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Curtis Gans at the Center for the Study of the American Electorate runs the numbers:

In all, 131,257,542 Americans voted for president in 2008, nine million more than cast their ballots in 2004* (against only a 6.5 million increase in eligible population).

The turnout level was 63 percent of eligibles, a 2.4 percentage point increase over 2004 and the highest percentage to turn out since 64.8 percent voted for president in 1960. It was the third highest turnout since women were given the right to vote in 1920.

Overall turnout increased in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The greatest turnout increases occurred in the District of Columbia (13 percentage points), followed by North Carolina (10.3), Georgia (7.6), South Carolina (7.4), Virginia (7.1), Colorado (6.3), Mississippi (5.9), Alabama (5.5) and Indiana (5.2).

Overall turnout records were set in Alabama, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Democratic turnout, as measured by their share of the aggregate vote for U.S. House of Representatives, increased by 5.4 percentage points to 31.6 percent of the eligible vote, their highest share of the vote since 33.4 percent voted Democratic in 1964 and the largest year-to-year increase in Democratic turnout since women were enfranchised in1920. Democratic turnout increased in 46 states and the District of Columbia and declined in only four.

TPMe reports on my least favorite Member of Congress:

It's official: Rep. Virgil Goode, the Virginia Republican best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress, has conceded defeat against Democratic Rep.-Elect Tom Perriello.

Goode asked for a recount after the certified total gave Perriello a 745-vote lead out of over 300,000 votes cast. The chance of turning around that kind of deficit was nearly non-existent, and now that the recount has finished Goode has conceded via press release.

The interesting thing here is that Goode was an absolutely safe occupant of this seat until this cycle -- to most people it didn't even seem possible that he could lose this year until the final week or two of the campaign. One has to wonder if his angry remarks against Ellison made the difference, turning him from a secure incumbent into a cartoon character.

CNN:

Sen. John McCain said Sunday he would not necessarily support his former running mate if she chose to run for president.

Speaking to ABC's "This Week," McCain was asked whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could count on his support. "I can't say something like that. We've got some great other young governors. I think you're going to see the governors assume a greater leadership role in our Republican Party," he said, citing Governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Jon Huntsman of Utah.

McCain said he has "the greatest appreciation for Governor Palin and her family, and it was a great joy to know them. She invigorated our campaign" against Barack Obama for the presidency.

Notice the tense there?

I've made this prediciton to all of my students, but I don't think I've ever written it down here. Let's correct that.

Even if Coleman wins the recount for the Senate seat in Minnesota, he won't serve out his full term. Here's why.

It's funny... After spending months trying quite unsuccessfully to bring down Obama through a guilt-by-association campaign, you think that Republicans would know better than to try the same stupid tactic with this whole Balgojevich story.

Blagojevich is a jackass. Everyone who has even a passing understanding of the guy knows this. Blagojevich is also apparently a moron. I don't live anywhere near Illinois, and I knew that he was under investigation for a whole slew of different things. If I knew, then Obama knew. Now...

Having just won the Presidency of the United States, do you really think that Obama would choose to get involved with this idiot in his harebrained scheme? What about Obama's behavior over the last 2 years would suggest that this is a reasonable assumption?

And I'm not just speculating here, either. Patrick Fitzgerald has Blago on tape complaining that Obama's people, unlike some others (bye bye Jesse Jr.! looks like people jumped to conclusions on this one!), wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole:

Also during that call, Blagojevich agreed it was unlikely that Obama would name him Secretary of Health and Human Services or give him an ambassadorship because of all of the negative publicity surrounding him, according to the complaint.

In a conversation with Harris on Nov. 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew Obama wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them."

Or as Fitz himself said:

MR. FITZGERALD: Anna, I'm not going to go down anything that's not in the complaint. And what I simply said before is, I'm not -- I have enough trouble speaking for myself, I'm never going to try to speak in the voice of a president or president-elect. So I simply pointed out that if you look at the complaint, there's no allegation that the president-elect -- there's no reference in the complaint to any conversation involving the president-elect or indicating that the president-elect was aware of it, and that's all I can say.

Not that any of this has stopped the fevered speculation, of course. I mean, Blogo was trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. Isn't it obvious! That sentence has the name "Obama" in it! He must be involved!

OK, I'll bite:

Indeed, the prosecutors say that it was the ethics bill Obama was instrumental in getting passed that prompted Blagojevich's spree.

I give. You're right. Obama was involved. He passed the ethics reform law that helped box Blogo in. What an awful, horrible, terrible, no good, very bad thing to do.

And we still don't know who snitched on Blago, either.

But seriously...

Call me crazy, but I consider this a very good week for the Democratic Party. First Rep. Cash-in-the-Freezer Jefferson goes down to defeat, and then Blogo gets arrested. Everyone knew they were corrupt. It's nice to see they'll both be going away.

Political cartoon of the week here.

Time to clear out the clippings folder again...

+ The Economist shreds the conservative movement here. And I mean shreds. Key graf:

Another reason is the degeneracy of the conservative intelligentsia itself, a modern-day version of the 1970s liberals it arose to do battle with: trapped in an ideological cocoon, defined by its outer fringes, ruled by dynasties and incapable of adjusting to a changed world. The movement has little to say about today's pressing problems, such as global warming and the debacle in Iraq, and expends too much of its energy on xenophobia, homophobia and opposing stem-cell research.

+ Henry Waxman dethroned John Dingell as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If the environment and climate change are your top issues, this may be the best news you get all year. Windy explains why.

+ When Forbes is singing the praises of Britain's fully socialized National Health Service, you know things have changed.

+ Speaking of health care, as a means of heading off comprehensive reform, the insurance industry has offered us a deal! If we are willing to mandate that everyone in the country buy insurance, they are willing to sell it to us. How noble of them! If we are willing to pay, they are willing to sell. Why didn't anyone think of that before?

+ Do big bonuses make for better workers. No, they do not. I can't say I'm surprised. In my own experience, large bonuses do one of two things, neither of which are good. Either they ratchet up stress levels to the point that people are much less happy along the way to achieving them, or they ratchet up stress levels along the way to missing the bonus, a misery that is compounded by feelings of bitter disappointment down the line. Of course, I've never worked for or been around companies that pay out Wall St. styled bonuses, so maybe that's different. Although this research would certainly suggest not.

+ Esquire magazine has just republished the "seven greatest stories" their magazine has ever told. "The School" by C.J. Chivers made the list, as it should. It's one of the best magazine pieces I have ever read, and if you haven't read it, you should stop whatever else you are doing and fix that now.

+ DesignForObama.org is really cool.