The Stars of November 8

The day after the election, the Democratic Party is going to have a bunch of new media darlings. Barack Obama obviously knows this. He made his move to the Time cover and admitted that he has thought of running for president just in time. Obama is the only African American in the Senate now, but if Harold Ford wins next week, Obama is going to have to share that spotlight.

Deval Patrick is definitely going to be elected the only African American governor (Massachusetts) on November 7, and that's going to be worth a magazine cover or two.

Bob Casey is going to turn Rick Santorum into a lobbyist on November 7 and catapult himself onto the short list for VP in 2008. The next Democratic presidential nominee is going to be--and/or will be accused of being--a liberal. Having a pro-life Democrat on the ticket who can win Pennsylvania and have strong appeal in neighboring Ohio is going to look good to the "liberal" nominee.

Which brings us to Ohio, the decider of presidential elections, where Sherrod Brown is going to crush incumbent Republican senator Mike Dewine. Brown has a big lead now--11%--way too big a lead for the extraordinary Republican get-out-(and/or suppress)-the vote machinery in Ohio to catch up to. A big vote-getter in Ohio--one who renders the feared Republican ground troops there impotent--will go to the top of the VP short list and have his pick of Sunday morning shows every week.

Exit polls are going to show Jon Tester taking the Montana Senate seat away from Republican Conrad Burns before we have a winner in Missouri, which looks like it's going to keep us up late Tuesday night.

After Jim Webb wins in Virginia, it could be all up to Claire McCaskill to deliver Missouri and the United States Senate to the Democrats. If she does that, if McCaskill hits the game-winning homerun, the media will swamp her and barely take notice of another woman easily winning another senate race that night and holding on to the inside track for the presidential nomination.

Speaker Pelosi's star turn is going to have to take place on a very crowded stage of Democratic Party stars.