An excellent editorial from the NYT. Here’s an excerpt:

President Obama’s dramatic re-election victory was not a sign that a fractured nation had finally come together on Election Day. But it was a strong endorsement of economic policies that stress job growth, health care reform, tax increases and balanced deficit reduction — and of moderate policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage. It was a repudiation of Reagan-era bromides about tax-cutting and trickle-down economics, and of the politics of fear, intolerance and disinformation.

…

A solid majority of voters said President George W. Bush was to blame for the state of the economy rather than Mr. Obama. And voters showed more subtlety in their economic analysis than Mr. Romney probably expected. Those who thought the housing market and unemployment were the nation’s biggest problems said they voted for Mr. Obama. Those most concerned about taxes voted heavily for Mr. Romney.

Significantly, 60 percent of voters said taxes should be raised either on the rich or on everyone. Only 35 percent said they should not be raised at all; that group, naturally, went heavily for Mr. Romney. The polling made it clear that Americans were unhappy with the economic status quo, and substantial numbers of voters said the economy was getting worse. But Mr. Romney did not seem to persuade voters that the deficit was a crushing problem. Only 1 in 10 voters said the deficit was the most important issue facing the country.

Republicans had to be disappointed in the results of their unrelenting assault on Mr. Obama’s health care reform law. Only around a quarter of Americans said it should be repealed in its entirety.

People who were comfortable with the rightward slide of the Republican Party (as measured by their comfort with the Tea Party) voted heavily for Mr. Romney.

See also: Huge night for Democrats and liberals

The math makes it impossible for him to win even with Ohio, but this petty little man refuses to concede.

This is it, folks. Election night in America is finally here. And the world is watching.

If you don’t have access to television or you’re held up somewhere this evening, you can watch the election results live tonight on CMP, either on your laptop or on your smartphone.

Adjusted to Eastern Time (ET), here are the latest scheduled closing times for the polls in each state. This is likely to be the earliest time that results will be reported, and a winner possibly projected, for each state.

I voted this morning here in NYS at 7:45AM EST without worry or running into any problems. Some were not so lucky — a Pennsylvania voting machine was taken out of service after it was discovered that it turned votes for President Obama into votes for Mittens. Fortunately, a vigilant voter caught it, reported it, and uploaded the video to YouTube.

In other voter suppression news, Judge Gregory Frost rejected the lawsuit brought yesterday afternoon challenging the untested experimental software on Ohio’s voting machines.

You can view ThinkProgress.org’s Election Day Live Blog for all the latest updates re: voter irregularities around the country.

Many voters turned out today at the polls, stood up for and defended democracy against widespread GOP voter suppression efforts. Our fight to defend democracy must and will continue long past Election Day is over. We must come together to defeat The New Jim Crow. We must come together to undo the damage to democracy caused by GOP voter suppression efforts and Citizens United.

There’s a lot of work to be done in the long road ahead of us. For now, it is abundantly clear that the electoral math continues to favor President Obama. And now we wait for the results. Be sure to check out ThinkProgress.org’s Election Night Live Blog.

FEMA Emergency Info

State by State Guide

Obama”s Statement:

President Obama promises swift action by the federal government and specifically by FEMA. Obama called it a “a serious and big storm.” Obama promised to “to respond big and respond fast.”

President Obama has been in touch with the governors of the potentially impacted states, as well as the mayors of some of the mayors of the major cities in the region. He has also been in touch with regional officials of FEMA as well.

President Obama emphasized that “my main message to everybody involved is that we have to take this seriously. The federal government is working effectively with the state and local governments. It’s going to be very important that populations in all the impacted states take this seriously, listen to your state and local elected officials.”

Obama also promised that federal action will be swift and said that his message to governors and mayors in the impacted areas is that “we’re going to cut through red tape. We’re not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.”

Video: President Obama promises FEMA’s response to Hurricane Sandy to be ‘big and fast’

Meanwhile, Romney/Ryan would slash Federal Disaster Funding and have states – or the private sector – responsible as first responders. From a CNN interview last spring:

“Absolutely,” he said. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?”

“Including disaster relief, though?” debate moderator John King asked Romney.

“We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids,” Romney replied. “It is simply immoral……