Election Night Coverage

Well, Katie Couric had a nice casual but professional hairdo. (Surely what we care about most is how she dressed.) She was fine, but I could have done without her quoting Rodney King at the end when asking if the Republicans and Democrats could all just get along. Traditionally, I've always favored ABC and Charlie Gibson was good, though not as smooth as I would have liked. CNN ended up being the place where I got the most authoritative coverage. Still, if anyone talked about the level of voter turnout -- was it typicaly, above average, below average -- I missed it and they sure didn't linger on the topic. Ditto voting machine malfunctions -- it was the first news of the day, but other than mentioning it in passing, they barely touched on it. A rundown of voter initiatives? Didn't catch it anywhere despite hours of watching. The Democrats growing dominance in the West and the Republicans morphing into a Southern party? Not a word. The dramatic change in governor houses? Just a few comments. The shocking cases of incumbents in office for many years getting tossed out despite the massive structural changes that make their seats so impregnable -- a little attention, but not much. Hillary Clinton's margin of victory and what it means for her Presidential hopes? Local news only. Did the Dems lose a single race where they were the incumbent? At the national level, I don't think so. Finally, the evening became truly surreal on "The Daly Show/Colbert Report Hour" -- Dan Rather appeared with Jon Stewart, playing a reporter in classic deadpan "Daily Show" style, finally teased into saying Hillary ran away with the Senate race like a "hobo with a sweet potato pie" and other Rather-isms. Then Colbert called Warren Beatty in LA to ask him the time, proving he was on the air live and then delivered a hilarious rant against the Democrats. As usual, they gave the most succint coverage of all.