SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

DEMS PUT ON A BRAVE FACE – From CNN:  "Democrats have a message for voters during the final, frenzied day of campaigning: All is not lost.  Party leaders insist they can still hold onto the Senate -- their last bastion of power on Capitol Hill -- and are spending the remaining hours before the polls open on Tuesday trying to convince their voters not to give up.  'I don't agree with the oddsmakers,' Vice President Joe Biden said in an exclusive interview with CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger. 'I predict we're gonna ... keep the Senate.'"  And I agree that the Japanese can never find Pearl Harbor.

OMEN?  – Hillary has been pounding the pavement for the Dems this cycle, building up chits for 2016.  But the plain fact is that she doesn't gin up much excitement.  From the Boston Herald:  "Locked in an intense battle with Scott Brown to hang on to her New Hampshire congressional seat, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen sought a last-minute boost yesterday from a Granite State presidential primary darling, but the state’s GOP said Hillary Clinton’s stump speech drew an underwhelming crowd and shows Shaheen is in lockstep with President Obama...New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Horn told the Herald that reports Clinton’s speech campus drew 700 'must have been disappointing' because state Democrats 'booked a space that could hold at least twice as many.'"  It's been that way all along.  Hillary still leads in the polls for the Dem presidential nomination, but I wonder whether she's becoming an old story.

LAST MINUTE – Last-minute polls show tightening races.  While the Des Moines Register poll a few days ago showed Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst seven points ahead in Iowa, two new polls show a dead heat.  Republican Cory Gardner polls only a few points ahead of incumbent Senator Mark Udall in Colorado.  Scott Brown and Jeanne Shaheen are almost tied in New Hampshire.   Races in North Carolina and Georgia are similarly close.  I've never seen so many races this tight on election day.  The oddsmakers say the GOP should take over the Senate, but, frankly, the Republicans have all the advantages this year and should have put it away by now.  The closeness shows that the Republican Party itself is unpopular, and must do far more to develop a positive, popular platform for 2016.  Just being "against" won't cut it.  And if Republicans do control both houses in the next few years, they must show an ability to govern. 

November 3,  2014