek columns), Democrat 
