The big day is tomorrow, and instead of writing last minute things about the candidates, I’ll mention a few things I’ll be watching besides the Presidential race.
 
1) Since the Republicans did so well in 2002, almost all the Senate seats up for grabs this year are Republican, so the Dems should pick up 7 or 8 of them.  But will they break through the 60 seat filibuster proof super majority?  If they don't, the Republicans will be able to hold them back a little.  If they do, then they will go full speed ahead with the most radical leftist bills of any congress in recent times.
2) A particular Senate seat of note is Minnesota, incumbent Republican Norm Coleman vs Democrat Al Franken.  Coleman is one of the most thoughtful, kind, and reasonable politicians I know of.  He was even a Democrat until recently, so he's hardly a far right winger.  Franken, on the other hand is a sleaze ball.  He's a joker, and a jerk, and a mud wrestler.  He is a tax cheat and a pornographer.  He's angry and almost cruel.  It will not speak well of Minnesota or the Democratic party if they elect this man.
3) Probably the most important initiative on any ballot is Prop 8 in California, which would define marriage as between a man and a woman in the state constitution.  The definition of marriage has been on the ballot in almost every state, and in not one of them (not even California or Massachusetts) have the people voted in favor of extending that definition to include same sex couples.  Far from being divisive, if there is one thing that Americans agree most on, it's that marriage should be between a man and woman.  The only states were it is allowed are the ones where the court's have over stepped their bounds and over ruled the vote.  Prop 8 would go over the courts head and put the definition in the state constitution so that judges can not over rule it.  Prop 8 is not just about marriage, it is about the right of the people to make laws without a hand full of unelected unaccountable judges over ruling them.
 
Another big story will be voter turn out.  Of course the number of voters goes up almost every election, but the turn out in terms of percent as been almost flat lately.  From the 1870s to the 1920s it was between 15% and 20% (of the total population, not the eligible or registered population.) By the 1940s is had gone up to between 35% and 40% (mostly as a result of women’s suffrage, and the assimilation of the last big wave of immigrants) and has mostly stayed there since then, topping out at 41% in 2004.  I predict this year it will jump up to 45% or maybe 50%

There is one big thing on election day I'm worried about.  Obama has so much money that he can't spend it all on adds.  So he's hired tens of thousands of supporters at $13 an hour to "walk around" on election day.  He says their job will be to encourage people to vote (and I believe that's what he wants them to do.)  But I have a feeling that a hand full of them will do more then that.  There will be at least a little voter intimidation.  And just a little is enough for it to matter.

A final word of caution and/or comfort.  Remember, in politics it’s never as good as you thought it would be when your guy wins, or as bad as you thought it would be when he looses.  Politics isn’t everything.  Those who forget that will continually be disappointed.