By the time Sharon Angle conceded to returning Senator Harry Reid, well past midnight, her victory party at the Venetian's ballroom had thinned out to a couple hundred diehards: bleary staffers, despondent volunteers, long-time (Republican) party contributors. Noticeably absent were the tea partiers. At the beginning of the night and throughout the campaign, they were easy to spot: they are a dustier sort of Republican, outfitted in jeans, zany political shirts and always gripping signs with slogans like “Trust God Not Government.” After the Las Vegas Sun called the race in favor of Reid at 9:43 p.m., nearly all had disappeared. Except one.

An hour into today's rally for Democratic candidates, and two-thirds of the gymnasium at Canyon Springs High School is full. Representatives Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley have each gotten up and announced that we are in attendance at not just a Michelle Obama appearance but also we are at the "largest phonebank in the history of the world!!!" They also suggested we take out our "cellulars to call someone so we can be the largest phonebank ever!!!"

If there’s anything that could save Harry Reid from getting ousted by Sharron Angle on Tuesday, it would be his campaign’s ability to run a competitive ground game: tight coordination of precinct canvassing, disciplined phone banking, targeted literature distribution, quality control over hundreds of volunteers and—above all—clean, up-to-date voter lists.

Based on what I saw yesterday at Democratic Party headquarters in Las Vegas, it’s not happening for Harry Reid.

Okay, here we go: In re Harry Reid's negro problem, let's all take a deep breath and give it the kind of Pollyannish spin that we're going to need to make it through what is sure to be another difficult year. Is it a little galling to see the rush of Republicans lining up to demand Reid's ouster by comparing his remarks to Trent Lott's "Gee, it woulda been swell if we kept the drinking fountains separate like ol' Strom wanted" statement from 2002, particularly when you consider that the two remarks are diametrically opposed to each other in import and intent? (Gwen Ifill dispenses with this comparison [...]

"The internal Reid numbers for the past three weeks show that Reid has actually had a lead ranging from 4 to 8 points (and last week, the National Republican Senate Campaign Committee had a similar internal poll showing Reid six points up)." —Nevada, Nevada, what will happen today?

"Somehow a lot of pretty sharp people think Reid's going to do this thing." —You heard it from Talking Points Memo first: "a lot" of "sharp people" are predicting a Harry Reid win in Nevada.

I spent yesterday at Sharron Angle for Senate Campaign Headquarters, in a strip mall in northern Las Vegas. The phonebank volunteers were targeting likely Angle supporters in rural parts of the state to take advantage of early voting, which ended last night. Most of my fellow volunteers (I was, I believe, the only fake volunteer) were over fifty—with the exception of Summer and Jordan, two bubbly seventeen-year-olds who both had family in the military—and white and not originally from Nevada. By coincidence, the three women in my adjoining cubby were from all from Pennsylvania, having moved to Nevada after their children were grown. The ladies, with their various shades [...]

Here is the latest installment of what the Washington Independent's David Wiegel refers to as Randall Terry's "please-let-this-become-viral campaign": It's a step-by-step guide to making your own "Burn Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid In Effigy" event. While Terry himself does not appear in the video, the two performers who do are clearly ready for greater things, like starring in commercials by local car dealerships or rent-to-own furniture stores. What's remarkable is the amount of instructional detail they cram into the thing. It's almost as if they're concerned that aspiring effigists might not be the sharpest tacks on the board.

After John McCain closed out the Sharron Angle rally on Friday, her campaign coordinators played a bit of amateur propaganda. Pictures of foreclosed houses, stock photos of agonized couples looking at stacks of unpaid bills, a chart of unemployment rates, all flashing by quickly to a soaring soundtrack. At the crescendo of all this pictorial despair appeared the image of First Lady Michelle Obama. In it she is reclining on a beige chaise lounge in a sleeveless violet dress, one hand cupped along the side of her neck, revealing her diamond wedding ring that matches her teardrop diamond earrings, and above her is the big word Vogue, the [...]

Posted inside all the phonebank cubbies at Sharron Angle's Las Vegas headquarters, there’s a sheet that instructs her volunteers how to deal with anyone who has questions regarding Sharron Angle's relationship to the Mormon Church. This is because Angle's pastor has denounced the LDS Church—of which her opponent, Harry Reid, is a member—as a "cult." So concerned people are to be given the number of a "well known leader" and "Friend." I called to speak with this former bishop of the LDS church.

Roy Barton; Las Vegas, NV

Donald French; Georgetown, TX

Is the utter absurdity that is the military's "Dont Ask Don't Tell" policy drawing to a close? An article criticizing the policy was recently published in a National Defense University journal after being reviewed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has sent letters to the President and the Secretary of Defense seeking their "recommendations" on DADT, a move aimed at stiffening Congress' spine to support a repeal. These things usually take a while to play out, but the signs are all pretty good. Get your guns ready, gays! You could be going to Afghanistan soon!