Election Night

It's another election night, and as always, that means I am sitting in front of the TV with Charles as we watch the returns come in. (In the interest of full disclosure, he is technically dozing off next to me, but until that happened, he was watching...)

Typically I'd be glued to CNN, like I was two years ago as I crossed my fingers and kissed my elbow in the hopes that Barack Obama would win the White House. But tonight I care more about the local results, so I'm actually watching NCIS (I think...I know it features Chris O'Donnell, on whom I used to have a MAJOR CRUSH back in middle school) while the returns scroll across the bottom of the screen.

So Jim DeMint, the bigoted, judgmental homophobe, has won back his Senate seat. There's no shock there - everyone knew he would. Alvin Greene winning the Democratic nomination pretty much sealed that deal, so I've been prepared for that one.

And Jim Clyburn has won - hooray!

But the race of interest, the race that is keeping me glued to the TV and obsessively refreshing the South Carolina results on CNN.com, is the Governor's race. Currently, Vincent Sheheen is beating Nikki Haley by about six points.

What what what?

I doubt it'll hold, but maybe, just maybe? Maybe Sarah Palin's well-funded endorsement of Haley wasn't enough to make her the automatic governor in this very red state. Maybe Sheheen has a chance? Maybe his only-slightly-left-of-center position on most issues has made him appealing to Republican voters? Maybe enough Democrats and Independents like myself, mistrustful of the scandalous stories following Haley around, actually went out and voted in this mid-term election?

Is it possible?

I don't know, and I doubt I'll be awake too much longer (5 a.m. comes early every day). So probably tomorrow, when all the results are in, I'll be eating these words and hoping that Haley will do a good job as our new Governor.

But then again, maybe...just maybe...not?

11/3, 8:06 Update...

Yep, Nikki Haley won in the end. I am eating my words, my foot, whatever. And they do not taste good. Let's just hope we can get through the next four years with no disappearing acts on the part of our new Governor.