Aaah! I can’t take the tension of this election *UPDATED*

I keep compulsively flipping between Drudge, which is updating about every ten minutes with numbers, and Hot Air, which is giving trends.  The numbers are great, the trends are disturbing.  The tension between the two is killing me.  I can’t even imagine how Brown feels (and I don’t care how Coakley feels).  I would characterize myself right now as cautiously optimistic and highly neurotic.

No matter what the outcome, though, I think a new political star is in the process of being born.  Brown has handled with aplomb the fact that he was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight.  He’s gone to the right places, said the right things (often memorably or wittily), looks good, and seems to keep his focus.  I don’t know where he’ll go from here, but if he wants to stay in politics, he’ll definitely go somewhere.

Anyway, consider this an open thread.  I’m going to my book club tonight, which is a collection of six lively conservatives, so I’m sure we’ll keep our eyes on the numbers.  This will be more exciting than sitting at home with my husband the liberal, who hasn’t said a word about this entire election cycle.  Indeed, to my surprise, he never says a thing at all about what’s going on in Washington.  During the Bush era, he constantly erupted with “Bush is stupid,” “Republicans are idiots,” etc.  This past year, he’s either been silent because he’s being gracious in victory or silent because he has nothing good to say about his own party.  I haven’t asked.  It’s more fun to speculate.

UPDATE:  Okay, Hot Air is now reporting positive trends.  I’m breathing better now.  Tension is still killing me though.  It’s tough not having a sanguine personality.

UPDATE II:  By the way, if Brown wins, as he appears to be doing as I write this, I will have accurately predicted that Obama’s appearance in Mass to beg for Coakley votes was a kiss of death for Coakley.  He’s now gone begging both at home and abroad, and been rebuffed every time.  The Obama magic isn’t just gone, it’s dead and rotting in the sun.

UPDATE III:  My traffic is down, and I know why.  Everyone is going to Drudge and Hot Air, both of which are periodically unavailable.  The New York Times has good data coming in, though, as does The Corner.

UPDATE IV:  The place to go:  News Fifty, which has current data and is loading quickly.  You can go to the home page, or to the dedicated Massachusetts page.  The former has the numbers, the latter has some news analysis.